riddleme
Well-Known Member
you can top as much as you like, a) you will get a bit of stunting (growth) each time (varies with strains) and b) you will get a bush
it is a great way to learn would only do it to one
Uncle Ben's Topping Technique to Get 2 or 4 Main Colas
- Thread starter Uncle Ben
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it is a great way to learn would only do it to one
manditroy
Active Member
UB -I've read the first 35 pages (so far) on your topping thread...sounds like you are the man to come to when you need good reliable info! Anyway, I will be starting my very first grow any day now - waiting for seeds to arrive and preparing my grow closet. I've ordered autoflowering Short Riders from Nirvana, and since I know very little about growing (just what I've been able to learn in many hours of the past ten days of nightly reading), I was hoping for your opinion on topping for 4 colas on these autoflowering plants. From what I've read, if they react as intended, they will start to flower when they choose to, independent of a 12/12 light schedule. This makes me question if topping is a good idea, since I may not get the growth back in the weeks after if it decides to move to the flowering stage. I know that keeping a longer day would keep the vegetative stage going in regular plants, so I could grow to my desired height before encouraging the flowering - but do you know much about what to expect from my Short Rider hybrid if it wants to flower before the topped part has time to regrow? Could I stop it with a 24 hour light schedule, or would I just be SOOL? And while I'm bugging you, do I need to add peat/compost to my MG potting mix, although it claims to be formulated to feed for up to 6 months (and has many of the things I've read listed in soil mix recipes)? Thanks for your time and any help you can give me. I've been slapping that rep button for you as much as it will let me. 
weedstock2010
Member
why not just tie your plant down I've never done it before but ive seen pictures and can you not get 2-4 main colas on every main branch you tie down? that sounds like alot more main colas
Uncle Ben
Well-Known Member
You treat an auto-flowering plant the same way as a regular one. Just because a plant is in a flowering mode doesn't mean it doesn't produce foliage and other plant material. I've done outdoor auto-flowering from seeds, talking about flowering in April when it should be August, and the plant ended up about 5' tall with 4 main colas with a wheelbarrow full of colas/branches. Just a little advice, if you haven't grown anything before you're at a huge disadvantage compared to someone who has grown plants for some time. Give and treat your plants the same way you would a tomato plant and you'll do fine. Learn to read them.
If there is something in peat/compost that you think is lacking in your commercial mix then add some - won't hurt unless the compost is "hot" regarding salts content.
Good luck,
UB
If there is something in peat/compost that you think is lacking in your commercial mix then add some - won't hurt unless the compost is "hot" regarding salts content.
Good luck,
UB
genuity
Well-Known Member
hope so!!cause its on its 7th node,and is still puttin them out.
Oldgrowth
Well-Known Member
On topping your plants…..I used this method 30 years ago!
A brief history. I started with clones and was placing over a hundred clones under a 1000 watt hps and flowering immediately. I would get one bud per plant. And yield just over a pound a light every 7 1/2-8 weeks. As you can imagine 100’s of clones were a lot of work!
Next I took clones (remember they were under fluorescents for 8 weeks, 2 weeks to root and 6 weeks to get started. I was growing a very indica skunky strain, very short intranodal distance. This strain if left to it self would grow side branches as tall and sometimes taller than the main stalk.
I would transplant these to 5 gallon pots and grow then under a 1000 watt hps for 1 ½- 2 weeks at 16/8 hours a day.
I waited till they had 6 strong branches growing not counting bottom two. They would be 7-10 inches tall at this point. I would one cutting off the main stem and 2 more from the top 2 branches. This gave me 3 cuttings per plant and with a 60-80% survival rate on my clones I always had plenty for the next crop.
This gave me 4 main branches on each plant. 9 plants under each light, I was running 4 1000 watt hps. Each covered a 5’ x 5’ area. I use homemade reflectors made of a 5 foot square pvc pipe frame wired to a stainless steel bowl that my socket was mounted in . Then these were covered in mylar and looked like a pyramid. I covered the walls with mylar too. At 3 weeks into budding no light would hit the grow room floor and the leaves were huge!
