Herein lies the problem; different growth and environmental factors.
If I'm not mistaken, your plant's roots are sitting in a three to five gallon DWC system -- not sure on the size of that white bucket down there with the air and water pump tubes dangling out of it. My plant is sitting in two gallons of shallow soil intended solely for height reduction in response to the stretching during flower induction [ I loathe tall, narrow buckets ]. This plant was intended for a space less than a yard in height, and the pot and all falls under even that.
I'm also pretty sure you've invested a couple grand into this, whereas I've only probably put in close to five hundred, if even. Talking about fertilizers / nutrients, additives, odor killing methods, genetics from wherever, gadgets, etc. -- anything involving cannabis and it's growth. Hell, you could have even given those CO2 for all I know! That's almost seldom heard of with me.
Not only that -- the claustrophobic growth conditions I use in comparison to your wide open space that's considerably more ventilated is hard to ignore. A plant will generally grow better if it's not having to compete with walls.
Your strain is -at the least- some good mid grades you found in a bag, but I'm willing to bet it actually came from some form of seed bank. Please note, that and most of this -- like a picture -- is pure speculation. You could very well have something completely different I'm ignorant in regards to. My strain couldn't possibly qualify for the Crackhead Cup, much less anything with prestige. But that's the beauty of it -- that a plant this fucked up is still growing, fattening up, and will inevitably yield.
I ran into a lock-out three days before that picture was taken for another thread. The picture was intended to show, at a distance, what the lock-out did; and with this information in hand I was hoping to get some help on it, but with close to two hundred views, almost a week of waiting, and no answer I'm starting to think it was in vain. Thankfully I managed to save it and salvage what I could before it did anything else. So, in conclusion to that, the plant was pretty well nuked, but the basic concept on what FIMing and Topping produce remains.
Another thing is my plant is only just barely eighty days old, that's from seed to present and that's including the time it took to germinate and sprout. I have no idea how old that plant is, but I'm guessing it took some time to get like that. Although I'll admit it's beautiful and in a completely different league from mine.
I'm more for getting the little bastards in and back out in as short a time as possible. Any additional delay kills my buzz, so to speak.
That's not to say I wouldn't grow something like Malawi Gold or a Haze, but I wouldn't want to wait twenty weeks for it to recuperate WHILE flowering to produce that. It's not a technique I'd personally practice when I'm trying to keep things to a minimal.
The string suspension is great, but I like to be able to move my plants. That wouldn't be possible unless the strings are suspended from a great big long stake in the center of the mass holding each of the 'suspension cables' up.
Or if the ceiling comes separate.
