Topping and Identifying

I'd say the fan is the most important on getting big strong stems...always have a fan blowing directly on the plants at all times. Having a fan on your plants is like a human going to a gym and working out, the wind breaks and tears the stems cells and grows new "tissue" over top just like human muscle does. I have always had good strong stems from as little as 1 week old.

Yeah I got a very small fan going on, seems to work ok. Will any bud get produced in the vegetation stage? I'm not going to smoke it or anything, just wondering. Is there anyway to know or notice when I should start the flowering stage?

That's preflower stage...usually when your plant is about 8-9 weeks old it will start to show it's sex...females will have hairs, where as males will have balls.