This strain flowers quickly and I would pinch smaller buds that were separate on the bottom of each branch till I was satisfied each branch would grow one solid bud. I realized early that the most potent smoke came from buds in the top layer of light. I would have a very even layer of plants that would completely fill the space. All the buds would be in the best light! Once again I would yield a bit over a pound per light! A lot less work than 100’s of clones but same yield at the expense of 2 more weeks in the cycle. Bud quality was greatly improved with ½ ounce rock hard buds common.
I ran a free standing room heater converted to propane that was very clean burning for co2 generation. This room was 15 x 15. I rigged the heater to a thermostat and would run till the temp hit 83 degrees and then would shut off and an exhaust blower would cool the room to 74 degrees and the heater would fire up and run the cycle again. Ran heater only when lights were on. I ran lights at night to keep overheating to a min. I had several oscillating fans that would shake the plants and had very sturdy branches that required no support. The main stem at harvest would be ¾ of an inch around on these 2 foot plants. No co2 monitor I just ran it this way.
I used peters 15-15-15 nutrient exclusively and discontinued fert 3 weeks from finish and just gave plain water. Wish I had known of bloom boosters then! I used this at ¼ the recommended dose for indoor plants on the package. I watered every 3 days and every 4th was plain water.
So now every 9 weeks I harvested 4 ½ pounds of stinky, sticky, covered in resin hard buds of skunk weed.
Ive been reading in Uncle Bens posts. I think he does an great job explaining the topping method. I did this to keep the buds in the best light and save myself a ton of work. I believe a plant will yield more left untopped but indoors there will be a lot of less potent buds in the mix. Outdoor my belief is left untouched will provide the highest yield.
So there is my tale of my indoor grow from 30 years ago.
By the way things were a lot different back then. At harvest I would pack those pounds in seal a meal and wipe them down with alcohol and then bag them again in seal a meal and wipe down again with alcohol and clean my hands between each stage too. I put all this in a samsonite hard locking suitcase and fly to California and hand the case to a friend and a day or two later he would hand me cash and back home on the plane. Never had a problem and I flew every 9 weeks for 3 years!
There that’s my first post hope you enjoy it!
A brief history. I started with clones and was placing over a hundred clones under a 1000 watt hps and flowering immediately. I would get one bud per plant. And yield just over a pound a light every 7 1/2-8 weeks. As you can imagine 100’s of clones were a lot of work!
Next I took clones (remember they were under fluorescents for 8 weeks, 2 weeks to root and 6 weeks to get started. I was growing a very indica skunky strain, very short intranodal distance. This strain if left to it self would grow side branches as tall and sometimes taller than the main stalk.
I would transplant these to 5 gallon pots and grow then under a 1000 watt hps for 1 ½- 2 weeks at 16/8 hours a day.
I waited till they had 6 strong branches growing not counting bottom two. They would be 7-10 inches tall at this point. I would one cutting off the main stem and 2 more from the top 2 branches. This gave me 3 cuttings per plant and with a 60-80% survival rate on my clones I always had plenty for the next crop.
This gave me 4 main branches on each plant. 9 plants under each light, I was running 4 1000 watt hps. Each covered a 5’ x 5’ area. I use homemade reflectors made of a 5 foot square pvc pipe frame wired to a stainless steel bowl that my socket was mounted in . Then these were covered in mylar and looked like a pyramid. I covered the walls with mylar too. At 3 weeks into budding no light would hit the grow room floor and the leaves were huge!
This strain flowers quickly and I would pinch smaller buds that were separate on the bottom of each branch till I was satisfied each branch would grow one solid bud. I realized early that the most potent smoke came from buds in the top layer of light. I would have a very even layer of plants that would completely fill the space. All the buds would be in the best light! Once again I would yield a bit over a pound per light! A lot less work than 100’s of clones but same yield at the expense of 2 more weeks in the cycle. Bud quality was greatly improved with ½ ounce rock hard buds common.
