gwaziman001
Well-Known Member
hi all when i top my plants should it be in the veg stage of flower starge? thanks
when should i top my plant?
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mismos00
Well-Known Member
At minimum, a week before flowering, just so the plant can heal itself. After that, the longer you wait the bigger the plant will be... so it would be more about how big a plant your room can accommodate.
Clevelandblazn5
Active Member
do it during veg, they need 2 weeks to recover after the top, search uncle bens topping in advanced marijuana techniques... but you want to wait till they get about 5 nodes high and then cut just above the 2nd node, this is one of my plants i topped it should look like this
appleseed
Active Member
I think the earliest you are supposed to top is when the plant has 4 node pairs. before you do- look at LST , FIM and Supercropping. All of these will give you additional branchings and hieght control while having the advantage of less stress to your plant. MY OPINION I've done a couple LST and really like the technique.
keeger123
Well-Known Member
Last time i checked, 12 tops is better than 1... top away........
My vote goes to bending. If you don't kink the stem, you can bend her around any which way you want for however many tops you want and she will not need any time to heal. Unless you just have too much plant for the space you'll be flowering in, bending is much faster for same results.
Dirtyboy
Well-Known Member
The whole concept of growing marijuana is to grow as many branches as you can. By topping the plant that all ends. Yes, you get 2 that grow out the top. If you do not top it. The plant will continue to produce branches at a rate of 2 per day or so.
So if ya cut the top off a plant it grows 2 branches out the top and thats all the branches it will grow. You can now count how many buds you will have, because it will not grow anymore.
If you donot top it. It continues to grow more branches. The last time i checked. More branches is a good thing.
keeger123
Well-Known Member
The whole concept of growing marijuana is to grow as many branches as you can. By topping the plant that all ends. Yes, you get 2 that grow out the top. If you do not top it. The plant will continue to produce branches at a rate of 2 per day or so.
So if ya cut the top off a plant it grows 2 branches out the top and thats all the branches it will grow. You can now count how many buds you will have, because it will not grow anymore.
If you donot top it. It continues to grow more branches. The last time i checked. More branches is a good thing.
if u top it, those branches ur talkin about will become tops... as well as more branches continually growing. maybe u dont kno cause u have never tried. well I HAVE grown lots and HAVE tried it. an indicia with 1 main cola, lets say chemo, will yield about 95g after 8 weeks. continuosly topping such a plant 4 times (giving 16 tops) will increase yield to about 160g after the same time period, not to mention the increased quality of the buds since they'll be closer to the light source. veg time when topping could add on 2 weeks tho
why not increase yield? there's a reason topping/bending/fim'n are so popular. its obvious u dont kno how to properly grow dope, so stay the fuk outta the discussion
mismos00
Well-Known Member
That's how they get'cha! Did you notice you said both "will increase yield to about 160g after the same time period"... and also said "veg time when topping could add on 2 weeks tho". You're contradicting yourself.
When people say that topping increases yield, they fail to take into account the extra time the plant needs to heal. If you put two plants, side by side, and topped one and not the other, and than two weeks later flipped them, you'd notice that plant you didn't top will have grown much taller than the plant you did top. (Read: Bigger plant, bigger yield)
What people mean to say is that a topped plant will yield more than a non-topped plant OF THE SAME HEIGHT.
Not topping means you can grow bigger plants in less time = more weed.
Don't get me wrong... I top some of my plants... but that is only because I don't want them to get too tall, or I want them to bush out for clones... or the plant is getting too tall for my Veg room and I don't have any room in my Flower room, so in that sense I top to shorten the plant and stunt its growth for a week or so.
I do not top my plant for yield, because based on the laws of nature, that is not possible.
keeger123
Well-Known Member
veg will take longer, flowering takes the same amount of time, about 8 weeks. think about it
flower, not veg
i dont top all my plants either, like u said i top the taller ones to control height and keep them all the same
I did this as an experiment: topped half my plants, didn't top half. the topped half had almost twice the yeild. i think an extra 2 weeks of veg is worth almost double the yeild
since you have all those tops as close to the light source as if u didn't top, all those colas receive the same light intensity and grow up the same size as a single cola when untopped
mismos00
Well-Known Member
But your not thinking about this right... OF COURSE if you veg a plant an extra two weeks it is going to yield more... WEATHER YOU TOP IT OR NOT. And if you don't top it and give it an extra two weeks in veg, you'd get an even bigger yield than if you did top it.
Think about it this way. If you didn't top, and started flowering two weeks earlier, than you would be done two weeks earlier, and could start another plant sooner, getting more weed... over all yield, over time, will be greater because you wouldn't be losing 2 weeks. Take a page out of the book of commercial growers. Anything that losses them time in growth loses them money/yield. You've heard the expression time is money? Well in this case time is yield. That's also why commercial growers like quick flowering plants... time = yield.
But, if time and yield isn't a factor and you'd rather take more time to grow less plants, than yes, you can get more yield per plant, but your grow room won't be any more efficient, in fact you will be less efficient.
keeger123
Well-Known Member
i guess agree to disagree. i kno what ur saying. 2 weeks more veg is 2 weeks longer per cycle. but i disagree; the 2 weeks more i give them to heal still yeilds more in the long run than not topping and gaining the 2 weeks for the next cycle.
if u have 10 plants, untopped ones yeild for example 950g/cycle, and it may take only 10 weeks/cycle, thats 95g/week, for any length of time. topped ones can yeild 1600g/cycle but may take 12 weeks/cycle, thats about 130g/week, for any length of time.
the numbers might be a little generous, but in this case topping and an extra 2 weeks yeilds more overtime
mismos00
Well-Known Member
Also, when I do top, I only cut the very, tip-top of the plant, more similiar to a FIM. I once read that growth hormones accumulate at the top part of the plant, and that cutting too much of the plant makes the plant loss some of it's vigor. I'm not 100% on this, although it makes sense that a little cut is less traumatic than a big cut... which is why I was surprised by one of the post on this thread suggesting to cut above the 2nd node, essential cutting the plant in half, which seems much more dramatic than trimming off that tiny bud at the top of the plant. But different cuts will cause the plant to take on different shapes... so I guess it depends what your after... and to me, minimizing stress seems important.
mismos00
Well-Known Member
Agreed. I appreciate your point of view.
(Edit: Just checked out some of your pics. Props!)
keeger123
Well-Known Member
thanks. i'm luvin the hydro!
u have a journal?