Tops for clones?

Hiya all,

I have 2 strains that grow pretty much opposite. One of them grows tall and doubles size in flower, the other is short and squat and grows less than 50% in flower. I don't have a problem with using various objects to raise the canopy but I thought maybe it would be smart to top the tall plants, say, a week before going into flower.

My question is: can the tops be used as clones, since up til now i've always been taking lower shoots for clones. Any reason why you should NOT use the tops of plants as a clone?

Thanks for any info,
Peace!

The reason to take cuts from lower shoots is the same as pollinating lower buds: you don't loose a lot of weight, in other words it's considered to be parts that can be missed without sacrificing harvest. It's actually better to use a more vital and eager shoot from the top, including the top itself, than a lower (and possibly weaker) shoot. So yeah, you can. I do it a lot lately myself, top the plant, use the cutting as a clone, sex the topped plant, and I know which clones are females.

if it comes down to wasting perfectly good green growth or cloning.... in my experience if there is room in the cloner CLONE EVERYTHING. that's just one more plant to grow and with the outdoor grow season here you can always use one more plant

I've used tops for clones without any issues. Personally with the taller plants I'd wait to top them until the day before the filp. This always minimized the stretch on those for me. I fucked around and topped my Platinum OG a week before the flip (to allowing healing time) and it ended up 10 inches from the reflector. The next time I waited until right before the flip and saved myself 10 inches.

Many thanks for the replies guys. These were just the kind of answers I was hoping for and this is gonna help me a lot with my next grow.

@Type_omega dude I wish I could clone everything and have a bunch of plants in the garden but sadly too many neighbors round here and I would soon run out of space indoors with too many clones, more's the pity...

@F.White good call bro. U read my mind, I was thinking of allowing a week for exactly that reason (healing). I'm totally obsessive about having stress-free plants during flowering, but given what you've said I'll do it closer to the flip.

Thanks again guys! Helped me make a definite game plan

Peace!