Please help! First Post, Questyion about Topping and cutting fan leaves

Hey guys! I had a question for you all. SWIM is growing about 9 plants outdoors right now. They are about 2 1/2-3 months old. I have heard that you should not top more than twice. Last year I experimented with topping to see if it was better to have 1 large cola or 2 smaller ones. Now I have not exactly gotten a definitive answer on this. So I decided to leave 2 untopped and topped a few others.

1 plant I topped once and when that doubled up I topped just on of the 2 branches and left the other one alone. so basically I have 3 tops, I hope the picture helps illustrate what i'm talking about. Is it okay to have 3 main colas (2 on one side, 1 on the other) or should I just go ahead and top the left stem so it's even ( 4 main tops)

Also, I have seen many picture on the grow journals and i've noticed that not many plants have the big fan leaves cut back. I though that by pinching the big fan leaves off it would al;low the smaller and lower brances to get larger. Is this correct? Or should I stop cutting back the large fan leaves?

Thanks so much for your help

Don't cut back the fan leaves. They are energy engines for the plant. They're there to take in the light energy that feeds the whole plant.

In your growing, try to follow the lead of Mother Nature. Just ask yourself ... What in Nature trims off the big fan leaves? Of course, the answer is nothing.

Your topping is fine. I've tried growing straight up without topping and got those huge colas we all see in High Times. I've also tried topping which has given me more, although smaller colas.

Vi

You can top 10,000 times if the strain and pheno you're growing likes to be topped (and you have a few hundred years to spare ) ... Some strains will put out 2 full sized colas when topped, others will put out 2 half sized colas when topped (half the size of the one single cola if left untopped that is)

As for the fan leaves, they can be removed, but it's more of an advanced growing technique. Wouldn't recommend it for beginners.
I remove everything on the bottom 1/3 - 2/3 of my plants several times during a grow (I grow under lights) to increase light penetration and to allow the top of the plant to get larger and healthier.
If you want to increase light penetration to those lower parts of the plant, try removing every second finger of the fan leaves instead of the whole thing, just a tip.
What ViRedd says about them being the plants engine is true though.

Any and all advanced growing techniques get a lot of criticism, usually by people who don't have the experience to use them properly. But have fun experimenting throughout your growing days

Who says you can't top more than twice? Hahaha ...

Thanks for the quick response! As for the plant that only has one side of it topped, should I top the other main stem to even it out from 3 top colas to 4?

That's really up to you. I personally would top it so it's even, but that's cause I like my plants to grow symmetrically when possible. In my soil grows, I use square pots so I like to twin top them so they have a cola at each corner of the pot. It makes them 'stack' together really well.

Cheers.

Other than some of the fan leaves being off do they look healthy to you? No mold or any fungus problems. They look like a sativa/indica mix strain. I started with 10 and pulled 2 males so I have 8 left, and I also have a little clone in the same pot as the 2 bigger ones. How tall do clones usually get, and also do they mature and bud a lot quicker than the full plant? or do they take the same ammount of time in the vegetative and flowering stages? I'd like to grow as many clones as possible as my outdoor space is really not limited. I have this RootOn stuff thats great for clones, I just am not to knowledgable on how clones grow versus a normal full size plant. How is the yield on clones ususally? Thanks

Clones are an exact genetic copy of the plant they're taken from, therefore, the same things will stress them out, they'll flower for the same amount of time, they'll look the same, they'll grow the same ... The only things that will cause them to grow differently is a changes in the growing environment. Clones take less time to get to a decent size than growing from seed. If you find a plant that produces larger more potent buds than it's friends, clone it, coz all its clones and clones of those clones will also produce the same, larger more potent buds (same genetics remember).

When you here people talking about dialling in a strain, this is growing clones of the same plant/plants several times (or for several years) so that you know exactly what environment they like, how much you can feed them before they get nute burn, what stresses them, how wet or dry they like it etc etc.

Clones get as tall as their genetics allow them, if it's from a large plant, they'll grow large if given enough time, if from a small squat plant, they'll only grow as tall as those genetics allow.

Clones taken from a sexually mature plant are already mature when taken, and therefore can be readily flowered when required. The time it takes for them to flower however, will be the same as the parent plant they're taken from.

Clones often veg a lot quicker than seeds because as soon as they root they're in a vegetative state of growth, unlike seedlings which spend a couple weeks in the 'seedling' stage before they begin to veg.

Hope some of that info helps a bit.
Cheers.