Topping and FIMing???

East Coast Pro

Active Member
I don't understand the two processes..or what they do..
any guides or displays on the two that show before and after on both..plus showing what it does???
sorry, i'm a visual learner!!!
 

FarmerWiz

Member
There pretty much the same, well produce pretty much the same results..
The point of topping & FIM'ing is to make your plant create more colas than the usual one big cola they would make naturally..
There's some very good guide's on here if you look around, esspecially in the 'advanced marijuana cultivation' section
To make it easy for you i've added 2 llinks to two top threads on here on topping & fim'ing, do take a read though! :-P

https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/151706-uncle-bens-topping-technique-get.html

https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/200413-fimming-my-blaze-complete-how.html

Wiz :bigjoint:
 

Elite Nugz

Active Member
Dont waste your time with trying to FIM. It confuses the plant and takes a while before the plant figures out what to do next.

Concentrate on topping, super cropping and LSTing.
 

Elite Nugz

Active Member
If you FIM correctly, you'll get 4 tops. It takes a really long time for those 4 tops to form though.

If tops are what your shooting for... then bend the top of the plant over to where its at a 90 degree angle or more and tie a string to it to hold it in place... and all your lower side branches will come up, giving you tons of tops, plus you'll still get to keep your main top. MUCH better then FIMing.
 

James87

Active Member
If you FIM correctly, you'll get 4 tops. It takes a really long time for those 4 tops to form though.

If tops are what your shooting for... then bend the top of the plant over to where its at a 90 degree angle or more and tie a string to it to hold it in place... and all your lower side branches will come up, giving you tons of tops, plus you'll still get to keep your main top. MUCH better then FIMing.
Dont go crazy with it, if you top & fim, you probably also should lollipop because you only have so much soil for each plant. The bigger the rootball, the more mass in bud there can be. Lots and lots of buds will just mean smaller buds.
 

Elite Nugz

Active Member
^^^ Sorry bro.... no offense, but thats not true at all. ^^^^

You can go crazy with it all you want. The key is to let your newly formed branches get some good size and thickness before you throw them into flowering. For instance... if you just got through chopping the hell out of your plant and a week goes by, your branches are going to be super small and skinny, unable to support very large buds... So you let them go another week to get those branches a little stronger. Then they'll support the same sized bud as what the main branch would have supported.

If you want high yields... then you need a lot of tops. You can achieve more tops by either using the Sea of Green method, where you have at least 1 plant in every square foot (I would pack them closer then that). But if your in California, like I am.... then you have plant number restrictions, so you cant cram 16+ plants under one light, cause then you'll be over the limit. So you can use methods like Screen of Green, which is what I use, to get 1 plant to fill a very large area. My last run I did 6 plants per light and got the same exact yield that I would have gotten with 16 plants. Currently Im running 10 plants for 3 lights. So Im doing 3 plants per light basically, and I'll still get the same amount of yield if I were running 48 plants.

So its all about getting as many tops to the surface as possible, and keeping them level, to create an even/level canopy. I would not FIM. This in my opinion is a ridiculous method. Its good to top your plants when there very small. Around 6 inches tall... I chop my plants in half, leaving 3-4 nodes below. With 4 nodes below, those turn into your new 4 main branches and they get nice and thick, the same way the main stem would... but now you have 4 mains to branch off of. The trick is doing it early when the plant is still small.

Then after that, use Low Stress Training (LST) techniques, like Screen of Green, or you can tie branches down individually... but a screen to hold the branches down is the best way to go in my opinion.

Here's my last SCROG grow.... each 1000 watt light has 6 plants under it. Buds are all nice and fat, the same size they would have been if growing on the main stem, untopped.

DSC_0574.jpg DSC_0573.jpg
 

Elite Nugz

Active Member
And here they are getting bigger... nice sized chunky buds....

DSC_0559.jpg DSC_0569.jpg DSC_0597.jpg

Right before harvest, I remove all the big fan leaves...

DSC_0602.jpg DSC_0603.jpg

So yeah.... save your topping for when the plants young.. then use LST techniques as the plant gets bigger and you'll be golden.

Oh... and never Lollipop..!! Thats another ridiculous technique like FIMing is. Only remove dead leaves and whatever else is needed for good air circulation. People's logic behind lollipopping, is that if you remove everything below, then the plants will just focus on the tops. Plants work as a whole. If your remove the leaves below, then your hurting the plant. Look at each leave as a solar panel. The more solar panels you remove, the less energy your plant is going to produce. Now if your leaves are not getting any light, and dying because of it... then its safe to remove some.... but dont remove everything except the tops like people do in lollipopping. You'll hurt your yield in the end. Trust me.. I've done LOTS of side by side comparisons on all these little tricks. The less leaves I take off, the more the plant produces.
 

Elite Nugz

Active Member
Ok I can go crazy. 1 gallon pot, 250 colas... cool, glad you set me straight!
Dont be ridiculous man. Of course your not going to be able to grow a big plant in a 1 gallon pot. I wouldnt flower any plant, no matter how small it is, in a 1 gallon pot. Thats just ridiculous. The lowest you want to go is about 1 gallon per month your plant is alive. And thats cutting it real short.

Bigger plants are going to need more room for roots to grow. So you'll need to provide more growing medium, but you wont get smaller buds. Unless you dont do things correctly.
 

CaptainCarnival

Active Member
elite nugz nice fucking grow man they look great by chance do they happen to be super lemon haze cause if so thats awesome since you would have that poster as like a motivational picture for them
 

missnu

Well-Known Member
If you cut off any top of a branch on MJ it will grow 2 new branches from the main stalk...regardless of when or from what node...you can do it over and over if you want, but it requirea a longer amount of vegetative time. It can be alot of fun you can make a plant any size and shape you want...just make sure you have enough to practice on...don't practice on an only plant...lol
 

Elite Nugz

Active Member
elite nugz nice fucking grow man they look great by chance do they happen to be super lemon haze cause if so thats awesome since you would have that poster as like a motivational picture for them
LoL. Nah.. those werent super lemon haze... but I do have a really nice cut of SLH. I've recently moved that poster.
 

Elite Nugz

Active Member
If you cut off any top of a branch on MJ it will grow 2 new branches from the main stalk...regardless of when or from what node...you can do it over and over if you want, but it requirea a longer amount of vegetative time. It can be alot of fun you can make a plant any size and shape you want...just make sure you have enough to practice on...don't practice on an only plant...lol
Not true. Its always good to chop tops early. If you chop early, then you'll have strong beefy branches. If you chop later on in the plants life... then you get lanky, weak branches.

Chop tops early to make for a good strong multi-branched plant that can later be easily manipulated.

Also... chopping a branch doenst mean you'll get 2 new tops. Once plants mature, nodes start to separate. So most nodes will only have one branch from from it. So if you chop above a single branch node... then your only gonna get that one top... but the lower branches on the same stem will start to come up some.

Basically... save your top chopping for early on in the plants life... and use the LST tricks to shape and bush out the plant for the rest of its life. Thats how you develop a solid foundation for a nice bushy plant, ready to carry some heavy yields.



Not to seem like a know it all... but there seems to be a lot of bad info going around this site. Everything I write comes with complete respect, but if I see some bad info getting passed around Im gonna comment on it. I dont mean to offend or piss off anyone. If someone wants to debate something with me... then I'll debate it, as long as it stays respectful. I've been doing this for a looooooonngg time and have already shifted through all the BS of what works and what doesnt.
 
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