Whats the best time to start topping your plants?

Hey guys,

Just wondering when the best time would be to start topping my plants.

Im onto the second nodes on a few of my plants at week 3 of growth.

Ive heard that you should start early, but how early?

Any advice would be great.

wait till you see the fourth or fifth set
1)round feeder leaves
2)single leaf each side
3)usually set of 3 leaves each side
4)3 or more 3 leaves each side
5)developed leaves prominent and shoots coming from nodes

at that point you can considering topping.it's not about weeks into grow or height but about development.don't do it if you just transplanted

Mudballs hit it

if you want to keep this seedling as a potential mother

you should try to grow it as stress free as possible so you can accurately determine the plants quality

as mudballs said its about the plant being "mature"

now CLONES are a different story please feel free to do as you wish because they ARE mature enough. (Edit) and the quality is known

If you have a ton of seeds and dont care
do what you want its your show

Smokeenhale said:

Hey guys,

Just wondering when the best time would be to start topping my plants.

Im onto the second nodes on a few of my plants at week 3 of growth.

Ive heard that you should start early, but how early?

Any advice would be great.

Click to expand...

Seedling stage is about up to week 3, you dont want to top before that but around the 3-5 node your plant should start putting out axial growth (side branches) and this seems to be the best time frame imo any earlier you kinda just stunt it and any later itll be too tall.
All dependant on what your after tho so what are you tryingto accomplish? Indoor scrog? Outdoor bushes?

Cheers for the response mate, sorry i didnt respond. I didnt get an update on my email so i never knew anyone replied.

But i have been topping regularly all of plants have been topped about 3 some 4 times. And there coming along quite nicely. About to head into flower now after 6 weeks of growth from seed.

I'm with the rest here......I wait until the 4th or 5th node. I like Uncle Ben's topping technique where you grow it to 5 nodes and then chop it just above the second TRUE node to get 4 main colas. This is by far the best yielding (it's much like main-lining) topping technique out there. You can still top for more branches afterwards.

Keep in mind this type of topping will add 2 weeks to veg...you just have to plan for the extra time up front and then it won't be a problem.

I top the 3rd node as soon as it appears.

I like to top my plants around 7:30 in the morning. I usually have had some coffee by then and probably had a nice shit and I'm calm and ready to go. I have a favorite pair of boxers that have a lot of room and don't tend to bunch up, I like to wear those when I top. I comb my hair to the right side and hang the cock to the left for balance. The cock doesn't naturally hang that way so I will sometimes use duct tape or double sided tape. Use very sharp scissors.

I usually top around the 4th node, but this little one I decided to top it off a little earlier than usual. So far she is looking beautiful only about 5 weeks old and about a week after topping. Always tend to your plants early in the day so they have the rest of the day to soak up the light and not get too stressed.

Smokeenhale said:

Hey guys,

Just wondering when the best time would be to start topping my plants.

Im onto the second nodes on a few of my plants at week 3 of growth.

Ive heard that you should start early, but how early?

Any advice would be great.

Click to expand...

By 5:00 AM is plenty early