Topping plants?

[Noonin NorCal]

I was wondering if topping plants "main top" help promote branching?

 

[GameDevGrower]

Generally, yes! You can also bend them over to promote branching from the lower sites

 

[Switcher56]

I was wondering if topping plants "main top" help promote branching?

I top my plants 4 times = 8 main colas

 

[Jellyfish]

I do FIM (Fuck, I Missed) on a lot of plants. But I have read that it's best NOT to do it on the initial run from seed. The reason given is so you can see how the plant is gonna grow before you start messing with it.

 

[Bud Green]

Topping your plants is a great idea if time isn't an issue (i.e. you don't need to get your plants into "flower mode" right away...

bending (breaking) the top totally over works too... Both methods promote faster and more vigorous growth in the lower branches,
which all grow up to the height of the original ""top" or main shoot...

But Jelly's response is correct too... it good to know what the particular plant will grow like, unmolested...

 

[Switcher56]

Topping your plants is a great idea if time isn't an issue (i.e. you don't need to get your plants into "flower mode" right away...

bending (breaking) the top totally over works too... Both methods promote faster and more vigorous growth in the lower branches,
which all grow up to the height of the original ""top" or main shoot...

But Jelly's response is correct too... it good to know what the particular plant will grow like, unmolested...

Exactamundo Time is not an issue here... TBS I experiment each run (albeit growing different strains) to see which techniques work best. My preferred technique to date is to "manifold/mainlining" the beasts. I didn't this past run... I topped them but didn't manifold them. I believe the outcome suffered a little. I won't know until I run AC/DC again.

 

[Breadwizard]

Mainlining is such a time suck for me, chopping the plant down that low, it takes ages to recover. The best trade-off for my space is to top at the third node, after the plant is around 6-7 nodes, then topping the tallest two leads if the canopy still isn't even-ish after a few more weeks. The goal for me is an even canopy without trellising, I like to be able to move the plants around and rearrange.

 

[JDubsocal]

I have had similar experiences to echo Switcher56. I have always topped my plants and get enough to last a full year. Last year I did not top any plants, I did lots of LST and fell short about 3.5 oz's from previous runs. But with that being said, I haven't run the same strain twice so it also falls on the genetics of the plant. But this year, I am back to topping.
Have a great grow!

 

[Switcher56]

Mainlining is such a time suck for me, chopping the plant down that low, it takes ages to recover. The best trade-off for my space is to top at the third node, after the plant is around 6-7 nodes, then topping the tallest two leads if the canopy still isn't even-ish after a few more weeks. The goal for me is an even canopy without trellising, I like to be able to move the plants around and rearrange.

I hear you good buddy, most churn and burn, I don't. When I first came here I was taken under someone's wing wrt we should be vegging longer 6-8 weeks. Just think about how long outdoor plants veg for. I like my plants to be less than 36" (indoors), makes them portable

... it is what works for you in your own individual environments and needs.

 

[swapmeet]

I really only top to take clones. Once I am vegging clones, I may take a few more clones from them, but not necessarily. The plants naturally bush out because of the lighting I use.

 

[Creeperpark]

When I speed grow a crop, I will never top any plant because it delays flower production in the end! When a plant is topped it will have to restructure flower hormones and split into many branches and heal itself. That can take as much as 2 weeks with every topping. However, I can pull a top down and tie it and put it in bondage so to speak and get the same results without topping. Speed topping is the way to go because its the fastest way to flowers. Here an example on a 60 flowering cycle that has no time for topping.

 

[swapmeet]

When I speed grow a crop, I will never top any plant because it delays flower production in the end! When a plant is topped it will have to restructure flower hormones and split into many branches and heal itself. That can take as much as 2 weeks with every topping. However, I can pull a top down and tie it and put it in bondage so to speak and get the same results without topping. Speed topping is the way to go because its the fastest way to flowers. Here an example on a 60 flowering cycle that has no time for topping.

are you talking about topping during flower or something? Why would it take two weeks?

 

[f-e]

P promotes a strongly branched plant. High P grows a fuller bush of thick branches, while lower P gives a more open framework. Anyone wanting to go after 4-8 large buds probably won't want the high P

I will pinch.
I will break entire plants down.
I have no empathy lol

 

[Creeperpark]

Height, bud production, stem density, and over all size management, are the reasons to tie down. Many hormones required for cell growth, such as auxins, gibberellins, brassinosteroids, ethylene, jasmonates, salicylic acid, strigolactones and cytokinins accelerate or promote growth. When you pinch the tissue the plant has to re-establish, and build new path ways taking up to two weeks or more to heal. The main point is getting to the finish line the fastest. . .

 

[Switcher56]

Height, bud production, stem density, and over all size management, are the reasons to tie down. Many hormones required for cell growth, such as auxins, gibberellins, brassinosteroids, ethylene, jasmonates, salicylic acid, strigolactones and cytokinins accelerate or promote growth. When you pinch the tissue the plant has to re-establish, and build new path ways taking up to two weeks or more to heal. The main point is getting to the finish line the fastest. . .

... only if you are in a hurry or part of the churn and burn crowd, which I am not !

 

[Creeperpark]

Time is MONEY!

 

[Switcher56]

... and money is not the only thing in life!!!

 

[Creeperpark]

I'm talking about saving the endowment by using less electivity and not wasting excess resources. Switcher56 if I have a 4400 watt grow with fans and air filters and use them an extra 14 days each growing cycle, doesn't that count? Perhaps maybe 100 other local growers used the same amount and wasted extra electivity! Using too much energy is bad for our environment, the burning of these fossil fuels puts tons of C02 in the atmosphere which leads to Global Warming! You may not care, but I do, and I will use less where ever possible.

 

[therevverend]

I've always been more of a leaner then a topper, tying my plants over if I want to promote branching. 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.

I've got a friend, every spring we have this discussion and we usually agree that training is better then topping. He has a few outdoor seedlings, Indica types, that are very dense and stocky. I'd almost talked him into pinching one as an experiment to see if it grows into a gnarly super bushy monster. The next morning he went out to check on his garden, a slug did the work for him. Mangled the tip and a couple of side limbs. It was the biggest fattest one, it's going to be fun to see what happens.

One other thing to consider is that anytime you change a plant's natural growth pattern it becomes unstable and needs help supporting itself. Early in September last year there was a big storm in the forecast, I spent the afternoon before tying my plants down so they wouldn't blow away. I felt pretty good about where I was at but I had a big one that got topped by a slug that had a weird top-heavy shape. I'd tied it down but I didn't take the time to double check it because it was getting dark. Early the next morning it was the first one I checked and it was okay. I breathed a sigh of relief. A few hours later I came back with green stretchy tape to do damage control and it was totally destroyed. The top had been completely ripped apart and was hanging by the bark. It was so heavy it had broken all the branches down the front side of the plant. It was huge, a beautiful plant, and I was pissed. Got almost nothing off it. The lesson is that if you top you better do a lot of tying. (I'd post some pictures of it but my albums have been vandalized by the new server)

 

[St. Phatty]

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.