Should I top plants and when

I am currently growing 7 plants under a 150 w hps and a 100w cfl. I was wondering when a good time to top the plants would be. Id like then to be taller, but will toppng them increase the height effectively. I wouldnt even know where to begin in terms of toppng. Should i top and when should i?

Ive only topped once and its usually to have them grow short and bushy..but not sure if its the same technique ur talking about.

Well, id like the plants to grow higher. Will they grow taller at the rate theyre growing?
And i think your right, its not topping but idk what is called. I just want to know if i need to cut my plant somehow to increase yields.

You might be thinking of scrog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt9XNBuiQm4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyihaprhzD8

Why do you want tall plants? What lights are you using?

Im using a 150w hps and a 100w cfl

MeanGreenMachine3 said:

Im using a 150w hps and a 100w cfl

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You want to keep the plants short or else the light won't penetrate. With that light you will get more yield out of multiple short plants vs one large tall plant. I would flower when they are 12" and they will end up anywhere from 24"-36" depending on strain.

But some of the plants might be male and that clone is still trying to recover. Could I wait a week then flower? justr to make sure ive got more than 2 females?

MeanGreenMachine3 said:

But some of the plants might be male and that clone is still trying to recover. Could I wait a week then flower? justr to make sure ive got more than 2 females?

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You can wait. Put them all in flower at about 12-16" in height. In 1-3 weeks you'll start seeing the pre flowers. Female flowers are like little strings that come up between the nodes and are very white. If they look a little green or not quite like a pistil that's because you're looking at a stipule so keep an eye out for the white, wispy hairs. Male pre flowers can look like anywhere from a ball to a couple of balls and even wart like; all male pre flowers end up looking like a ball on a stick though whether singular or clustered together. Your best bet is as soon as they go into flower to keep nutes low. Every couple of days pull them out and look them over. If you water every 3 days, pull them out and look at them then. If your dead set on not screwing up your first grow then take it slow and keep water and nutes to a bare minimum. This will limit nute burn, overwatering, handling stress etc etc; a lot of new grower problems. Cfls have limited penetration as mentioned earlier hence the recommendation to keep your plants short. A tall plant grown under so many cfls will likely produce many fluffy insignificant buds where as a shorter plant brought up close to the lights will have thicker heavy bud growth.
This is a trainwreck I have growing under 23 cfls at 4 weeks flower just to show what can be done of course. Hopefully she will finish nicely.

and a shot of the whole family All cfls. Gl man. Take it easy.