Pruning Branches and Manipulating Stems

Pruning the tops of marijuana plants is the custom in Brazil. But in the Bengal area of India, the lower branches are removed when the plant is about three months old. The Nepalese supposedly trim the tips, remove the larger leaves and shake the plant from time to time the resulting mass of twisted leaves and flowers is called latta, probably very similar to the colas of mature sinsemilla. 

Splitting the base is another practice believed to increase potency. In India, farmers reportedly twist the base of the stem or the flowering tops sometime before harvest. In Mysore, they twist the stem of the two-month-old plant, then bend it horizontally and sometimes tie it in that position to encourage side branches. Still another custom, reportedly practiced by the Burmese, is to split the stem about a month before maturity and in-sett a piece of wood, then gather together the flowering cops suid push them into a basket. The basket is inverted over the tops and left there for the final month of growth. 

In Mexico, farmers insert slivers of acote (a type of pine) through the root of the plant below ground level when the plant is about four feet high. They claim chat this prevents the formation of seeds and gives the marijuana a pine flavor, both highly unlikely. 

In some parts of the Western Himalaya, plants arc stripped of all. or nearly all, of their leaves in order to stimulate the formation of numerous small, leafy shoots. These shoots arc supposed to be stronger than the old foliage. While no experimental work has been reported on this point, it certainly seems worth investigating. 

The Tepenua of Oaxaca, Mexico produce extremely potent marijuana by growing the plants in a hostile environment and by 

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