Uncle Ben's Topping Technique to Get 2 or 4 Main Colas

I really appreciate that my friend, I worry too much, but I guess I've gotten enough rides in the back seats of black and whites now that I'm a little over cautious. I must be doing ok, because the last time was in the 70s. Plus weed makes me paranoid..lol...You saying that helps and I'm not joking. Thank you.
sns.

Burger Boss said:

WTG Pot, that's what I call giving someone, some perspective!
It would be pretty damned hard to challenge the co-originator of a tried and true grow method!
Wishing for ALL......Good luck & good grow.......BB

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Thanks for that. Yeah, when we were with that group Ben and I also helped with the theory and testing of the so-called Lucas formula using GH Flora nutes. It was several other members who came up with it, and I helped test it, along with many others. Lucas was a young guy who was paying attention, but was not involved. He took it and put it on several forums, and it's been known as the Lucas formula ever since.

When you've been helping others as long as Ben and I have, it only natural for us to get a little crusty.

I am not sure how you prune your plant to get four main colas but when I look at your pic for two main colas, it looks like the "skeleton" of a plant you show it looks just like mine and I also get four or as many main colas as I want - each getting a bit smaller as I go above the four. I have found four to be the best for me. I still finish in just a little longer than I would have had I not pruned the plant. I just pinch at the fourth node and when the two new shoots get long enough to pinch again at the fifth, I pinch them both, giving me my four colas and much greater yields, and much less trim time. Did I just say the same thing you did? Or is there yet another way to get to the four?

Mai Thot said:

I am not sure how you prune your plant to get four main colas but when I look at your pic for two main colas, it looks like the "skeleton" of a plant you show it looks just like mine and I also get four or as many main colas as I want - each getting a bit smaller as I go above the four. I have found four to be the best for me. I still finish in just a little longer than I would have had I not pruned the plant. I just pinch at the fourth node and when the two new shoots get long enough to pinch again at the fifth, I pinch them both, giving me my four colas and much greater yields, and much less trim time. Did I just say the same thing you did? Or is there yet another way to get to the four?

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Mai, it is all explained very clearly on the first page of this thread. I have followed this method and it works. Yes everyone, even me knew how to top. UB just shows us how to do it right. Thanks UB

BB: I can only think you have not gotten busted before. After a few, it starts to increase your paranoia. Oh yeah, paranoia is being afraid for no good reason. I've got a few reasons but none relating to pot cultivation. Now, the chief of police and his wife, the chief of the fire department (just think of all the government dollars accumulated there!) live right across the street from me. Should I worry or would that just be paranoid? I put a false back wall on my garage and my room is 6' X 24'. I painted the entire garage white and put a piece of removable sheet rock over the door to my room so it looks from the street like the old back. I just shut the door to the garage (tuck-under type) when it is time to work. Thank God for the two evergreens growing right in the line of site from my new neighbors. It allows me to leave the garage door open - as if I am just like any of my neighbors, hanging out in front of the garage for a smoke.
I seldom worry about anyone coming over from the neighborhood because every election I have conservative republican signs in my yard. I belong to the Rep party as a delegate and I also have an office in my basement as an accountant which has an added benefit of covering for the small bit of traffic I get. For the last ten or so years, I merely grow one time a year and create a year's worth of smoke for me and some friends. I should be done for this year in a few months after which I use my two 800 watt lights to lay under in the winter to cure the blues. The lights along with a little space heater makes it like summer again - and, where I live, that season is only about two and a half months, at best.

wow, Mai, id be paranoid (ok not paranoid, just plain scared)as shit.Take it back...id move. lol. sns

Well my oh my, Mai, LOL, I do see your problem....I sure wouldn't want "double Badges" staring at ME from across the street, a bit more heat than I care for.
Most sadly, I have been a guest of "several" Greybar Hotels.
First in 1959, when I was 20 and a bigger A-hole than I am now. Last time was in 1992, when I had the distinct privilege of spending 17 months in San Quentin and Folsom for growing 5 plants in a garage in Amador county, CA. To explain my cavalier attitude is easy; after the defeat of prop 19, I acquired a 99 plant 215 ticket.
I have room for maybe 20/24 if I really shoehorned. I'm in a senior mobile home park, and my neighbors have known about my growing habits for years. I'm 72 now, in a city that laid off 70 police officers last fall.
So, as you can see, my anxiety level is pretty damned low these days.
Good luck & good grow.......BB

