You guys crack me the fuck up!! I have never seen a bigger group of infantile egomaniacs in my life! You are supposed to be adults -- but ya'll are carrying on like some snot-nosed little kids on the playground arguing over who's daddy can beat up whose!!!!!
The main problem here appears (at least to me) to be ya'll are comparing apples and oranges, but most of you are unwilling to consider anything outside of your own self-inflicted paradigms. From a strictly botanical standpoint I have to agree with Uncle Ben (loads of empirical evidence support his premise. And who in the hell came up with this nonsense that lower buds are weaker???? Sorry, but that is just factually untrue, but I digress)---
BUT I also see the very definite possible validity (ie. the logic makes sense) in the other side of the arguement, especially in a high-density grow in a restricted and not optimally illuminated area. I've never done a side-by-side test of the 2 ideas and have no intention of doing so, so I can't PROVE either side right or wrong, and I don't want to. If you believe in lollipopping then hack away! If you don't, then don't! It's that freakin' simple. There is no need for the name calling and derogatory commentary I've seen on this thread.
I guarantee you, if this thread is one of the earlier things a newcomer (not necessarily a "noob") reads, they'll never come back to RIU again because they'll think we are all of bunch of childish morons. It's fine to respectfully agree to disagree, but this thread is atrocious and should be removed by the moderators because it is an embarassment to every rational member of this site.
And if that offends anyone, well feel free to flame away -- I'm way too thick skinned to let anything someone says on the internet personally upset me!!!