What if you do NOT top you plants?
- Thread starter mackdown
- Start date
mackdown
Member
Yea I talked to one friend that said he didn't top before and just had one huge bud in the middle. I'm curious to find out.
Bought the purple trainwreck seeds.
Lots of people opinions vary on topping. I've "heard" some strains don't top well as other have success topping. Uncle Ben has a good thread on here entitled
"Topping for 2 or 4 main colas" . I topped my last purple Diesel plants for 4 main colas and wasn't really impressed with the results, partly due to me being a relatively new grower. My current purp grow I left un topped . I'm experimenting right now to see if the results will be better or worse. This current grow i've been pinching the tops instead of actually topping them. By pinching the tops it slows top growth and lets lower growth catch up while repairing top growth. I don't pinch the top nodes hard, just enough to hear a small crack.
"Topping for 2 or 4 main colas" . I topped my last purple Diesel plants for 4 main colas and wasn't really impressed with the results, partly due to me being a relatively new grower. My current purp grow I left un topped . I'm experimenting right now to see if the results will be better or worse. This current grow i've been pinching the tops instead of actually topping them. By pinching the tops it slows top growth and lets lower growth catch up while repairing top growth. I don't pinch the top nodes hard, just enough to hear a small crack.
It's true that it somewhat depends on the strain you're working with. But in a SOG setup where plant count isn't an issue it's the only way to go. Unpinched, the main top forms the most potent and heaviest cola possible by harvest. While any sort of pinching diffuses the primary focused growth hormones and potency throughout the plant. And with SOG, where all plants are crowded close so there's a forest of single spear top colas and scarcely any branching, at harvest you wind up with the highest and most consistently potent yield per m/2 and less airy duff from lots of branches in the quickest time frame possible. Time is lost whenever plants are pinched, as they take nearly a week or so to recover fully. Likewise growing out a framework to create lots of branches to support a desirable yield takes time as well. Addditionally with any larger plant light penetration never gets below that upper canopy anyway, which adversely affects bud development on all those secondary and bottom branches. And I feel this is why in commercial production places like Pakistan, Afghaistan and Lebanon marijuana fields feature what amounts to a scaled up SOG configuration, creating a consistently potent sea of single spear monster colas that are easier and more efficiently harvested and processed for hash making, with much less wasted branches and scruffy buds to deal with overall.
mackdown
Member
Fantastic information. Thanks so much.
Jogro
Well-Known Member
The answer is, that the net effect of topping depends mostly on how you are growing.
Topping can increase yields per plant, *IF* your particular plant and light setup are such to take advantage of the greater number of colas you get from topping.
Basically, if running only a small number of plants in a larger area, topping can give you more colas to fill out the light field. Less wasted light should translate into increased yields per plant.
But if your plants already fill out the growing area, (for example, you're running "sea of green" with many small plants), then not only is there no advantage to topping, there can be a disadvantage, since topping slows down the plants growth for a few days after its recovering from the injury.
mackdown
Member
Thanks. I have limited space so maybe its best not to top. One way or the other I will find out because I have two that are topped and two that are not.
Ganjalee
Active Member
Nice plants Dozer!
Show me some info on "pinching effects potency though out the plant. Until I see info i'm going to say that's some bulllllllllshit.
CaptainCarnival
Active Member
hey pretty off topic here but jpill i see you use those cool airpots or whatever how do you like them are they any better than the smart pots
delilahmaster
Member
I did not top my pink kush plant but she is still showing lots of signs of side growth and is becoming bushy. This strain is a lot different than other plants I have grown and not topped. This could be because I have more light hitting the side of the plant though. I dont know yet whether or not the yield is going to be different or if the main cola is going to be where a majority of the bud will form. I can say it does not look like its going to be mainly on the main cola
Air pots are great.! Lets me feed more also reduces root spiraling. Honestly I have an air pot right next to a regular plastic pot and I see no difference what so ever. I do notice at the end of harvest the regular pot has root spiraling where as the airpot doesn't . The airpot root system has more "mass" meaning its more "compact" but at the same time I noticed the roots that were spiraling "just the ones that were spiraling" were bigger on the regular pot . Overall I would say that an air pot would be better for (long term plant use.) I've done side by side test and there is no difference in yield. Only difference I noticed was no root spiraling !
I pinched mine like 2-3 times in vegg. Lower growth almost caught up to top growth which is kind of cool because I am trying to create an even canopy with minimal stretch from the top cola. In the future I will only pinch like once or twice as top growth is slowed extremely (Obviously). One or 2 pinches is plenty IMO. Only problem is when they start to flower I know that top cola is going to stretch I just hope it dosen't stretch too much. Anyway I will be lollypoping so light penetration won't be much of a problem.
missnu
Well-Known Member
Well to tell you the truth, I think with topping you just end up redistributing the same amount of buds unless you do it like 40 times and then veg til it is a tree...I like tying branches down, or just bending them down a few times a day until the grow out a little and new branches spring up...I find it is easier to get a bush faster using LSt and Scrog more so than topping...seems like more recovery time in topping...I mean scrog and LST will change in minutes, But I almost always use both...I just can't help it...as soon as the third node starts to grow, I take out the little middle new growth part, so I get a double header...it slows the growth way down, by maybe 1 or 2 days even..so that sux, but when it does start to grow out it gives you 2 branches of the same size...I like to top to make my stems thicker so when I tie them down they can send up a bunch of little shoots and what not. So ya know...I like it for stem strengthening, but I have found that if all you do is top once or twice the plant will be the same and yield roughly the same it will just have more smaller tops as opposed to the one main and a few side branches...