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

desertdog said:

Is there any way to get the pics back up for the beginning of this thread on top of this page? If not I can figure it out I just like to see what you're doing.

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6th node developing
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_5th node
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_4th node
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_3rd node
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_2nd node - cut between 2nd and 3rd for 4 mains
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_first set of true leaves - cut between 1st and 2nd for those 2 side branches to become the new mains
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_cotyledons - first leaves to pop up
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sorry for the poor "ASCII" art or however it's spelled

instead of shooting most auxins straight up to the top - giving one main cola - apical dominance - Christmas tree like shape - the \|/ sides grow fat colas like the one in the middle would

My best yields come from this method
good luck

for some reason I am not getting the pics. I wonder if I have setting that needs to be changed. I can see everyone elses pics. please help if u can

i tried to top my plant for 7 colas exactly but ended up getting my dick caught in the ceiling fan. what did i do wrong?

Just wanted to let you know I found some pics of what it should look like. I was pretty sure I knew what to do, but the pics gave me the confidence to do the chop. I have never tried this but the result is exactly what I need for my space so I can fit six and not get a bunch stuff that takes all day to trim. Thanks again and I will be posting my results along with some of my monster clones. I clone buds and man they just explode with tops. I am going to run one of each of the same strain to see the output differences. If the weight is even close this is what I want. Less work, bigger bud and more smiles. Thanks

Uncle Ben said:

Ya'll are welcome. Like I said, the LOR needs updating. It's been years.

Funny how the old man really did know what he was doing, eh?

I'm not. I haven't brewed beer in at least 8 years and probably won't again. I now have a chance to make some high quality wine out of high quality vinifera wine grapes from what I'm growing and vineyards in my area.

Well, we're getting off topic, but if you want a really smooth, almost sweet rum that has a hint of vanilla, try Matsulem, it's Cuban. It isn't flavored, it's just a rich, well made rum. http://www.matusalem.com/

You did. I had a pinned stickie with over 100,000 views.

That'll work, go for it!



You can't. Nodes must be opposing for the double output thingie. If your nodes are alternating, you won't get the effect as the top node (leafset) will be at a point on the plant that has the greatest collection of auxins, the newest, highest tissue. Auxins control a plant's growing dynamics. When you pinch out the tip of a plant that is in a veg stage (has opposing nodes/leafsets) then basically the plant splits the auxins and sends them to the 2 dormant buds located at the axis of where the leaf petiole attaches to the "trunk". Viola, you get simultaneous output, two new leafsets as shown on page one of this thread.

Good luck,
UB

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So if you have a clone with alternating nodes it wont work? This is for seed only plants? Well that would be a bummer! all of my clones have alternating nodes. Is there a way to make it happen? When I cut two of my clones down at the third node I got several new tops, I think 6 so far and I am keeping them at that and not letting them grow any more. I am trying to do a six top with them and see what they do.

SpaaaceCowboy said:

I have an outdoor plant I topped using the UB technique...It was full and bushy indoors...Waited till the 6th node or so....Cut above the second...Now there is nothing in the middle of the plant...It was full, and lush with tight nodes...now the 4 main stems are thin and weak, and nodes are way spaced out.....Granted the outdoor plants are not getting as much sun as I wanted them too but I should just have let the pant gone without topping...I believe it would have been a way better plant...I am also going to have to put stakes to hold her up...Oh well.

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Yep. All-in-all I think the plants are better if you just plain don't mess with them. All this voodoo with hacking on them for a specific response is hit-or-miss. Some plants will respond real nice to that method, and others not so much. I think you can even break that down to pheno-type as well.


After trying this I fully believe what I've always said to myself when thinking of doing such things; "is that how the plant grows in nature"? If the answer is no then it's not the approach I'm taking.

chiefbootknocker said:

Yep. All-in-all I think the plants are better if you just plain don't mess with them. All this voodoo with hacking on them for a specific response is hit-or-miss. Some plants will respond real nice to that method, and others not so much. I think you can even break that down to pheno-type as well.


After trying this I fully believe what I've always said to myself when thinking of doing such things; "is that how the plant grows in nature"? If the answer is no then it's not the approach I'm taking.

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With experience you'll change your mind. If you understand plant processes you can manipulate/train/prune to your advantage. How do you think vineyard and orchard managers become successful? You CAN NOT have a decent grape crop without understanding and practicing severe pruning techniques....while they're dormant.

