You clone a clone...but should you top a top?

So I know that many growers take clones from clones, basically keeping the same plant reproduced for a very long time. My question is, would it be the same thing to grow a top out after topping a plant - and then topping that top, and so on... When you plant a top that was clipped from a new plant grown from seed, will the new growth produce leaf sets that are opposing, or not? In other words, can you grow out that chopped off top until it has 4-5 nodes again, and then use Uncle Ben's topping technique lopping it down to two nodes and have it produce four colas? Can you keep making four cola offspring this way, or does the topped section react like any regular clone? Have I got you confused enough yet...?

haha ya man got me confused at the end there. but ya i try not to top unless i can clone that top, and usually one would do that at the beginning or the stem is too thick and takes longer to root or doesnt root at all (thats just an assumption) but ya you can def. clone a top and continue to top, perfect way to make mothers.

ive planted a top cutting its growing alright seems really small but healthy i can post pics if you want

Yeah, I also have two top cuttings currently growing. They took a while to root, but I attribute that to my newbie errors. They are both now showing some decent growth in the last two days, but they're still pretty short. I have yet to take them out from the lights to get a really good look at them, and they've got some tight node spacing, so I don't know exactly what they've been putting out for new growth (opposing leaf sets or not). I was mainly wondering if they would grow 4 colas if I topped them when they are tall enough - does the cutting know it's actually a top, or does it recognize when you clip down to the two lowest nodes that it should send out new growth to make four colas?

im getting lost in this sorry guys its late and im really stoned but hope this helps:

if you clone a top, it becomes a top as a new plant. the idea is to clone and leave 2 or more nodes behind so that the plant is now "topped" in that spot.. so these two nodes then become the 2 new tops, then if u top each top and those 2 tops grow enough and leave 2 nodes behind each then you will have 4 tops. most ppl do not grow they're plant very tall unless they have lighting for the sides of the plant (outdoors this works becuz the sun moves and is powerfull enough). so they do SOG or LST they're plants so the light is most effective. if you take a clone from a plant in flower, the clone will take longer to veg. back but it will then be "monster cropped" its called, where all the side nodes take major growth and become the same length as the main stem top. this makes great for mothers, then you top these "monster cropped" clones and ur plant has like 10 tops, then you would LST and so on.. im just blabbing on wow im take another toke n probly heading to bed. peace guys

I was mainly wondering if they would grow 4 colas if I topped them when they are tall enough - does the cutting know it's actually a top, or does it recognize when you clip down to the two lowest nodes that it should send out new growth to make four colas?

i dont understand this man sorry.

did you top your two clone tops? lol then each clone top will now grow 2 tops.

if you just cut 2 tops and cloned them (which i would assume then from 2 different plants, unless u took it from a side node on the one plant) then those clones will just be normal plants and grow one main top.. it might be bush just becuz of how long it takes to grow or whatever but it will have one main top in the middle.. unless you took your tops and cloned them while the plant was in flower, then you will probably have alot more "tops" like i said "monster cropped" i dono if im making n e sense lol.. but is this helping?

This is the cutting from the top of one of the plants from my aerogarden

The clone is about 2 months old and Ive just put it on 12/12 because that's what my aerogarden light is set at. So maybe it will flower .. might have to put it in a bigger pot soon, i think its in a little Lego box right now. It may turn out to be a male in which case ill put it outside as an experiment

Right now, I have tops of two plants that I grew from seed and I've put them in soil as clones. The plants they came off of are both producing growth for 4 colas now. The cuttings (tops) have rooted and are starting to show decent growth in the last few days. I know if I leave them be, they will produce just the one main cola, and I'd be okay with that, since I now have two more plants than I started with. BUT...I was interested to know what would happen if I let them grow a few more nodes and then treated them the same as the original plants and clipped them like Uncle Ben suggests to get the 4 colas. Would that work the same as it did for the first (from seed) plants?

manditroy said:

Right now, I have tops of two plants that I grew from seed and I've put them in soil as clones. The plants they came off of are both producing growth for 4 colas now. The cuttings (tops) have rooted and are starting to show decent growth in the last few days. I know if I leave them be, they will produce just the one main cola, and I'd be okay with that, since I now have two more plants than I started with. BUT...I was interested to know what would happen if I let them grow a few more nodes and then treated them the same as the original plants and clipped them like Uncle Ben suggests to get the 4 colas. Would that work the same as it did for the first (from seed) plants?

Click to expand...

When you guys top and try to germ the top, what method do you ppl use? I like to cut and place in clonex and either put in soil or in a cup with water. It doesn't root at all or do i have to just leave it in the water until it does so.

I used rooting powder I got from Home Depot and then put into a small 5oz cup with soil. I tried them in water first for a few days cause I'm a newbie and didn't know better. I have rooted other plants that way before.) Once I decided they were not going to root in the water, I got the root powder and tucked them snugly into the small cup of soil. It took a while, but they finally started showing new growth in their centers, so I knew they had grown roots. I let them grow a few more days and then repotted into the larger party cups. They are taking off now and I plan to put them into real pots soon. I would just keep an eye on it. I used a plastic bag for a humidity dome and it seemed to make all the difference. Good Luck.

ok look for the other part of the question colas not all plants will grow 2-12 huge colas some will grow very small colas if you top them it depends on strain, blueberry and bluberry crosses will go to 12 ive seen =, but all strains are diffand all have a max theyll make no matter what you do so topping is good but not always needed. learn your strain or piggy back of other peoples knolwage.

yes tops can be clones and top and cloned and topped and cloned and topped

you can also top the same plant as many times as you want to a point never did more than 4

The picture of of my top cutting growing healthy on page 1 - All i did was put it in an aerogarden seed pod, dropped it in the aerogarden and after 1 week it started to show some root so i then put it straight into soil. No special method, just basic stone age method.