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

I still believe that unless there are issues about plant count maximums to consider, there's simply now way to get larger and more potent yields faster with less duffy buds per sq. meter than SOG. Much time is lost when plants are topped at all, being it takes a week or more for them to recover speedy growth while hormones switch focus to secondary branches. The main top cola is always the most potent and heaviest yielder. So it's almost a no-brainer to figure out mass quantities of these single stalk spears crowded relatively close like branches in a SOG is the only way to fly to get a more consistent highly potent yield in the quickest time frame possible.

I agree, thats why when you go on youtube, alot of the most impressive grows. ones that are done for big money in big rooms by guys that clearly have alot of experience, you mostly see SOG method. Its quick its simple and it works, and if your doing something on a bigger scale, keeping it simple is a huge benefit. If you were to do a scrog on a large scale the amount of time you would have to spend with all those plants would make it inefficient. But this thread/forum is geared more towards small growers who want to play around with their plant and often have limits on their number of plants.

What Im doing with my plants is likely to be something I wont do very often because as I get myself more setup Im thinking I will be able to do a SOG. But to start off I have no mother, only 10 seedlngs so my first grow will be with larger plants, and when they are finished I will have a mother to do SOG for future grows.

Jar Man said:

I still believe that unless there are issues about plant count maximums to consider, there's simply now way to get larger and more potent yields faster with less duffy buds per sq. meter than SOG. Much time is lost when plants are topped at all, being it takes a week or more for them to recover speedy growth while hormones switch focus to secondary branches. The main top cola is always the most potent and heaviest yielder. So it's almost a no-brainer to figure out mass quantities of these single stalk spears crowded relatively close like branches in a SOG is the only way to fly to get a more consistent highly potent yield in the quickest time frame possible.

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True, most on here have plant count concerns. But if you really think about it, otherwise smaller scale growers would find it even more advantageous to try and get as much as possible out of as small a space as possible, as quickly as possible. The smaller, the more the idea becomes significant. I started out in the mid '90's running a perpetual micro-grow out of converted bedroom furniture. A tall narrow free standing closet piece was for mamma, a small roughwood nondescript cab. at the foot of the bed was for clones, and 2 modified chest of drawers with false drawer fronts mounted to a full face piece of finish plywood stained to match were the 150 w HPS rotating bloom units. 6 SOG clones popped off 7-8 oz. every month just before each full moon. Several small ion generators and a large Honeywell unit kept odors in check. And though many friends came over to score a sack from time to time, none were the wiser.

After all these years, I made the same mistake you did about a year ago when I knew better after starting off some NL#5 and Hindu Kush from seed. Forgot to label which plants were which with clones of each female in the batch. So had to regroup with another set of clones like you did. "D-OH!"

Jar Man said:

After all these years, I made the same mistake you did about a year ago when I knew better after starting off some NL#5 and Hindu Kush from seed. Forgot to label which plants were which with clones of each female in the batch. So had to regroup with another set of clones like you did. "D-OH!"

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Yea thanksfully it was already in the plan to do a second cloning. I like what ive got going, It means Ill still have the mother of the best of the 10 plants when harvest comes, and then throw away the other 9 mothers and Ive got myself a good plant to work from to start up a SOG. Thankfully I have a bit more space and I dont have to do such stealth techniques... but no one is ever allowed in the basement...

Sub'd

Im having some unexpected results from my topping. What I had hoped was to get 4 equal sized colas on my plant for an even canopy. I topped above the second node, leaving 4 shoots on the plants. The top two shoots coming from the second node have taken off with alot of growth but the bottom two are lagging and I don't expect I will be getting the even canopy with 4 colas I had been expecting. Heres so pictures of the plants to show how they are growing. I guess I can trim off the bottom shoots since they wont amount to much judging by how little they are staying, and then I can top the bigger shoots above the first node to get my 4 colas. Is there any harm in repeatedly cutting so much material off my plants? Could I over stress them if I do this again too soon? Does anyone have a suggestion as to why Im not getting the 4 colas despite following Uncle Ben's method?

it looks like you went one node too low and topped for 2 colas to me.those bottom branches look like they were forced out after the topping.#2 is about the cut,to me it looks like you got a bit too close to the node you cut above.next time just give it a 1/4" more stub.you'll be surprised how fast those lower branches take off and try to catch up and you might still get your 4 main colas.i would let em go a week or 2 and top again somewhere on the upper branches to get6 or 8 colas but i like em short n fat great pics by the way and the plants look good.