My method is easy and foolproof. Here's some pix, first one is from my vineyard:

chiefbootknocker said:

Yep. All-in-all I think the plants are better if you just plain don't mess with them. All this voodoo with hacking on them for a specific response is hit-or-miss. Some plants will respond real nice to that method, and others not so much. I think you can even break that down to pheno-type as well.


After trying this I fully believe what I've always said to myself when thinking of doing such things; "is that how the plant grows in nature"? If the answer is no then it's not the approach I'm taking.

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You have a valid good point but we're trying to get the most from the beautiful plants so this pruning method works in helping up the yield. Yes letting them grow naturally will produce a lovely plant and can yield a lot but most of us are growing indoors and have height restrictions so something must be done to slow the vertical growth and this is by far the best method to do it

Mine grow naturally outdoors. One of mine this year had a branch fall on it and it was essentially topped for 5 mains. This does happen naturally, all the time... The difference is intent, IMO

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Rollitup mobile app

Uncle Ben said:

With experience you'll change your mind. If you understand plant processes you can manipulate/train/prune to your advantage. How do you think vineyard and orchard managers become successful? You CAN NOT have a decent grape crop without understanding and practicing severe pruning techniques....while they're dormant.

My method is easy and foolproof. Here's some pix, first one is from my vineyard:
View attachment 3251271 View attachment 3251272 View attachment 3251273 View attachment 3251274 View attachment 3251275 View attachment 3251276

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LOL I had to check what website I was on for a second. Nice grapes, but I wasn't growing grapes. Maybe that topping method works with grapes (I'll never know because I don't grow them) but not so much with weed....in my experience.

akhiymjames said:

You have a valid good point but we're trying to get the most from the beautiful plants so this pruning method works in helping up the yield. Yes letting them grow naturally will produce a lovely plant and can yield a lot but most of us are growing indoors and have height restrictions so something must be done to slow the vertical growth and this is by far the best method to do it

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I dig what you are saying. In my case I saw no increase in yield, and had a plant that required more attention than I normally would need to give.

Yield in general is debatable I think. A plant grown naturally yields X and a topped plant yields Y. You can't have it both ways so how can anyone be sure that it yields more? There is no way to prove that. I will give you the height control benefit. I can see that, and I think that is the primary reason to choose this method.

chiefbootknocker said:

LOL I had to check what website I was on for a second. Nice grapes, but I wasn't growing grapes. Maybe that topping method works with grapes (I'll never know because I don't grow them) but not so much with weed....in my experience.

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I was addressing your off the wall comment about leaving plants natural....trying to make a point which included my precious time of digging up photos of the topping process.

Don't know about your life but my focus is mostly on other plant material. Cannabis is at the bottom of the list at this point in my life. Been there, done that kinda of thing and am moving on to much more challenging hobbies.

Uncle Ben said:

The GrowBig and Tiger Bloom sound like good choices, respectively.

I calibrate before each new test.....just the neurotic bozo in me.



At your service.

Great, glad I was of help. Yeah, I remember well, nice to see ya. You'd be surprised how many of those posts I archived. Got too damn tired of repeating myself.

Yeah, I saw that. Let's put it this way regarding germinating a seed, Bounty and I don't get along.

You think that's bad, you don't know how many lowlife's have stole my dittys over the years, stripped the credits trying to pass it off as their own, even here. Check a few out, they're a hoot. I got so pissed at one site they banned me, hah!

http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/215941-never-ending-abuse-phosphorous-enhance-flowering.html

"Pot God" my ass. Guess that guy never read the Ten Commandments - "thou shall not steal." Lifting text is bad enough, but I've also caught a few stealing my photos. Oh well, such is the internet, and such are some people's character.

Senior mod here did good by me on this one:
https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/9114-spin-out-chemical-root-pruning.html

If you only knew how many times that got me censored (banned). Oh well......got mah principles ya know.

Good. Ya keep them leaves in a healthy condition as long as you can. cya!



I wouldn't bother. But, if you must, try topping a few to see what happens so you get a feel for it. Since I mainly grow sativas and they tend to get pretty leggie, I "developed" this to combat the stretch.

It's a yield issue. You don't have much foliage to get the yield you probably seek. Without healthy foliage and alot of it, ya won't get much yield.

"Recovery" is not the issue, foliage production is.

That seed staring at you from the bottom of the bag (floor in your case) may just be the next Haze.

UB

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Hey UB think you for all the informative info you having giving. I'm just wondering if you don't flush does that show in the taste of your buds? I myself have never grown but I read all the time that you should flush your cannabis to get the nutrients out of it??? Just a little insight needed

Uncle Ben said:

I was addressing your off the wall comment about leaving plants natural....trying to make a point which included my precious time of digging up photos of the topping process.