SNS: Sorry I seem so dense, but I have learned to grow with no help since the early 1970's, when I got back from Vietnam. I didn't know where to get help without putting myself out on front street, so I just bumbled along until about five years ago when I discovered seed sites on the computer. I still can barely grow cuttings. Most die on me from the cuting getting mushy and just quits growing. I quit using the gel as that seemed to be the worst.
Being a conservative doesn't leave me with many leftist friends or growers who I could talk to about the subject - other than family - most of whom are also conservative. We do not see growing plants for personal use as a problem. I have an added problem of Hep C and Neuropathy and if I can get relief in any way, its my business, I figure, as long as I hurt no one else.
As for the four node thing. I went back and re read the first page as suggested and I still do not understand why you grow the plant to six nodes and then cut it off above the second node? I just cannot understand why you wouldn't cut the second node when the third node shows? I think it should probably not get pinched until the fourth node but you tell me if I am doing it wrong, or just differently. My plants have the same appearance as UB with one node pinched and another two pinched to double up again. My colas are all about the same height so they all seem to get the light evenly - although I also use two 800 watt lights which covers the plants entirely anyway. I only grow six to eight plants a year for my health - both physical and mental.
If you could just tell me why you would grow it out to 5 or 6 nodes and then go back and cut it at the second, I would greatly appreciate it. Hopefully, my questions will seem more thoughtful as I go. I thank you in advance for any energy you expend on my behalf.

Maybe the tremor that has started in my hands is due to something other than the Neuropathy? (literally, frayed nerve endings sending shots of pain all over my body.) Copuld be from the new neighbors - who I greeted to the new neighborhood first and since they had a baby this winter and we had 80" of snow, I used my snowblower to clean out their drive for them. I do that for a few neighbors who had no machine to help with the snow. My friends and I bet where the next pain will arise and the (winner(s)) get the next hit on my Hot Shot vaporizer using kief instead of bud. It is fun to see my friends expressions as they begin to wonder if they'll live through the hit or not. Of course they will but they do wonder for a second.
Believe me, I'd like to move from here but isn't living in CA awfully expensive? Homes seem to start at a mil for a house I wouldn't even have in my state. Our walls are three times thicker and insulated. But I lived in LA for about two years and another three in the Tenderloin in SF. I am a Marine who went to boot camp at MCRD San Diego and got stationed in Tustin at a little base we called LTA meaning lighter than air, as it was a helicopter and Harrier base. Got busted for the first time in Santa Ana for pot possession when I got out of the corps. Twenty of us bought five pounds to take home for personal use so the judge just sent us home, without the pot, of course. I doubt this state will pass the law before I die so I am in a bit of a quandary since my wife hates CA for some reason. Eathquakes and fires seem worse than cold and snow to her, I guess. WE would take a beating on the house trade as I do tax work and when someone comes here from there, they can usually buy a house outright when they get here and still have five figures to play with as a capital gain but still way ahead, financially anyway. I could sell my paid off home here and still owe $500,000 on it in CA.
The big joke to me is that my docs happily give me 500 10mg methadone pills and 120 percs a month for the last 15 years, when I would happily use only the pot, if I could grow my own each year.

f you could just tell me why you would grow it out to 5 or 6 nodes and then go back and cut it at the second

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that isnt completely needed..just helps to have a stronger plant and a nice developed root system.ive noticed the longer i wait before topping the faster the new growth starts to fill in...saves me about a weeks worth of veg time before switching it to flower

hmm, dunno, that seems strainrelated, im not much for topping, but i accidentally topped a young sativa the other day.
it had 3 nodes (apart from the sunleaves) and i flipped off the top while i was bending it bit.
well, it didnt stop growing, grew very quickly into 4 tops.

the reason for this, was it allready had budsites (well, future budsites(or potential tops))
And the distance between each internode was so small that the upper budsites didnt get priority over the lower.

now, if i waited longer, my experience with topping tells me, that by then the distance between nodes would be such that 2 tops would automatically get priority and leaving you with 2 tops.

the only cases where ive seen different, was with a naturally bushy plant (denser more indica plants )where about 4 of the lower budsites had grown to about an equal height.
and being about 5-6 nodes (or so, wasnt really counting, might have been more) and where if you cut off the (quite alot larger) top, these budsites would automatically grow into 4 nicely spaced tops.

but, you´d be sacrificing quite some time with cutting that top off (though it makes a nice clone) and need to spend some time in veg to grow those lower budsites to proper size (bigger tops, bigger buds)

whereas with lst, you´d keep that big top and end up with 3 slightly smaller tops (almost the same height and size) along with it (or however many you want)
in less time, but with more work (Which i understand was ub´s objection to this)

i would think, topping later for bushy females, topping earlier for plants that have allready lower budsites (as some plants grow to some height without growing anything but the top and fanleaves, the lower budsites appearing maybe in 2-3rd week, making the internodal distance too much to get anything but 2 tops with topping (unless you topped more than once or used lst along with it(topping for 2 tops i find absolutely pointless though and really topping for 4 unless you veg them out properly before flowering)

and lst or scrog or straight up for the plants that develope lower budsites later (3rd group i mentioned)

Burger Boss said:

WTG Pot, that's what I call giving someone, some perspective!
It would be pretty damned hard to challenge the co-originator of a tried and true grow method!
Wishing for ALL......Good luck & good grow.......BB

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Yes but you both missed the point I made ... oh well carry on ...

dlively11 said:

Yes but you both missed the point I made ... oh well carry on ...

