Topping: head to head comparison?

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runninupinya

Active Member
I am on my second grow right now, and I can't decide if I want to top my 7 girls yet. I have read various threads about grows that were topped, but none that did comparisons between two groups of clones from the same mother, one group topped, and one group let alone to see which yields more on average. What are your thoughts on this?

P.S. I am in the process of growing 7 bubblegum ladies. The last one I grew from the genetically identical parent plant yielded 3oz and was not topped, pruned, scrog'ed, lst'ed, or anything. I am also using cfls, and ~85% MG organic soil and ~15% vermiculite in 20 quart containers, feeding with MG tomato food. Space is not an issue.
 
sonofnothing

sonofnothing

Well-Known Member
i can show you a comparison between outdoor super lemon haze, one topped and one not...
right now, the topped one is reaching 12 feet and the untopped one is reaching 9 feet..
both stretched like hell so its kinda hard to even like the plants besides their extreme height... flower production is slow but better on the topped plant.
 
Milesmkd

Milesmkd

Active Member
sonofnothing said:
i can show you a comparison between outdoor super lemon haze, one topped and one not...
right now, the topped one is reaching 12 feet and the untopped one is reaching 9 feet..
both stretched like hell so its kinda hard to even like the plants besides their extreme height... flower production is slow but better on the topped plant.
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I'd like to see that. :)
 
sonofnothing

sonofnothing

Well-Known Member
Milesmkd said:
I'd like to see that. :)
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or look at this video..
edit: the untopped SLH is at 2:43 and only a quick glimpse. like i said, theyre so stretched and slowly budding that they almos are hard to enjoy besides their heights.
[video=youtube;Mp0xm0o0rxA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp0xm0o0rxA[/video]
this is the topped one.. i gotta find a pic or take a pic of the untopped one..
 

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locoyou2

Active Member
it will increase yield. more branches/nodes more buds with multiple colas no pics but it will work ive tried it was very happy
 
AbsoluteChron

AbsoluteChron

Member
I agree that it depends on largely on the strain. If you are dealing with a strain that shocks easily then it probably is not a good idea. The environment the plant is exposed to will also be very important. I would think the benefits of topping are much lower outdoors where height is not limited and light penetration is not a problem. If you are looking for more uniformity in your colas then I would say scrog is the way to go for sure.
 
rockwellhg

rockwellhg

Member
littleflavio said:
sorry t asked these but what does scrog mean? and how would you define stretching in plants?
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Scrog is screen of green, where you train the plant under a screen to keep all the budsites at about the same level. You end up with a nice canopy of buds instead of one big cola.

During the first few weeks of flower the plants will keep growing or stretching. Topping/fimming can help get shorter bushier plants that won't stretch quite as much. Distance from the light can also play a part in how much they stretch. If the light is too far away they tend to stretch more and have longer distances between nodes.
 
KlosetKing

KlosetKing

Well-Known Member
my Blackjacks were unfortuantely ALL topped, so i dont have an untopped comparison, but i did top them all differently. One is just 2 tops, another is 4 (but one is retarded) and the other was supposed to be 2 but one of the lower branches somehow freaked and got some hormones, so its like not quite a top, not quite a lower lol

check out my sig for pics if ya like, just posted some new ones last night
 
Punk

Punk

Well-Known Member
I"ll try to get some pics, but lights are out right now, here's what I can tell you:

I currently am growing 5 northern lights, same mother and I'm three weeks into flowering. I have 3 of the 5 topped once (fimmed actually), and the other two are not, I actually wanted to test this same thing you're asking about, so here I am.

What I've observed is the ones that have been topped are bushier and shorter, about 6" shorter. This particular NL pheno is thick and behaves like a sativa when flowering, in that is goes through more of a stretch than some, but still stays under 3' tall, also has long internode distance(another sativa trait)...I'm mentioning this, so that you can compare how indica dominant strains react to the same pruning(or lack of).

The topped plants had three main colas instead of one, but lacked good lower growth, and since these are sative, fewer leaves, and the potential to flower lower areas, albeit few bud sites, it appears that I did lose those good 2nd tier branches only to gain two extra beefy stalks.

The two untouched plants grow a lot like how you picture a traditional plant to grow, one tall cola, which is only slightly thicker than the plants who have three tops. Several solid lower branches with good secondary growth.

We'll see the final verdict in the coming weeks, but I'm leaning towards the conclusion that the benefits of topping are based on your growing conditions, such as height restrictions, square feet, light intensity, and so forth.

Depending on the growth patterns of your particular strain, one way could created more upward growth, another will give you all around bushy plants.
 
littleflavio

littleflavio

Well-Known Member
rockwellhg said:
Scrog is screen of green, where you train the plant under a screen to keep all the budsites at about the same level. You end up with a nice canopy of buds instead of one big cola.

During the first few weeks of flower the plants will keep growing or stretching. Topping/fimming can help get shorter bushier plants that won't stretch quite as much. Distance from the light can also play a part in how much they stretch. If the light is too far away they tend to stretch more and have longer distances between nodes.
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thanks...been planting for awhile but never seemed to ask just until now
 
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