i agree you can get a good spread of large buds without hacking up your plant, but its just 1 opinion, why not try all ways and see what you think.you can go as early as 5 nodes, as for the clone, if u want to clone the piece u snipped off, make sure that top part has 3 nodes for proper size cutting....want more bud sites correct? forget about topping, try low stress training
then let them go for few weeks bent, untie them and FIM or top the lower node, witch are by then equal with the top nodes.... works almost too well, i have been selling off clones, MOMz produce way too many!and if you send that into 12h... oh wow, as long as the strain it is likes many branches it would be a stupid huge producer, but...... my moms are 3' high, took like 3 months to get them there.....and the more clones i take, it doubles my re-growth...... so maby just top them from the beging...... in a month or 2 i gonna get rid of at least 3 moms, wunz i see witch are the biggest and shortes producers, i don't want big plants
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