A node is the place on a stem where one or more leaves attach. In cannabis each node carries a leaf on its petiole, an axillary bud in the angle between leaf and stem, and often a pair of small stipules. The stem between two nodes is the internode.
In practice
Nodes are the grower's counting unit. Topping is usually done above the third to fifth node; mainlining builds a plant from a chosen node; clones root best when a node is buried or sits just above the cut. In flower, every node on a productive branch becomes a bud site, which is why short internodes (many nodes per centimetre) give dense colas.
Nodes are also where you look first for sex. Pre-flowers appear at the nodes, typically from the fourth to sixth node upward, a few weeks into vegetative growth on photoperiod plants.
Young cannabis has opposite nodes (two leaves per node). Older plants and flowering shoots switch to alternate nodes, one leaf per node. That switch signals maturity.
Don't confuse with
- Internode: the stem between nodes.
- Axillary bud: the bud sitting at the node, not the node itself.
- Knuckle: grower slang for a healed supercropping callus, often between nodes.
The stalk that attaches a leaf to the stem at a node; in cannabis it carries all the leaflets of a palmate leaf.A dormant shoot bud in the angle (axil) between a leaf and the stem at each node, able to grow into a branch or a flower cluster.The length of stem between two adjacent nodes; short internodes mean compact plants and tight bud stacking, long ones mean stretch.Node stacking describes short internodes, so nodes and bud sites sit close together along a stem, giving dense colas and a compact plant.The dense, elongated cluster of flowers that forms at the end of a stem or branch; the main cola tops the leader.The first individual flowers that form at stem nodes during late vegetative growth, letting a grower tell male from female before full flowering.The daily length of light versus dark; photoperiod cannabis flowers when nights grow long enough, rather than at a fixed age.Supercropping is gently crushing a stem's inner tissue between the fingers and bending it over, so the branch lowers, toughens at a knuckle and stays productive.The zone of dividing cells at the very tip of a shoot (or root) that produces new leaves, nodes and stem; removing it is what topping does.
