LST or Topping ? what should I do on a short veg time.

Hey guys, I have a simple question that I would like to get some opinions on.

I have a plant outdoors that just sprouted a few days ago, and when I first planted it I was thinking about trying to do mainlining on her, but then reading about outdoors grows I stumbled upon many people saying that outdoors flowering starts at 14/10, is this true ?

If its true this leaves my plant with approx 4 maybe 5 weeks of veg time. This is a short period of time for me to be able to do any proper mainlining, so I was wondering:

What is the best way to go, should I just LST my plant for a few buds or should I top it and get 2 main colas ? which do you think would yield better given the short veg time ?

Or on the contrary, if flowering outdoors starts at 12/12 that could give me about 7 - 8 weeks veg, is this enough to mainline my plant for 4 main colas ?

Do both - Top first and then use a reduced rate of LST - Remember - you are at Mother Nature's mercy and the strain you are growing when cultivating outside. what ever you do will increase growing time because of stress put on plant, generally it takes a week or two for plants to recover

^^^^ not sure if topping increases growing time?? If the plant is a photo it would be based on light. I think 14 versus 12 would be a strain thing. 5 weeks should be enough for the plant to recover from topping imo. Lst would not effect the plant either imo. I just let my outdoor plants do their thing and tend to use the hands off aporoach.

You'll ge more bud if you don't top your budders in a shorter time.

waterdawg said:

^^^^ not sure if topping increases growing time?? If the plant is a photo it would be based on light. I think 14 versus 12 would be a strain thing. 5 weeks should be enough for the plant to recover from topping imo. Lst would not effect the plant either imo. I just let my outdoor plants do their thing and tend to use the hands off aporoach.

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I dont have 5 weeks after topping, I have 5 weeks total veg from sprout. So it would take maybe 3 weeks to get 6 nodes on my plant so that I could top it and only 2 weeks after that for new growth to emerg, before flowering begins.
How many nodes do you recommend a plant should have to be ok with topping ?

I understand that LST would not delay the plants growth as Topping will, I just would not want to top my girl and then the new colas to remain small because they did not have time to grow big due to flowering. Tho if after topping the new shoots grow nicely I will for sure tie them down to encourage more bud sites.

bird mcbride said:

You'll ge more bud if you don't top your budders in a shorter time.

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So you would recommend I only do LST due to short veg?

You'll get more weed.

Most of her serious growing will b when flower begins as long as u have her healthy for this time she will reward u well...

Not an expert by any stretch lol, but I only veg for 20-25 days and some plants I top and some I dont. It doesn't seem to slow them down to much and I probably only give them 7 days to recover before the switch to 12. I really am not sure about results being different re: quantity. I do it for height control but topped ones sometimes outgrow untopped! I top at third node given the short veg. There are some great topping stickies here. Oh and I was referring to the longer veg time which would give you 5 weeks i think. I dont do much training or topping as it seems to me the veg time has to be longer to achieve results that outweigh the faster grow cycle I follow. I am always about to run out and speed is a priority lol.

Well I have some plants that I threw out much later in the season than I normally do. Had a bunch of seeds laying around. I just decided to LST them and keep them tied down period. The branches at all the nodes are as long as the plant is tall of most of them now. With new nodes forming and eventually those branches shoot out and catch up. I go out and adjust my ties to the second to last node accordingly and totally flipflop the plant over to the other side. I adjust the branches around to the other side when I flip flop. They bend themselves up when the sun comes up anyways. Which in turn has made the main trunk + Branches all Hulk Hugan beefy and a lot thicker.
I say just tie them down and let them get as many branches/budsites as possible. I have around 15 that I was doing the same thing with but ended up pinching the top off them period at their top node so the branches would hopefully go nuts even more. So I could see if there was any difference to topping + lst or just lst by itself. I'm going to wait about 2 weeks into flower, untie them and just let em fly. I'm not looking to pull LBS off these things. I'll be happy with what I get. Hell they're all regular seeds anyways so half of them are going to get the chop anyways besides the most vigorous male.
If you're in the States though then flowering is just around the corner. Your girls will still veg a bit anyways until they're mature enough to start flowering. So you have a small window to do whatever training you can to them.

LokoTrashman said:

Or on the contrary, if flowering outdoors starts at 12/12 that could give me about 7 - 8 weeks veg, is this enough to mainline my plant for 4 main colas ?

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Flowering should start in August. I've never had an outdoor plant that wasn't flowering or throwing pistils by mid August anyways. Hell I had some last year that were flowering at the very end of July. At least the males were starting to show balls anyways.
But you have a small window to train them regardless. If you can manage to keep them vegging a bit longer via artificial lighting that could be an option for mainlining them. Enough to keep them awake for 2 or 3 hours longer per day.

LokoTrashman said:

Hey guys, I have a simple question that I would like to get some opinions on.

I have a plant outdoors that just sprouted a few days ago, and when I first planted it I was thinking about trying to do mainlining on her, but then reading about outdoors grows I stumbled upon many people saying that outdoors flowering starts at 14/10, is this true ?

If its true this leaves my plant with approx 4 maybe 5 weeks of veg time. This is a short period of time for me to be able to do any proper mainlining, so I was wondering:

What is the best way to go, should I just LST my plant for a few buds or should I top it and get 2 main colas ? which do you think would yield better given the short veg time ?

Or on the contrary, if flowering outdoors starts at 12/12 that could give me about 7 - 8 weeks veg, is this enough to mainline my plant for 4 main colas ?