Don't know about your life but my focus is mostly on other plant material. Cannabis is at the bottom of the list at this point in my life. Been there, done that kinda of thing and am moving on to much more challenging hobbies.

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OK. First, I know your rep....you are very combative to people who don't subscribe to your ideas.

Well, before we get way off the mark.... That first bold set of text; are you serious? If so that sounds a little arrogant. Who are you?

Second: I agree, cannabis is at my very bottom of my list in my life too. I grew back in '08 - '10, and left it until this year and did one last grow, and now I'm done again. It's just a weed. No need to put all this focus on it. Hell I even drop leaves.....a pet peeve of yours...yes, I know you, but how much bud did I really loose from dropping leaves? You tell me as a "botanist"? Don't worry I already know the answer. I even used 6yo nutrients to grow most recently that's how much I care about how the plants do. I still pulled 1.81lb from a 4x4 on 1k hps. That's probably Greek to you since you don't grow. Can people grow bigger in the same area? Probably, but I don't care. I've got more pot than I can shake a stick at so fuck it, and I also didn't stress over a weed. I wasn't on here having stoners diagnose my leaves, and what not.

Do you ever think you perpetuate paranoia by telling people to make sure that the leaves a green to the end of the grow....i.e "keep it green"? Really? "Keep it Green"? Who gives a wet fart?

Since I can't retire for another 22yrs my hobby is networking i.e. routing and switching security and WiFi. Farming is a little too soon for me so I just hit the local farm market if I need grapes.lol


Listen: all-in-all I think you have good ideas, you are certainly old school (have seen you out on the net for years), and are generally smart. Your only downfall is that you are a republican..... that is not a downfall because you are a republican, but because you actually choose a party that does not care about you. With that said I'm not saying the Dem party is different. It's the same thing. They BOTH are full of shit. They play all of you.

please update the pics on the first page if you could.. they are definitely down.
Can anyone confirm the 2 cola method can be done by cutting above the 4th node instead of pinching above the first or resulting in 4 colas cutting above the 2nd node? (This was mentioned on the first page)
thanks ben.

Soulkipper said:

please update the pics on the first page if you could.. they are definitely down.
Can anyone confirm the 2 cola method can be done by cutting above the 4th node instead of pinching above the first or resulting in 4 colas cutting above the 2nd node? (This was mentioned on the first page)
thanks ben.

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What?! the 2 cola method can be created by topping at any time in veg or early flower, best to top just above the 2nd none to get 4 colas. WTF is "pinching above the first"?!

So am I tight in thinking . You just cut above the 3rd node to leave 4 colas and then veg untill you fill your space . Is there nothing else to do like cutting lover branches as you 4 tops get taller ? Just seems a really simple method . Or am I being stupid

Uncle Ben said:

I was addressing your off the wall comment about leaving plants natural....trying to make a point which included my precious time of digging up photos of the topping process.

Don't know about your life but my focus is mostly on other plant material. Cannabis is at the bottom of the list at this point in my life. Been there, done that kinda of thing and am moving on to much more challenging hobbies.

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I don't give two shits about arguing a fracking thing. That said I appreciate your posts and I was wondering if you ever tried this method on a clone with alternating nodes, because that is what I did and I like how it looks. It might not be perfect but the the strain is Kaya Gold as I am told and I would very much like to keep this going. I am not botanist, but l am scholar of hard nocks and I enjoy learning so waste your time on me I will be happy to be checked or told i am progressing. I do all kinds of shit to my tomatoes and peppers just to see what happens I love growing anything and now I am going all in on Organic, or as much as l can.

budman111 said:

What?! the 2 cola method can be created by topping at any time in veg or early flower, best to top just above the 2nd none to get 4 colas. WTF is "pinching above the first"?!

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did you just cry?
pretty sure that was someone crying.
there was 0 relevance to the question in that answer..

MuckyDucky said:

Uncle Ben, You have said that thinnng the large fan leaves will only hurt your total harvest. I topped 3 plants in a 2x4' area and they are filling up the tent. They are already 30" tall, have only been flowering for 7 days and look like below. Is this too thick? Would thinning be beneficial if you have a very thick canopy?
View attachment 3232615

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Thanks UB! After topping my 3 plants to 4 colas I took your advice and did not do any thinning. Here they are in day 35 of flower and the colas on the left are over 4.5 feet tall. They are covered in buds and still have 30 days or so to go!