Uncle Ben's Topping Technique to Get 2 or 4 Main Colas

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overmyhead

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I did read (almost every post) but couldnt seem to find an answer to that particular question. Sorry if I missed something and I wish I would've read this thread sooner. Thanks again.
 
merahoon

merahoon

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I took a few pics of two of my plants that I topped at the second node. I trained the sativas branches outward somewhat so the inside axils (I belive thats what their called..) could get light and grow as well too. Check em' out. Oh I also threw in a pic of my dog scout chewing on the part I topped lol.





 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

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merahoon, looks like you've got it. Just a thought, plan to stake pretty soon. The weight of the colas as they flower is usually enough to pull them outwards, especially with sativas. Looks like you got a hip dog....gives new meaning to "dog bone".

overmyhead, it's all on page 1 and 2. Once you FIM such that you have multiple branches, the hormones that govern apical dominance are all screwed up. You'll not get 4 main colas, just a bunch of stuff.

Good luck fellers,
Ben
 
monkz

monkz

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yo dude your thread is amazing...
my plants are 5weeks old, i wana top them to get 4 colas so do i cut above the 2nd true node to do this? and my first true node has started to dry up so do i do it on what is now the 3rd true node and what WILL be the 2nd true node soon enough?

thanx
 
M Blaze

M Blaze

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Uncle Ben said:
Yep, whole different ball game. Guess it's time to define "cola". A cola is made up of ONE chunky stem aka "trunk" from which secondary lateral branching occurs. Flowers arise from the axils of these branches or where the leaf petiole attaches to a stem. IOW, a cola is a collection of buds from one main branch or "trunk", see the photos on the first page. Topping "my way" produces more than one main cola, up to 4. Any more than that induced by the infamous (and unreliable) FIMMing or topping high on the plant or LST does NOT produce a main cola but rather a series of outputs from the points where the branches/petioles attach to a stem, in the axils.

UB
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Just a few questions for you about some of those comments:

How is FIMming unreliable?

How many 'Main Colas' would you say are on this FIMmed plant? (I know its a stupid question to ask because you cant tell from that pic :eyesmoke:)



These are those colas close up




Im not knocking your methods at all because I have also done this with great results, I am just curious as always :blsmoke:
 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

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M Blaze said:
Just a few questions for you about some of those comments:

How is FIMming unreliable?
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1. For starts, no one seems to be able to agree with the method. I'd like to know where you cut, at what point on the plant. AS depicted in a thread on Topping/FIMing, cutting thru some leaves and then attributing normal axial output to "the act" doesn't cut it with me (excuse the pun).

2. Some folks who FIM get no to very little output, some get up to 8 points of output if they slice thru a node. That's unreliable as opposed to my topping method which is pretty much 100% reliable.

Which brings me to the question which I used to ask over and over again at OG and CW, "where do the dormant buds lie that supposedly are activated? Did your procedure have a direct cause-n-effect on the plant's response?" It would be of great help to me to have a university study to look at as opposed to forum anecdotal evidence with no photos showing the actual plant response. I see a couple of images showing where one is supposed to cut have been removed.

FIMing
https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/13820-fimming-topping-101-a.html

Nice garden BTW.

UB
 
merahoon

merahoon

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Hey UB after cutting above the second node and creating the new 4 main branches... could you cut those branches in the same fashion resulting in 16 tops?
 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

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monkz said:
16 tops thats crazy, your yield would be insane wouldnt it UB?
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Not necessarily. It's all about The Balance, as in having sufficient roots to support top growth, light distribution, total amount of foliage, etc. The 16 "colas" will be quite small.
 
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born2killspam

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Uncle Ben said:
Not necessarily. It's all about The Balance, as in having sufficient roots to support top growth, light distribution, total amount of foliage, etc. The 16 "colas" will be quite small.
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I've seen plants grow secondary root systems from broken shoots on plants toppled in wet ground.. Essentially the end of the cut closest to the plants cloned, and the plants (happened to two) grew kind of arched/LST'ed.. It was very cool, and the grower figures he got a better yield than he would have without the early season mishaps.. I honestly don't know if the root systems even benefitted the plant, or whether they merely didn't hurt it..
Strawberries have an interesting natural cloning process thats kind of similar, but their crawlers break out new individual plants..
Regarding FIM, here you go UB.. You'll see it really is just topping, but pretty much the exact opposite school of opinion as you regarding how much to cut.. I've definately seen the best vigor come from plants grown way up, and cut way down as you direct.. M Blaze is just plan better than I ever was, and most ppl ever will be..:)
 
420weedman

420weedman

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im going to try topping right at the second node with some clones that i have to compare to what i have been doing with my bigger plants.

combination of fim/toping and then super cropping right before flowering ... and into flowering.

im curious what kind of results you had with fimming/topping and what kind of light your using ?

here is 2 recent ones i have going .... 4-6 weeks into flowering now
smaller one has about 16 or so tops and the large one close to 30

im using a 400w hps. im expecting around 2z for the smaller one and 4 on the larger one.
the first one i did had about 12 tops and yielded close to 4 oz dry, the link is in my sig if you want to check it out

anyway here are some pics and ill be back with more when i try your way ;)







big bush



 
Katatawnic

Katatawnic

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In a few days (a week tops) my plants will have grown the first 6 "true" nodes, and they'll be ready to pinch/snip.

The only stupid question is the one that isn't asked (within reason, of course! lol), so I'm posting this photo to verify that I'm correct as to where to pinch/snip.... I'd rather ask a question for which one may think the answer is obvious than to screw it up by not being thorough. :mrgreen:

(Sorry for the lack of clarity/constrast, but my digital camera is en route to its manufacturer to be replaced [Polaroid follows through w/warranties, YAY!] and my camcorder takes great videos but not-so-great stills. :roll: Add to that that I had to raise the large leaves in order to view the nodes, and without a flash there was too much shadow cast from my hand.)

Thanks in advance for any/all advice!
 
Katatawnic

Katatawnic

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420weedman said:
the first one i did had about 12 tops and yielded close to 4 oz dry
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How tall was the plant? (Mine will only grow to 24" or slightly less.)

Were the resulting the buds very small, average, or somewhere in between?

What was the quality of the buds? (I know that can be subjective, but I'm still curious. lol)
 
M Blaze

M Blaze

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Uncle Ben said:
1. For starts, no one seems to be able to agree with the method. I'd like to know where you cut, at what point on the plant. AS depicted in a thread on Topping/FIMing, cutting thru some leaves and then attributing normal axial output to "the act" doesn't cut it with me (excuse the pun).

2. Some folks who FIM get no to very little output, some get up to 8 points of output if they slice thru a node. That's unreliable as opposed to my topping method which is pretty much 100% reliable.



UB
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I know of many people who do agree with using the FIM method but thats why its called the 'Fuck I Missed' method. If you can do it right then the results are reliable depending on how you intend to grow it. As I said I have also Topped with this method you use and have had good results but I just like FIMming results better.

Next grow I will FIM one plant, Top one and let the other grow naturally and I will document the whole thing because it will be a very interesting thing to watch with how big I grow the plants. It wont be for about another 3 months because its too late for me to do it to my current grow but I will do it.
 
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