Fimming Cannabis

Fimming is the partly removal of the latest shoot of a plant. This creates four main buds instead of just one. The plant gets wider and lower than plants that are not fimmed . Also, more leaves will be exposed to light, so more light is absorbed. This will damage the plant a bit, but it’s capable of recovering well.

In this guide you will learn

• How to fim
• Why fimm

How to fim

Step by Step

How to fim marijuana plants

• Select the latest shoot
• Cut off two-thirds
• Give the plant some rest

A shoot grows into 2 new petioles with leave on them. The middle of the shoot contains a new shoot, and new shoots will be formed in the axils. A shoot therefore consists of 2×2 leaves, crosswise against each other. By removing two-thirds, you only cut off the leaves, and leave the stems. These will, along with the shoots in the axils, grow to become the main buds. So you’ll get 4 main buds.

Make sure you don’t cut off too much, because you’ll end up with 2 main buds. The plant is damaged, so it will use its energy to heal the wound, so this can slow down the growth a bit. You will also see that the newest pair of leaves is damaged when it starts to grow, but this is normal.

You can fim multiple times, but leave some time in between fimming sessions, because the plant has to recover. Fimming is done during the growing phase, and possibly in the first week of flowering at the very latest. Otherwise the plant has no time to recover and grow wider, and it wont have any use.

Why fimming?

Fimming can be useful when the ceiling of your grow room isn’t very high. Especially Sativas grow very quickly and can become very tall. Since they don’t get very wide, you have to place many plants close to each other to use all of the light. Light that doesn’t hit the leaves and falls on the ground is considered lost energy. By fimming the plants, they will stop growing lengthwise for a bit, but they’ll mainly grow in width. You can then leave some more room between plants and still have a nice green blanket. I never fim Indicas, because they grow much slower and the growing phase would last too long otherwise.

Another advantage is that the plant can absorb more light, because it gets wider. The plant will have more leaves that can absorb more light. This can significantly increase your yield. Especially outdoors, great results can be achieved. I’m sure you’ve seen those pictures of gigantic outdoor plants. This advantage also applies to indoor plants, but I prefer to just place some more plants to make sure no light is lost.

Lastly, fimming spreads your risks. You get more main buds, and because they’re not as big, they’re not as sensitive to bud rot and/or other nasty diseases. Once again, this is a major advantage for outdoor plants. Especially because you can’t control the climate and your plants become sensitive to bud rot in the moist fall. Indoor growers could place some more plants without fimming them to spread the risks.

Be careful when you have a really big plant that’s very heavy, because there’s a chance that the plant will split in half under its own weight. It’s best to start strengthening the plant with some tape, just under the fimming, to prevent splitting. This only applies to outdoor plants, because they get much bigger and heavier than indoor plants.