What's better for increasing yield -- topping or LST?

I'm thinking LST might be better, since it's probably lower stress than topping (ie. less chance of killing your plants by cutting on them). Then again, I have no experience with either...

Anybody know?

Also, how early can you do either of these techniques? My plants are basically fledglings so I plan to wait a while. ...Yet on the other hand, I want to keep them small (with as big a yield as possible!).

It depends on the strain. That's all that can be said.

And no, you will not kill your plant by cutting a branch off. I let mine grow about 4 or 5 nodes, maybe 15cm tall before i top them, i've not tried doing it earlier so can't comment on how the plants fare.

I top my kush twice and get a bush with 12 main colas, all big. Im relatively new but I tried this with my first grow and its work like a charm ever since. My plants are 2 1/2 foot squared and about two foot tall bushes. You will have to run a screen or tie down the branches to get an even canopy if you top twice. Good luck hope this helped.

Neither of them directly will increase yield, they can be used to give a more even canopy which can lead to better yields but it's not guaranteed.

In my tests they were about equal.
I use topping more now days cause it's easier.

The main way they get me more yield is the longer veg time.
For example when I went 12/12 from seed I tried LST VS topping VS natural.
The natural plant yielded the most.
But if I train the plant low an veg for 2 months an flower it allows alot more buds to be grown in my small space.