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I was interested on everyone's opinion on topping plants outdoors. Is it even worth doing?
In my mind, I do it to keep the plany bushier and do it 2 or 3 times to a plant. I also think it keeps the plant from getting too tall, which helps if they're sativas.
Does this really harm the plant though? What does it do to yield?
Dude! What chu work so hard for to grow outdoors,for is the COLA! you will just slow ya roll by topping.Though it would hide them better.As it would keep them short and stocky.Bushy as well!Tie'em down or sunthin'!
Holla!
Ga Grown
How do u top a plant? I always ask this question but never get an answer...
When you top a plant,You accually cut out the first branch or stem section.I think it's Cruelty to cannabis! Just a joke.....Ha Ha!It's a nice section of the plant,too.Topping an adult plant that is woody,will have a tendency to snap and splinter.After all,the stem or stalk is the plant's straw! It sucks,and is hollow to a certain point.Really!The base of the stem and a little further up the plant is hollow.You can't top or cut it to low! Sound extreme to me.... When you top and if you top? Please? Don't cut any lower than above the last node at the top of the plant.Just cut it.You topped sunthin!
Holla!
Ga Grown
i top mine...all of them, always have and always will.
only pinched once and only early when they're seedlings. i take the top off when they're at the the 4th node (iow, 4th node comes off leaving the 3rd as the top) so the split is low and easier to train the almost 2 separate bushes ya get from it. colas are still as they would have been if left alone because recovery time is nearly as long as their vegging time. this pinch makes it easy to train the trunks to grow horizontal 8"-1' off the ground in separate directions and makes for a shitload of long cola's!
topping/pinching them close to harvest will affect the yield and you won't be happy...they need at least a month to 6 weeks before flowering to fully recover.
He's asking how to top a larger plant as I gather.
Ga Grown
You could LST it, and make it grow like a whine on the ground..
Yield would be considerable higher.. Just keep tying it down, for every inch or foot it grows.. But, don't tye down the alternating nodes..:p
Pretty slick there,mg! What chu doing? Following me! Huh? That's bout the way I've done it.How long was this critter? Your soooooo right about the yeild!I've just found that if the plant is given the chance to produce it's fruits with as little or no stress,it comes out most of the time with greater potency,If not topped at all and grown the same way you suggest! Anyways props to ya!
Alright well I topped all of my plants at least once. I now have two great big main branches instead of 1 on each plant. One plant (way sativa dominant) was growing and growing and growing and it's by far my tallest plant. I topped alllll of it's branches, even the smaller ones below the main two, as well as the two new branches got topped for a second time. The plant didn't miss a beat and sprouted 2 new shoots from each branch!!! I just doubled my shoots!! AND ITS STILL MY TALLEST PLANT! (and it's also the only one to have shown sex so far, which is female btw :dance: ) I experimented with "staking" down the two main branches on some of the plants (a few that were noticeably dominant sativa and would grow long long long anyway) so the light could penetrate the plant and get some more shoots going. New shoots are starting and growing straight up to the sky! Instead of 2 main branches touching the sky with ones below it, I've got about 6 main branches now!!!
Also, one that I topped....it sprouted two new main branches RIGHT from where I topped it. It's the only plant that did this. It sprouted 2 new sprouts along with the two that I expected to be the main branches. So I got an 2 more shoots than I was expecting, but Im not complaining!
I think topping and staking is what I'm going to do from now on. I would love to let them be and grow to be 5 foot monsters but I just don't have that kind of space height-wise. I NEED to keep them short and bushy for safety purposes. Besides, I am also hoping all this topping and staking and new shoots will equal MORE BUD!!
Once my awesome little brother brings his camera back home from his girlfriends, I will take some pictures and get them up ASAP.
PS: Thanks for all the replies and the help!! I appreciate all of it!!
sounds like maybe you got a bit carried away with the pinching as most don't pinch this late into the season and also most pinch only once, maybe twice for a few but never on the branches...
you reach a point of diminishing returns if done too much and/or too late. time to leave em be and sit back and watch em grow...
This is exactly what I do, but I'm strictly indoors and just do it to keep the crowns wide and low.Quote:
Originally Posted by m.g.
i once toped a plant 30 times or more. it was under a low scrog screan, and a 150 hps aove. 5gallons of dirt and fish emoltion/peters=a half pound.. do the math thats 1.49 grams per watt. amazing.... o it took 4.5 months total tho. 2 months vedge
as the split trunks begin growing, i separate them carefully so they'll grow opposite each other. many times this will split the trunk so be sure to keep duct tape handy. once they get 2' or so i begin tying them down using bailing wire tied to a brick (be sure wire is thick enough to not cut through the plant...wire hangers also work well when taken apart and straightened out a bit) so they grow appx a foot or two off the ground horizontally, turning nearly every branch into a top by the time flowering is underway and greatly increasing yield as the entire limb gets exposed to direct sunlight...it takes tying down and adjusting nearly every other day but the rewards are well worth the little extra time put into it.
I haven't touched her since I topped her main branches. I don't think it hurt it too bad. It was early enough I think and it looks like shes doing alright anyway...I have a thread on her over on the Outdoor Section....
ive got a pretty big plant outdoors at the moment an i topped it on multiple occasions. it maximises yield and means you can make monster bushes
topping is usually an indoor technique due to space. It helps u get a bushyer plant which will yield more in small space. But in outdoor if u can u want your plants to grow as big and as tall as they can get. the bigger the plant the bigger the yield. if security is a problem do what was mentioned already LST(Low Stress Train) this actually will improove your yield because light penetrates the canopy better.
hope this helps....