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Outdoors it doesn't really have much to do with the actual number of daylight hours, they don't flower when they hit a threshold like 14/10 per se, but rely much more heavily on if the hours are increasing or decreasing. As a rule of thumb, outdoors plants will veg while the days are getting longer, and flower after the solstice when they start getting shorter. That's why cannabis grows in so many different climates and not just ones with optimal day length. My whole outdoor crop started throwing pistils the week after the solstice and a few of them are full on blooming right now, even though we still have 15 hours of daylight here. They just know that each day they are getting less light than the day before.

LST for short veg time. Less recovery time.

I'm not one to say what you should or shouldn't do but I would LST. Pin that plant down when it gets about 4 inches tall. It will take off. Then when it's about 8 inches pinch

verbal719 said:

I'm not one to say what you should or shouldn't do but I would LST. Pin that plant down when it gets about 4 inches tall. It will take off. Then when it's about 8 inches pinch

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Thanks for the advice bro I will for sure LST her to get many bud sites, and if I have enough time I will top it once.

Another question I got is, how do I know how much and now often to water my pot ? Its a big pot and sitting in the sun everyday it gets dry pretty quick, at least the top of the soil does, unlike my first girl that was done indoors where it took my plant 5 to 6 days for soil to get dry. I would not want to overwater.

Mainlining is probably out of the question. Really slows them down. I've been mainlining two plants for what seems like 6 weeks. Should have just LST'd

LokoTrashman said:

Thanks for the advice bro I will for sure LST her to get many bud sites, and if I have enough time I will top it once.

Another question I got is, how do I know how much and now often to water my pot ? Its a big pot and sitting in the sun everyday it gets dry pretty quick, at least the top of the soil does, unlike my first girl that was done indoors where it took my plant 5 to 6 days for soil to get dry. I would not want to overwater.

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Water your plants. Feel how heavy the pot is when it is fully saturated. Get used to how it feels. When the pot gets super light and easier to pick up that can be an indicator. Also when the leaves start to droop. The plant will just look sad. If the plant is drooping and the pot is light, water her. But I like to let them droop for a few hours once I notice. Make them earn their keep. It won't hurt her as long as the leaves aren't getting dry or falling off because of not having water. Within 20 or 30 minutes after watering they will perk back up and look happy and excited. Leaves and branches will point up. Also, remember as the plants get bigger they will drink more. By the time I'm in the middle of flower I water every other day. And I'm talking a good soak. I hope this helped.

verbal719 said:

Water your plants. Feel how heavy the pot is when it is fully saturated. Get used to how it feels. When the pot gets super light and easier to pick up that can be an indicator. Also when the leaves start to droop. The plant will just look sad. If the plant is drooping and the pot is light, water her. But I like to let them droop for a few hours once I notice. Make them earn their keep. It won't hurt her as long as the leaves aren't getting dry or falling off because of not having water. Within 20 or 30 minutes after watering they will perk back up and look happy and excited. Leaves and branches will point up. Also, remember as the plants get bigger they will drink more. By the time I'm in the middle of flower I water every other day. And I'm talking a good soak. I hope this helped.

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This is fine during veg, as it encourages more root growth, but if you wait for leaves to droop during flower you won't be doing yourself any favours and are going to slow down growth tremendously, not to mention you run the risk of the soil becoming hydrophobic. If the topsoil is drying out every day, water it every day, plants use more and more water as things go on, and outdoor plants use even more water, especially if they are in black pots since they heat up in the sun.

I guess I will have to weigh my pot after the plant has stretched enough, then I can add a bit more soil to cover up the stem up to the cotyledons.

Ace Yonder said:

This is fine during veg, as it encourages more root growth, but if you wait for leaves to droop during flower you won't be doing yourself any favours and are going to slow down growth tremendously, not to mention you run the risk of the soil becoming hydrophobic. If the topsoil is drying out every day, water it every day, plants use more and more water as things go on, and outdoor plants use even more water, especially if they are in black pots since they heat up in the sun.

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Maybe.But I have never had a problem at all. Between my 5 years of growing outdoor and my dads 40 years of growing outdoor there has never been issues. Letting the soil dry a little more than usual in flower encourages resin development. Yes, this is more common towards the end of the flowering cycle, I however do it sparingly and under close supervision throughout the last 6 weeks of flower. This is what works for me. From experience. Any advise I give is what I have done personally, not what I have read on forums. In other words my advise is not based on theory. Soil becoming hydrophobic should not be an issue. Hydrophobic soil is on the extreme end of this scenario. Cannabis is not hard to grow. Where most people mess up and lose plants is making it too complicated and over thinking. Someone may worry about their soil becoming hydrophobic and instead over water. Moderation with everything is the key to successfully growing cannabis.

LokoTrashman said:

I guess I will have to weigh my pot after the plant has stretched enough, then I can add a bit more soil to cover up the stem up to the cotyledons.

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Just so we are clear of what I am talking about I will post pictures of my plants freshly watered and their stature, and pictures of my plants before I water them. I will let the soil dry a little more than I normally would. 30 minutes after I water them I will take another picture and show you how they perk back up.

p.s. this might take a week or so since we have had rain the past 3 days straight here.

verbal719 said:

Just so we are clear of what I am talking about I will post pictures of my plants freshly watered and their stature, and pictures of my plants before I water them. I will let the soil dry a little more than I normally would. 30 minutes after I water them I will take another picture and show you how they perk back up.

p.s. this might take a week or so since we have had rain the past 3 days straight here.

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Cool man I'll wait for your pics.