First time topping plants, what's your thoughts ?

MonkeyGrinder

Well-Known Member
Good looking plant you have there.
I personally don't trim the bottoms up on mine. One reason is some deficiencies start to show down low. Leaves get funky and fall etc. I'd much rather see the stuff in the lower canopy get funky (and fall off) and fix the problem instead of the stuff up top that's getting better light and powering the plant.
 

Joe Blows Trees

Well-Known Member
After reading this thread, I'm glad I've gotten to try everything discussed here in one run.

One plant untouched (control)
Three plants topped once
Four plants topped twice
Four plants cleaned up before flip (removed only obvious useless undergrowth and a few inner leaves)
Defoliated one plant in veg and it grew back with a passion. Turned out to be a male though.

As for removing leaves late in flowering, I only remove the autumning leaves which easily break off with little pressure. Most of them are inside the plant so more light is getting to the lower buds as they mature.

With so many differing opinions on most subjects involving cultivating cannabis, I wanted to see things up close, hands on. This is just a way I can gage the differences in a general sense for my records on my quest to grow quality medication on a regular basis. If you increase the quality of plant health and care, they'll increase the love they share with you in the form of beautiful buds. Just my opinion!

Nice plant Op!
 

orbo

Well-Known Member
Good looking plant you have there.
I personally don't trim the bottoms up on mine. One reason is some deficiencies start to show down low. Leaves get funky and fall etc. I'd much rather see the stuff in the lower canopy get funky (and fall off) and fix the problem instead of the stuff up top that's getting better light and powering the plant.
I like to prune a bit here and there but also like leaving stuff low for the exact same reasons you've described. :clap:
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
After reading this thread, I'm glad I've gotten to try everything discussed here in one run.

One plant untouched (control)
Three plants topped once
Four plants topped twice
Four plants cleaned up before flip (removed only obvious useless undergrowth and a few inner leaves)
Defoliated one plant in veg and it grew back with a passion. Turned out to be a male though.
Sounds exciting :D
Is this ongoing or have you come to a conclusion?
And what strain was it?

I think end of the day, every aspect of the grow (including the grower) factors into what is best in that specific case. Love is always a great ingredient! And yes, plants are sentient and communicate with us too ;)
 

Joe Blows Trees

Well-Known Member
@calliandra it's currently in progress, entering week 7 flowering in a few days. I have amnesia and pineapple haze, og kush, big bud, and chocolope along with 4 bagseeds, 2 sativa dom, 2 indica dom. Hope to have them all harvested by New Years so I can start the year with a nice stash and concentrate on gaining more knowledge along with way more patience to find my beautiful mother plants and save some seeds for later! They're not cheap! Hahahahahaha!
 

Grojak

Well-Known Member
OP of course tiny scissors would work, I use fiskars with a spring in them for trimming and pruning (what the thumb can't handle).

@calliandra it's currently in progress, entering week 7 flowering in a few days. I have amnesia and pineapple haze, og kush, big bud, and chocolope along with 4 bagseeds, 2 sativa dom, 2 indica dom. Hope to have them all harvested by New Years so I can start the year with a nice stash and concentrate on gaining more knowledge along with way more patience to find my beautiful mother plants and save some seeds for later! They're not cheap! Hahahahahaha!

While its a noble test with so many different varieties your results will be inconclusive… now I wouldn't tell someone to grow just one strain (i don't know how people do it) but growing clones from 1 strain with each of these different techniques would give you a scientific basis for this study.
 

Joe Blows Trees

Well-Known Member
@Grojak This is definitely not a good test, just a way for me to learn more about the different techniques and how my plants respond to them. General knowledge is the purpose of doing so many things this run. It also proves to me which information is true and which is false, like a thread some one responded to bashing the topping of plants twice. They made it seem like it was the worst thing ever. Weeding out misinformation on cannabis growing sites can be tiresome.
 

Grojak

Well-Known Member
@Grojak This is definitely not a good test, just a way for me to learn more about the different techniques and how my plants respond to them. General knowledge is the purpose of doing so many things this run. It also proves to me which information is true and which is false, like a thread some one responded to bashing the topping of plants twice. They made it seem like it was the worst thing ever. Weeding out misinformation on cannabis growing sites can be tiresome.
fair enough mate, I certainly have tried my share of different techniques… currently I'm running scrog for my 2nd time which has me learning which plants take well to it and which I will not grow well in scrog, I kinda already have an idea of which will work best. The 1 time top only works best for LST method I find…. good luck on your journey… I hope you scored a nice cut of Chocolope, I head there is some killer cuts.
 

Joe Blows Trees

Well-Known Member
@Grojak I want to try doing a scrog, maybe the run after my next one. The chocolope is looking so good, structure is amazing. Never had it before so I'm kinda excited. Lst did work well with my plants topped once. Good luck on your scrog!
 

kindasobr

Well-Known Member
Meh... genetics, genetics, genetics.

I grow hundreds of plants under ideal conditions. Some get huge, some stay small.

Find the right plant for ur environment. Minimise the work involved. Let the plant do most of the work. :)
Couldn't have said it better. Do what you can to maintain your stable grow environment, find what strains prefer your environment, and which strains of those you like the most. Keep the winners and smoke 'em:wink:
 

kindasobr

Well-Known Member
I always top during Veg but during my recent experience with topping just prior to flowering, I wont bother doing it again within the same time frame. I anticipated a much more significant stretch, but what I ended up doing was severely limiting vertical gains.
 

calliandra

Well-Known Member
I always top during Veg but during my recent experience with topping just prior to flowering, I wont bother doing it again within the same time frame. I anticipated a much more significant stretch, but what I ended up doing was severely limiting vertical gains.
what strain was that, kindasobr?
Curious because I'm currently in the "switch or wait" phase with 2 NL#5xhaze's going into a scrog and just did the 2nd topping ;)
 

kindasobr

Well-Known Member
what strain was that, kindasobr?
Curious because I'm currently in the "switch or wait" phase with 2 NL#5xhaze's going into a scrog and just did the 2nd topping ;)
@calliandra The strain you're asking about is Green Crack (clone only strain, not the various seed phenos floating around recently) This is my first harvest, so I was worried about vertical grow space.. started them on 12/12 @~20" topped 2 of 'em to see what'd happen (and I needed clones to continue the strain) they both didn't grow vertically much during flower after that.. but they're both putting on weight so not overly concerned.
 

kindasobr

Well-Known Member
@kindasobr surely they'll be fine -- maybe it was because you had started them on 12/12 - interesting! & thanks ;)

No worries!
What with the stress of being flipped, and the changes of fertilizers (N-P-K completely changed) I guess topping them may have been a little too much too soon. Honestly? It worked out in my favor.. made them easier to work on with them staying smaller, and it doesn't seem to have affected the yield when compared to the others that were not topped.. something else to think about for my next run.
 
Last edited:
Top