Topping - yay or nay

[microdot]

I've been reading a fair bit about topping and it seems there's mixed opinions about it. In your experience have you found it to increase branches or just remove the main cola?

There's reports saying you should top no matter what and also reports saying never top.

I personally top, more out of habbit than anything else. What about you guys?

[Ocanna]

I think that depends on the plant some plants respond better but some not

[Bitterfly]

topping is less hassle but a combination of supercropping and low stress training work better imo!

what i do to super crop is gently rub the top internode of the plant between my fingers till it feels pulpy inside, this has two benefits, firstly stunting the growth slightly so the side branches can catch up height wise which gives an overall more effective absorbtion of light, also it allows for better transportation of nutrients and water once its healed; in the same fashion as you deliberately damaging your muscles when you weight lift, eventually they will increase in size.



to LST i use a piece of string to pull the top of the plant over so it grows horizontally, and this further lets the side branches catch up ending up with a very busy plant, with many more colas!

another benefit besides more efficient use of light and lower height plants is that with no open cuts on the plant there is less risk of infection and molds :D

[microdot]

I tried supper cropping on a few plants a while back and yep they produced some heavier buds. I thought that alone would mess with the auxins enough but combining it with lts is a good idea, never thought of that.

Rght now I'm topping and lsting and then flowering in a scrog.

[MXMAD]

I got 6 white rhino fems and dont know if i should or not???

[allahu_akbar]

topping is less hassle but a combination of supercropping and low stress training work better imo!

what i do to super crop is gently rub the top internode of the plant between my fingers till it feels pulpy inside, this has two benefits, firstly stunting the growth slightly so the side branches can catch up height wise which gives an overall more effective absorbtion of light, also it allows for better transportation of nutrients and water once its healed; in the same fashion as you deliberately damaging your muscles when you weight lift, eventually they will increase in size.



to LST i use a piece of string to pull the top of the plant over so it grows horizontally, and this further lets the side branches catch up ending up with a very busy plant, with many more colas!

another benefit besides more efficient use of light and lower height plants is that with no open cuts on the plant there is less risk of infection and molds :D

so bit, how old/tall is your plant when you do that supercropping?

and also whena LSTing what does everyone think is the best string/wire to use to hold down plants without causing them to much stress by cutting into them?

when my plants are outside i plan on tying them down by attaching the string to a rock or a tree root so they pointing 45 degrees

[lala124]

Just use soft string. No wire. It wont cut through, the plant is quite strong and sinewy itll do fine. Its low stress enough, dont worry about stressing it more with adding string haha. The plant Im LSTing, the stem is pretty much parallel to the ground. It looks really funny and short hahaha.

As for supercropping, I did it when it was about 2 ft however some start earlier.

[PTB]

I use polyesther gardening string, nice a soft and brakes easy when you want it to but is tough at the same time!

[Strider]

I don't interfere with my plants growing at all, just let them go where they want :)

[keshman]

I don't bother nowadays although I do bend branches to make the best of light etc and I also removed the lower leaves to lollipop them as they just rot anyway through lack of light under the main canopy.

I believe that topping actually gets less yield compared to non-topping and I've came to this conclusion after putting mothers into flower...shitty little buds with loads of trimming to do. Just my opinion but now I simply don't do it.

[lala124]

^I think it all depends on how long the veg period is. Look at StrictlyOrganic's diary in the outdoors section. That was topped, and that dude is gonna have so many cola like buds from it, its nuts. Guess it also depends on the strain.

[microdot]

I use twine for lts, then I also use that to hang the plants from when drying (the rare times that I don't water cure). I start lst very young and kind of make it more fun by having the plants grow into different designs, like tons of crosses or spirals and stuff.

[Bitterfly]

so bit, how old/tall is your plant when you do that supercropping?

and also whena LSTing what does everyone think is the best string/wire to use to hold down plants without causing them to much stress by cutting into them?

when my plants are outside i plan on tying them down by attaching the string to a rock or a tree root so they pointing 45 degrees

i lst and crop roughly around the time i start flowering, it doesnt really matter tho, its more to do with just ensuring i have enough head room. and i just use household string


but if possible i do just let them grow how they want, tall and proud, you always get a happier looking plant! (or maybe im just losing my mind:laugh:)

[crazyfool*]

i think topping works better with sativas ,from what i´ve read, from my personal experience, toping the sativa will make her produce more buds, but smaller....and yeald didn´t ocilate much, but of course, these were only 2 plants i tried with, maybe different phenos who knows....and LST worked verry well, had some grate colas formed!