Topping plants?

[Dropped Cat]

I stopped trying to root the tops, from topping young seedlings.

Found my Rootone yesterday while cleaning.

Going to take a bunch of clones today. But side-branches, not the top.

The tops I take for cuttings from seedlings root consistently,
as I do micro style with a short flower season, works well for my grow.

Most of the cuttings root in plain filtered tap water in ten days +/-.

 

[Switcher56]

*SNIP
When you top you're removing the fastest growing most vigorous part of the plant and forcing it to start over from scratch. The main top cola is your biggest producer, yielding up to 85% of your total harvest. That said pinching the tops is always tempting, especially with fast growing sativa types that don't produce huge top colas like a lot of Indicas. The rate at which the branches fill in and produce a lot of tops can more then make up for any time and yield lost. Everyone has different strains and different setups, the better you know your plants and your system the better you can make these decisions.
*SNIP

You make a valid argument but I will disagree with you. I have always stated "this is what I do in my environment under my growing conditions, and hence your YMMV"!

This is the point (bold text) where I disagree with you.




Top one is Harlequin the other Acapulco Gold.

These is what I consider the top cola and it is definitely not 85% of my harvest (per plant). That was the 1st time I used the the manifold/mainlining technique, more importantly it is the run where I broke, what folks deem is "the holy grail" of 1g/w. https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijuan...plant-question post #8 explains why I do what I do and the knowledge gained by the practice.

Let's talk about the apical bud here for a second. Yes the apical bud is the most vigorous bud and, why would we want to top it. After all it is the most vigorous on the plant or any "other" botanical specie, for that matter. That being said, there is only one apical bud and everything else is a secondary bud. IOW, the most energy is sent to the apical while the secondaries get left overs for the lack of a better word, which I proved to myself during my last run, where I topped but didn't mainline. I experimented and drew my own conclusions wrt the results when compared to a similar run where manifolding was not used.

This video https://youtu.be/XdfW2p-lHN0 was met with a certain amount of controversy on here a few months back e.g circa '20. Yet here is his bio (sorry it doesn't come from CNN, absolutely no pun intended) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Kushman Now why shouldn't I (as a neophyte) not listen/take in his advice considering his pedigree.

I am not a botanist, I never was, and never intend to become one either. I am a practical man considering my engineering background. I don't go to the lumber yard and order 2T atoms of spruce, I order a 2x4. There is so much wrt botany that applies that may not be strictly "cannabis related". I remember my 1st run... going on the "assumption" that, if you can grow a tomato plant, you can grow cannabis. Not so quick Sherlock! I didn't know about VPD for my 1st run, and there is folks on here that don't believe in its application wrt what we are doing. Short story... until moved my tomato plants to a southern facing window, they would have been toast. They regained vigour and they thrived once place outdoors and was rewarded with a bountiful harvest. That particular issue is in the rear view mirror.

What is more challenging, growing miniature trees in a pot or growing cannabis? A lot can be learned from that practice and can be directly applied to what we do, to include but not limited to smart pots, or removing the apical bud from maple each spring to cause back budding. The technique involves tweezers and low and behold, what I was doing then is called "fimming" in cannabis.

Here is an example of what one can do. Yes it is not a cannabis plant but I turned this POS into a beautiful swan in 4 years.

check the root system out... those are fine feeder roots, something I was able to apply wrt growing cannabis. A post mortem of "why" I use cloth pots. https://youtu.be/9J8Dx3Yw9wM

Getting back to the crux of this post...

Removing the apical bud, turns every bud into a secondary bud (topped area) and the rest to thirds, forth etc... That is why I denude the 3rd/4th/5th etc... all of the energy is directed to the main cola. During my last run I had a lot of suckers that didn't produce shit for the lack of a better word, I knew this 1/2 way through flowering (especially towards the finish as the "cola" wasn't "stacking" and, low and behold, the outcome confirmed my suspicions. https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijuan...plant-question

My goal is to reach 3oz per plant or an efficiency of 1.2g/w. I am currently sitting at 0.98g/w (avg) and the Ag and Ha run = 1.09g/w.

As stated in the runt thread, I did an experiment and learned a valuable lesson wrt how I grew that run, at the same time "debunking" removing large solar panels (defoliating). Yes those large solar panels collect light energy and transforms said energy into sugars (for the lack of a better word) and, sends these sugars to a reservoir (roots). Considering my root mass, that is a large reservoir for storage of life sustaining nutrition.

That is my take on what is happening during my grows. I could be way off base here, but it works fort me and, it is simply another method of growing. I have the ability to extrapolate "corroborated" information from a wide variety of sources and, apply said information to what we do. In the process learning from it. Your mileage may vary, but this is what has and is working for me. Nothing more, nothing less.

PS: My carbon footprint is negligible!