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LOL, I can only speak for myself, but as a "registered old folk", petty points are often wasted on me.
And "carry on"; I shall..........wishing YOU, Good luck & good grow.......BB

Burger Boss said:

LOL, I can only speak for myself, but as a "registered old folk", petty points are often wasted on me.
And "carry on"; I shall..........wishing YOU, Good luck & good grow.......BB

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Petty ? Sorry was not petty. The point I was making was that UB did not invent this topping technique at all. Maybe he helped come up with the term "SCROG" but that method , or variations of, have also been done long before. The point was it would be like me picking any previously discovered technique and claiming it as my own which it would not be.
Just wanted to clear that up

I will give credit where credit is due and the fact is UB posted this info up on this message board so many folks out there know how to do this now. I think that is great. He clearly knows how to grow very well and deserves props for this thread.

Also I cant beleive you got actual prison time in Ca for growing a few plants, that is crazy .... Sorry to hear that. Times are very differnt now then they used to be. My mom grew a bunch of plants in our backyard once when I was a kid in the 70s and is was scary. Very differnt then now. Hell now you can get State Farm to insure your crop

dlively11 said:

Petty ? Sorry was not petty. The point I was making was that UB did not invent this topping technique at all. Maybe he helped come up with the term "SCROG" but that method , or variations of, have also been done long before. The point was it would be like me picking any previously discovered technique and claiming it as my own which it would not be.
Just wanted to clear that up

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Did he say he invented the topping technique? (a friend asks me, "how does UB top his plants?", I respond, "UB's technique goes like this")
If you (dlively11) choose a method of doing something, isn't that your technique for doing it?...........dlively11's technique ?
UB man crush, maybe you do! or maybe it's just petty?
Cheers,

I did invent this topping technique. If you can prove otherwise, then do so, or shut the fuck up dlively. You're just being a petty little prick.

To whom it might concern, if you have nothing to contribute but FUD, then spin your bullshit elsewhere, not in my thread.

UB

Burger Boss said:

Uncle Ben!: "Haven't folded yet and never will. I jest keep pullin' dem Aces.

"

Do I detect a poker player here???? Possibly an online player?
If so, please PM me, cuz POKER is my #2 major passion!.......BB

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Man, I haven't played a poker hand in a coon's age. But, give me 4 of a kind, a couple of hits of gold, Herredura over the rocks, Pink Floyd and we will revisit the good ol days!

Tio Bendejo

People have been topping plants for ages.... like tomatoes... please don't say you invented it... I've shone you other publications printed way before this thread was even published by you. The fact that you would claim such a technique is beyond me. Cultivation was discovered thousands of years ago, many thousands of years ago. To claim that no one has accidentally broken a top and discovered two or more topiary stems as a result is a rather large stretch of the imagination. Hell, I see threads ALL the time where people break the main stem and panic....

I noticed a very long time ago that when I prune my roses back, I get new growth and more tips.... I thought it was neat, but I hardly thought I invented or discovered it. It was merely a natural response to my actions...

And you really shouldn't be telling people to STFU. Many people consider those fighting words, at least down here in the south that would get you a nasty response....

Uncle Ben said:

I did invent this topping technique. If you can prove otherwise, then do so, or shut the fuck up dlively. You're just being a petty little prick.

To whom it might concern, if you have nothing to contribute but FUD, then spin your bullshit elsewhere, not in my thread.

UB

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Uh, yes he did in fact claim that he invented it..... He claims that no one else has ever discovered topping until he publicized it.

Lt. Dan said:

Did he say he invented the topping technique? (a friend asks me, "how does UB top his plants?", I respond, "UB's technique goes like this")
If you (dlively11) choose a method of doing something, isn't that your technique for doing it?...........dlively11's technique ?
UB man crush, maybe you do! or maybe it's just petty?
Cheers,

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Some botany knowledge.... Sunflowers are one of the plants that benefit from topping. By cutting off a wilted, spent head, you can encourage multiple sunflower heads to grow from a single stem!. This information was written in a book called The complete Garden Flower Book by Katie Ziller; and was published about 12 years before this thread was even written by UB....


Let's not even mention the Farmer's Almanac, with it's ancient wisdom....