!First Grow!

Still lookin kind of sad on that top leaf. Curled up and a little yellow. I backed the light off a little put them on a 18/6 cycle and just gave them 1/2 gallon each with half strength nutes of recipe for success from tech. Got good runoff prob a little more than i should of but i dont think that will harm the plants will it? Other than that all looks good. I love seeing those plants grow little by little everyday.

So my sage kush is lookin a little better then my pier sativa. Ive been reading alot on topping plants and how it gives you more colas. Im brand new to this, should i be topping my plants? If so when should i do it?

topping is good to do i like to do it gradually and cut one top here and wait a while than top those tops and top those tops. lol and repeat until ur done veg. and decided to put into flower. i would wait a week before you do since your plants are little young. and i wait between tops a decent amount of time until your 2 new tops form and get a little established than top them so you dont stress your plant out to much.

HP

So you snip it in half plant the top like my clones were in rockwool and where you made the cut two branches grow?

yes, if in veg you cut the top node off, you will get multiply colas. It's great for indoor and small grows, I do it to all my plants. Look up cloning and don't be afraid to take the top as a clone for your next grow, thats what I do!

looks good man

Theres different way to top your plants, it depends how many colas you want. 2 4 8 16? I think 4 is the perfect number. I topped my plants above the second node when they were about 8 inches tall and had 6 nodes. I cut the top 4 nodes off leaving 2 nodes on the plant, which grew out into 4 branches. The bottom two branches grew really slowly so I removed them, and let the upper 2 branches become large. When they were the same size as the original plant(8 inches and 6 nodes) I chopped them down to 1 node each, leaving me with a total of 4 perfectly level shoots to become colas. Its good to do 2 round of topping because you end up with 4 almost perfectly level colas doing this. I think you should accomodate a 4 cola plant with at least double the growing medium and it will also take up 4 times more space than a 1 cola plant. Its probably a good idea to use some type of training technique to keep the 4 tops from growing up too close to each other and crowding each other. for this I used skewers and masking tape to push each top apart from the other

Should I wait for my plants to mature before I top them

colerbear said:

Should I wait for my plants to mature before I top them

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You should wait until your plants have begun to grow vigorously. Right now they are still in a slow growth phase that takes a while for the cutting to grow out more roots to support fast growth. At each node where a leaf grows from there will be a small branch that slowly grows from that node and eventually becomes larger. Wait until the branches below the node you will cut above are begining to form. I would wait until the branches growing from the node you intend to cut above have 2 node developed on them, otherwise there will be nowhere for the plant to direct its growth after you remove the growing top

There is a good thread here called Uncle Ben's topping technique

Your results will be slightly different because your growing from a clone and not a seedling. Young marijuana plants have two leaves that grow from each node accompanied by 2 shoots that grow out from that node after the leaves have formed. As the plant matures the nodes only have 1 leaf and 1 shoot. Your clone is from a more mature plant which just means that your nodes develope 1 leaf/branch at a time instead of two. But the same principals apply either way. Check out that thread

For a first time grower, here is your simple answer, wait until your main stalk has 6-8 nodes, then cut the top 1-2 nodes to top it, after that, wait for it to recover for 2 weeks, then do the same thing, then give it 1-2 weeks to recover, then flower it. Sure I can give you tips and details and how to and what not, you cant find 1000 different ways and methods and all that on here, and if u want some tips look it up here. Many fantastic growers have tons of awesome advice on here. But this is the short answer. Just Do it!

I was going to try and describe it but sounds like couragetogrow gave a good brief tech.

Well it sounds like ill wait. Good info on clone vs seed I had no idea there was a diff. I'll post some pics when I think I'm ready.

colerbear said:

Well it sounds like ill wait. Good info on clone vs seed I had no idea there was a diff. I'll post some pics when I think I'm ready.

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Sounds good man, and if you have any questions, even after looking at all the info on this site, just ask, myself or the hundreds of other growers on here are always willing to help, but typing out the whole process when its been written 100 times seems pointless lol. And a tip! I take my tops as clones and you can make a homemade cloner for like $15.

Homemade cloner? What's that? Am

You take a plastic bin and drill holes in the top. Fill with water and an airstone. Then use the little baskets at the hydro store. I cut the bottoms off and place the clones in neoprene collars. Once you take the tops, you throw some cloning gel on them and stick them in that thing and in about 2 weeks you'll have a plant with a little root sticking out that you can stick in soil and put in veg. I'm sure there are other ways people make cloners if you look it up on here, but this method works for me.