I ran a free standing room heater converted to propane that was very clean burning for co2 generation. This room was 15 x 15. I rigged the heater to a thermostat and would run till the temp hit 83 degrees and then would shut off and an exhaust blower would cool the room to 74 degrees and the heater would fire up and run the cycle again. Ran heater only when lights were on. I ran lights at night to keep overheating to a min. I had several oscillating fans that would shake the plants and had very sturdy branches that required no support. The main stem at harvest would be ¾ of an inch around on these 2 foot plants. No co2 monitor I just ran it this way.
I used peters 15-15-15 nutrient exclusively and discontinued fert 3 weeks from finish and just gave plain water. Wish I had known of bloom boosters then! I used this at ¼ the recommended dose for indoor plants on the package. I watered every 3 days and every 4th was plain water.
So now every 9 weeks I harvested 4 ½ pounds of stinky, sticky, covered in resin hard buds of skunk weed.
Ive been reading in Uncle Bens posts. I think he does an great job explaining the topping method. I did this to keep the buds in the best light and save myself a ton of work. I believe a plant will yield more left untopped but indoors there will be a lot of less potent buds in the mix. Outdoor my belief is left untouched will provide the highest yield.
So there is my tale of my indoor grow from 30 years ago.
By the way things were a lot different back then. At harvest I would pack those pounds in seal a meal and wipe them down with alcohol and then bag them again in seal a meal and wipe down again with alcohol and clean my hands between each stage too. I put all this in a samsonite hard locking suitcase and fly to California and hand the case to a friend and a day or two later he would hand me cash and back home on the plane. Never had a problem and I flew every 9 weeks for 3 years!
There that’s my first post hope you enjoy it!
Uncle Ben
Well-Known Member
Smoke it! I'd top/grow it as usual. Guess you could always root the cuttings.hey UB!!i have this tripod plant,or what ever you want to call it.
i was just wondering what you would do with it??
It was a cross I made of Sensi Skunk and Positronics Jack Herer but the C99 backcross I'm growing now did the same thing, flowered long before it should. Guess there is more rudy genes floating around than I thought.
Oldgrowth, sounds like fun and a great source for tax free income, yowzer! Welcome to the thread.
UB
Danielsgb
Well-Known Member
I top my clones every time now. Clone like normal. They need to get a root system going. If you wait for the clone to get 5 or 6 nodes, then top you should be OK. The perfect 4 main colas doesn't always work, but clones have alternating nodes a lot. For me anyway, they do. Once I thought of it like pruning apple trees or Bonsai it made more sense. Hope that helps till Dave or UB (or RM3) get to it.
Daniels
Great story OldGrowth I think you have a lot to teach us. thx
Danielsgb
Well-Known Member
I really think you should start at the beginning and read 20 to 30 pages Googleing terms you don't know. I'm not trying to be a dick, really. This question is asked even a ways back. I think, I answered it before too . Why did I say wait for 5 or 6 nodes?
Daniels
9867mike777
Well-Known Member
If your plant is bigger, you might want to FIMmng the top leaves instead of topping. There is a sticky in this group that describes how to do this.
rastakolnikov
Well-Known Member
Then why bother posting?
lefreq
Active Member
hey UB
Using this method how tall would you let them get inchewise before you flower? I dont really have to worry bout headroom too much but big buddha rekons they max out at 120cm which is roughly 47 inches so what do you think let them go till about 20inches ???????? There about 12 inch at the mo all with 4 nice strong colas def rating this method so far i am nearlly conerted hahaha so big kiss for ya anyway UB X
Using this method how tall would you let them get inchewise before you flower? I dont really have to worry bout headroom too much but big buddha rekons they max out at 120cm which is roughly 47 inches so what do you think let them go till about 20inches ???????? There about 12 inch at the mo all with 4 nice strong colas def rating this method so far i am nearlly conerted hahaha so big kiss for ya anyway UB X
GIFTEDGARDNER
Member
I made the mistake of topping after the 5th or 6th node, but not cutting above the second. i cut right at 5 or 6. then as soon as I got new growth I fimmed them. on most i am getting 3 main stems. Some 2 stems and some even have 4 or 5. I threw them into flowering 2 days ago so hopefully they will all turn into big fat ass colas..
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