Thedillestpickle said:

Im having some unexpected results from my topping. What I had hoped was to get 4 equal sized colas on my plant for an even canopy. I topped above the second node, leaving 4 shoots on the plants. The top two shoots coming from the second node have taken off with alot of growth but the bottom two are lagging and I don't expect I will be getting the even canopy with 4 colas I had been expecting. Heres so pictures of the plants to show how they are growing. I guess I can trim off the bottom shoots since they wont amount to much judging by how little they are staying, and then I can top the bigger shoots above the first node to get my 4 colas. Is there any harm in repeatedly cutting so much material off my plants? Could I over stress them if I do this again too soon? Does anyone have a suggestion as to why Im not getting the 4 colas despite following Uncle Ben's method?

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Recommend you grow the plant out before passing judgement.

Ill let them grow out some more, they are older now than in those pictures and the effect is more pronounced but ill see what happends.

It looks like you did it right to me pickle

I am growing 5 hashplants 1 jack33 & 1 critical33.I read on another thread that this topping method didn't work very well with indicas so i topped 1 hp & the jack & critical for 4 colas.I'm day 8 12/12 and UBs method worked great on all the plants.I don't think you can get much more indica than hashplant so the post about not working on indicas is total bullshit!
I find about 80% of the stuff i read on forums needs to be taken with a grain of salt and researched.
Thanks U.B., you da man!!!

That's a new one for me too beans.. mine are indicas and they're doing just fine. You're right about a lot of the things you see on the forums..finding out for yourself is never a bad thing, then you'll know.

beans davis said:

I don't think you can get much more indica than hashplant so the post about not working on indicas is total bullshit!
I find about 80% of the stuff i read on forums needs to be taken with a grain of salt and researched.

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All of these techniques have existed in horticulture for decades; you can start with stem girdling and decapitation and that will pretty much cover every FIM/UB/SUPERCROP variation that people are rediscovering on the internet. If somebody claims that a method doesn't work on a certain strain it will more than likely be a result of operator error...

Hello Uncle Ben I have a simple questions for you. With this technique being used can I expect the same amount of stretch from the plant? would a 4 cola plant put in flower end up the same height as a 1 cola plant if they were both the same height before 12/12?
I'm guessing the 4 cola plant will stretch less as its energy is divided between 4 tops, but I'm sure you have first hand experience with this.

Thank you

4,000+ posts on a simple topping technique.
KISS. It really isn't that difficult.

Thedillestpickle said:

Hello Uncle Ben I have a simple questions for you. With this technique being used can I expect the same amount of stretch from the plant? would a 4 cola plant put in flower end up the same height as a 1 cola plant if they were both the same height before 12/12?
I'm guessing the 4 cola plant will stretch less as its energy is divided between 4 tops, but I'm sure you have first hand experience with this.

Thank you

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Botanically speaking, you should have a shorter more bushy plant. How much is debatable as I've never run a control group.

tomat0 said:

4,000+ posts on a simple topping technique.
KISS. It really isn't that difficult.

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I don't know about you, but I didn't read through 4000 posts, and I don't think most folks will. Yeah if you read through the first few pages it should be clear, but not everyone is like that..no disrespect meant. Some people think they have different situations or whatever, new members, new growers being unsure. I guess I just cut people some slack, it's not always that tough to answer a question. Maybe I'm part of the problem?

Warped1 said:

I don't know about you, but I didn't read through 4000 posts, and I don't think most folks will. Yeah if you read through the first few pages it should be clear, but not everyone is like that..no disrespect meant. Some people think they have different situations or whatever, new members, new growers being unsure. I guess I just cut people some slack, it's not always that tough to answer a question. Maybe I'm part of the problem?

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No offense intended or taken. I'm just saying UB's post is pretty straightforward.

No worries tomat0 you didn't upset anyone I don't think. I agree the info is all there in the first couple of pages, but for some people here English is a second or even third language. Happy growing.