cuttin off the apical dominant

cheddar1985

Well-Known Member
Ok so theres a few peeps that get very confused to wot exactly they are doin to there mj plants so i thought id start a thread and show em exactly wot they are doin;-)
So lets throw sum Q out here now and start this debate haha!!
When cuttin off there apical dominant shoot wot exactly are you doin????
And wot technique would you say u was doin?
 

georgyboy

Active Member
Marijuana grows with apical dominance. The top of the plant has more hormones and the plant focuses growth energy here. It does this naturally to push growth upwards to outgrow surrounding plants and receive sufficient light. Most trees grow like this too. When you cut the apical tip, these hormones are redirected to the growth below the apex, and you see new rapid growth from the nodes directly below your cut. In essence, you have created two new apical tips. This is called topping. FIMming is a sloppy top, that some how leads to many random "apex". LST also redistributes hormones in a similar way, but it's not as drastic.
 

cheddar1985

Well-Known Member
Marijuana grows with apical dominance. The top of the plant has more hormones and the plant focuses growth energy here. It does this naturally to push growth upwards to outgrow surrounding plants and receive sufficient light. Most trees grow like this too. When you cut the apical tip, these hormones are redirected to the growth below the apex, and you see new rapid growth from the nodes directly below your cut. In essence, you have created two new apical tips. This is called topping. FIMming is a sloppy top, that some how leads to many random "apex". LST also redistributes hormones in a similar way, but it's not as drastic.
I think this thread is gonna be a hit with sum +rep sir!!
 

kpmarine

Well-Known Member
Marijuana grows with apical dominance. The top of the plant has more hormones and the plant focuses growth energy here. It does this naturally to push growth upwards to outgrow surrounding plants and receive sufficient light. Most trees grow like this too. When you cut the apical tip, these hormones are redirected to the growth below the apex, and you see new rapid growth from the nodes directly below your cut. In essence, you have created two new apical tips. This is called topping. FIMming is a sloppy top, that some how leads to many random "apex". LST also redistributes hormones in a similar way, but it's not as drastic.
FIMming is not "sloppy topping" it's topping to minimize wasted growth. Rather than chopping off a few inches of plant you spent so much time growing, you chop off the very tip and let it grow into two tops.
 

georgyboy

Active Member
FIMming is not "sloppy topping" it's topping to minimize wasted growth. Rather than chopping off a few inches of plant you spent so much time growing, you chop off the very tip and let it grow into two tops.
You just described topping. You can "top" a plant by just removing the growth tip. FIM is an acronym for "fuck I missed". A grower was "topping" a plant, made a sloppy cut, and from this came multiple shoots. Results were consistent, kind of, so he told the people at HightTimes and his story was published in the next issue. Since then everyone has started "missing" but no one really knows what FIMing is, because there really isn't any strategy to it. When you top a plant you make a clean cut and you know you will have exploded growth from the nodes below your cut. The nodes closest to the cut tend to grow most vigorously. The new shoots grow symmetrically.
 

kpmarine

Well-Known Member
You just described topping. You can "top" a plant by just removing the growth tip. FIM is an acronym for "fuck I missed". A grower was "topping" a plant, made a sloppy cut, and from this came multiple shoots. Results were consistent, kind of, so he told the people at HightTimes and his story was published in the next issue. Since then everyone has started "missing" but no one really knows what FIMing is, because there really isn't any strategy to it. When you top a plant you make a clean cut and you know you will have exploded growth from the nodes below your cut. The nodes closest to the cut tend to grow most vigorously. The new shoots grow symmetrically.
While in principle, they are different means to similar ends, I have never seen someone "top" and call it a "fim". There is a difference in where you cut. They are both topping in principle, but only one is by name.
 

scroglodyte

Well-Known Member
there is no debate here. it is called topping. FIM is a way of topping. FIM cuts the stem below the leader, for those that can't pinch a node ....*snicker*
 

doowmd

Well-Known Member
seems to me, wat cheddars talkin bout ne way, is removing the main cola and thats supposed to make the buds below that become as big as the main cola was going to become?

IMO you'd just be missing out on that finished main cola because the lower ones will still not become as large as the main cola would have been if it was allowed to finish. They (the secondary buds) might be bigger than if the main cola had been left on, but once u equate the loss u incur by not letting the main bud finish, u end up w/ an equal amt of bud, had the plant just been left w/ the main cola.


i.e.one big cola + several smaller colas = lots of medium colas minus one big cola
 
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