I do botany, and leave the gimmicks for others to sort it out.
Decided to check on this thread to see if any progress had been made on the debate, and shockingly enough, it seems there hasn't.
UB, I have a couple of quick questions for ya, if you don't mind........
1) Have you ever grown SOG with little to no veg time? It seems as though all of your pics are of larger plants that were clearly vegged for a decent amount of time........
2) If "no", then how can you claim to be an authority on a different growing style that you've never tried? Now before this is dismissed with a "I've been growing for 40 years and I practice botany, not gimmicks", can you argue that different systems need different "tweaks"?
3) If you have grown SOG, and have not lollipopped (which is ludicrous if doing anything resembling 2 plants/sf or more), how did you like the lower nugs? Whereas on your four foot bushes the lower nugs can be and often are worthwhile, on a 1.5' plant, those buds are not worth the time it would take to trim them (which brings me to my next point).
4) Would you agree that removing budsites (not fan leaves, which I never remove, but simply budsites) on the lower part of the plant increases production to the top of the plant? I'm not even talking about hormones, simply the plant and its energy, and less places to focus it.
5) Assuming you agree with "4", can you not see how growers looking to maximize their production of grade "A" buds would (possibly) sacrifice some overall yield to increase the percentage of grade "A" buds?
I mean, the flamers who call you a senile old fool get me riled up, but you are rather smug about what you (think you) know, so perhaps my questions above would help you see it from "our" (and I hate to speak for others, but it seems as though the majority of people on this thread are in agreement with me) point of view, and you could recognize that there's more then one way to skin a cat.
BTW UB, can you point to one respected grower who grows SOG without lollipopping? Just one would be great..............and I respect that you've been growing for a long time, but with the advent of the Internet, it's become more and more clear that most of what was (thought to be) known about growing weed before the 90s was wrong in one way or another, sooooooo..............