I'm not topping my plants this time

tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
I watched a recent video with the guy who was the inventor of the Mimosa strain (?).....Anyway, he said that he stopped topping his plants and got better results from it. I decided to try not topping this grow and so far, the results are impressive. The plants seem to "know" what to do if you leave them alone. The lower branches will catch up and be within just a few inches from the main stem, indoors. I think this is partly due to the fact that the light is always overhead, in a tent, and never moves across the "sky" the way that the Sun does in Nature. In Nature, the Sun can hit one side of the plants in the morning and then be overhead at noon and then hit the other side as the Sun sets in the afternoon. But, indoors, the "Sun" is the overhead light and it's stationary. It appears that the plant signals the lower branches to grow longer and reach up through the plant. The central stalk seems beefier.
I thought back and realized that I don't think I've ever NOT topped my plants -at least once during veg. I've grown several other ways -scrog, sog, LST, HST....and they always involved topping.

I started out with three, Hazeman Tuna Kush F2 in my main tent. They were all in 3-gallon garden pots in a soil-less mix. When pre-flowers turned up, one was a male....so he's gone and the remaining, two females are filling up the space faster and thicker than any grow, so far.

I'm also running all my veg cycles using the Gas Lantern Routine, now, too....never going back to 18/6 ever again!

You CAN teach an old dog some new tricks! :)

 
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Wastei

Wastei

Well-Known Member
It's great you found out by trial and error! I never understood why anyone would want to stunt and waste potential growth when you get the same and better results by simply pinching and breaking the stem core?

Most people start out doing fims and topping and end up doing pinching and super cropping. Topping removes potential and growth and pinching and super cropping adds without stunting it.

Cheers!
 
tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
Wastei said:
It's great you found out by trial and error! I never understood why anyone would want to stunt and waste potential growth when you get the same and better results by simply pinching and breaking the stem core?

Most people start out doing fims and topping and end up doing pinching and super cropping. Topping removes potential and growth and pinching and super cropping adds without stunting it.

Cheers!
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I'm not going to supergroup, either. This run is "au natural." :) I believe that ANY type of mechanical manipulation of the plant is going to stunt the growth. Some ways are worse than others, of course. Topping always adds at least a week of time to the veg cycle, in my experience. I was surprised to see my plants showing pre-flowers earlier than expected, too. I'm also seeing incredible root growth. It's just about allowing the plant to fulfill its natural blueprint, on its own.
 
BudmanTX

BudmanTX

Well-Known Member
tstick said:
I'm not going to supergroup, either. This run is "au natural." :) I believe that ANY type of mechanical manipulation of the plant is going to stunt the growth. Some ways are worse than others, of course. Topping always adds at least a week of time to the veg cycle, in my experience. I was surprised to see my plants showing pre-flowers earlier than expected, too. I'm also seeing incredible root growth. It's just about allowing the plant to fulfill its natural blueprint, on its own.
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that's the way i've been doing it for years.....glad you happy with it......it is a surprise to see what mother nature has and can do
 
Greengrouch

Greengrouch

Well-Known Member
Im lazy with my grow, no topping, barely any defol. My weeds still fire and plentiful. If you give enough light most plants gonna have enough lateral branching to get a bunch of good ass weed
 
tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
pegboy said:
I would think this would be very strain dependent?
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Yes, I think there are probably exceptions. Most plants are complex hybrids between sativa and indica these days. So, unless you get some really weird landrace strain from Laos or some other kind of unusual plant, I think the no-topping technique would probably apply to most of the types of plants we grow.
 
J

joesoap2013

Well-Known Member
The old lights even the leds have to do the inverse square law
The secondaries wernt getting the same amount of lumens
I have fried a bud or 2 rather than up the light cause your worried about about like the bud on the outside square of a net going into lumens danger zone drop
 
StonedGardener

StonedGardener

Well-Known Member
tstick said:
I watched a recent video with the guy who was the inventor of the Mimosa strain (?).....Anyway, he said that he stopped topping his plants and got better results from it. I decided to try not topping this grow and so far, the results are impressive. The plants seem to "know" what to do if you leave them alone. The lower branches will catch up and be within just a few inches from the main stem, indoors. I think this is partly due to the fact that the light is always overhead, in a tent, and never moves across the "sky" the way that the Sun does in Nature. In Nature, the Sun can hit one side of the plants in the morning and then be overhead at noon and then hit the other side as the Sun sets in the afternoon. But, indoors, the "Sun" is the overhead light and it's stationary. It appears that the plant signals the lower branches to grow longer and reach up through the plant. The central stalk seems beefier.
I thought back and realized that I don't think I've ever NOT topped my plants -at least once during veg. I've grown several other ways -scrog, sog, LST, HST....and they always involved topping.

I started out with three, Hazeman Tuna Kush F2 in my main tent. They were all in 3-gallon garden pots in a soil-less mix. When pre-flowers turned up, one was a male....so he's gone and the remaining, two females are filling up the space faster and thicker than any grow, so far.

I'm also running all my veg cycles using the Gas Lantern Routine, now, too....never going back to 18/6 ever again!

You CAN teach an old dog some new tricks! :)

Click to expand...
I don't top my either....haven't in 50 yrs. I grow much bigger colas with delightful girth.
 
420AD

420AD

Well-Known Member
HydoDan said:
If I don't top, the dense main cola gets bud rot.. So I opt for topping and mainlining to get smaller buds with no rot.. It adds a couple weeks, but I hate picking thru rotten buds..
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I had it happening, but I was doin SOG back then and it was way too crowded.
One of my nebulas went sour on me. I can't say that it wasn't my fault tho :D
Hopefully I'm gonna be fine this year, but I'm positive since there's only half of the plants in there now.
 
conor c

conor c

Well-Known Member
pegboy said:
I would think this would be very strain dependent?
Click to expand...
Id say definitely your right some stuff takes to it better than others however it's also just a way to fill space and even out the canopy pinching and fimming is less consistent ime Vs topping and as @HydoDan says it's good for improving airflow too maybe this is why i never get mould even in high humidity conditions indoors
 
Wastei

Wastei

Well-Known Member
budman111 said:
Try scrogging without topping ;)
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That's what I've been doing for the last couple of decades. You tuck and "supercrop" and as a result filling out the footprint faster compared to removing foliage and lessen photosynthesis and rate of growth.

As I see it why cut potential growth of the main shoot and loose potential when you dont have to? The fancy even structure doesn't compensate for the stunting of growth in my book. I get better results by letting the plant decide what to keep and where to form new shoots.

I remove the four inner nodes closest to the stem by doing "lollipopping". That's the same stragety as removing the inner shoots of a tomato plants and is proven to work. Removing foliage to gain structure is otherwise contra productive in my book.

Cheers!
 
Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
My last few grows I did no topping or fim, little to no training. They turned out allright, though some strains respond better than others to training/no training.

I mainly just do one fim early veg then some lst here and there. I don’t notice a whole big difference in yields topping vs not topping, but like I said it’s heavily strain dependent on what results you will get.

if im running a strain that’s new to me, I won’t touch it the first go around to see what its structure is like and if it would benefit from any training or not.
 
S

Samwiseman420

Well-Known Member
I have tried many different ways and the no topping method indoors gives you a nice fat cola up top for sure. I do not use that method tho. I go for 4 to 6 smaller colas. My reason for this is to get many big top buds from 1 plant instead of 1 giant bud and lots of small ones. Consumers get the benefits.
 
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