Topping verse Fiming and etc.

smokeytokeybear

smokeytokeybear

Well-Known Member
whats up fellow smokers and growers,

I am wanting to find out the differences,ups,downs, and other things that come in to mind when topping,fiming,
training, or tying down your plants for latteral growth. i am new to growing and figured that starting this thread could help me and everyone that is wondering. So please share your wisdom and thoughts about the different techniqes.
 
Canibitual

Canibitual

Well-Known Member
I'll try...

Starting with Topping...

Topping can be very easy for newer growers, top the plant, and you can get more top colas... using less plants to fill a canopy (properly done it'll look like a sea of green on top) Downside is that the plant can become too bushy, and an inexperienced grower doesn't know to de-leaf the bottom of the plant to prevent massive amounts of popcorn

bending/tiedown
This method allows you to bend your plants down to create more "tops" because all nodes end up level and start growing... similar to (sea of green), downside is that new growers tend to snap and break branches until they get a feel for it..., sometimes growers don't know which direction to bend the plants causing heavy growth in one direction... this method is also more work than topping but can create high branching and higher yields... deleafing also improves this type of grow... also.. this does not work on all strains... some plants will not add new heads just because it's main cola is lower than the rest... it's a genetic thing...

Sea Of green
Highest Yields with Lowest effort,
Highest Yields per year
(Leo don't like this one)... many small plants higher yields, less work less veg time, downsides include high plant count requiring more clones, and possibly resulting in higher criminal penalties if your over your state/county limits... other downside is very bad for new growers... they tend to veg too long and/or continueing to feed N in flower and growth gets to excessive and some plants overshadow others and kill them... this also does not work with all strains...

Screen of Green
Must Tedious Style of growing
Most Work
longest veg time...
Some of the Highest Yields per Square foot, some of the highest Yields Per light, highest yields per plant
(leo likes this one) Least Plant count for a higher yield for Strict Limits...
Very bad for new growers, new growers will snap branches all over the place, they will have too much N in flower, causeing excessive foilage, and they will not know to do a heavy deleaf under the screen... so yields would be bad for a new grower
some strains absolutely cannot do this method
Lowest Yields Per Year Per light... (I know someone's going to try calling me out on this one...LOL)
 
smokeytokeybear

smokeytokeybear

Well-Known Member
great thoughts. i appreciate it.'
doest anybody else have any thing to share on this subject? welcome to all ideas and thoughts
 
Robfather

Robfather

Active Member
Canibitual said:
I'll try...

Starting with Topping...

Topping can be very easy for newer growers, top the plant, and you can get more top colas... using less plants to fill a canopy (properly done it'll look like a sea of green on top) Downside is that the plant can become too bushy, and an inexperienced grower doesn't know to de-leaf the bottom of the plant to prevent massive amounts of popcorn

Fiming
This method allows you to bend your plants down to create more "tops" because all nodes end up level and start growing... similar to (sea of green), downside is that new growers tend to snap and break branches until they get a feel for it..., sometimes growers don't know which direction to bend the plants causing heavy growth in one direction... this method is also more work than topping but can create high branching and higher yields... deleafing also improves this type of grow... also.. this does not work on all strains... some plants will not add new heads just because it's main cola is lower than the rest... it's a genetic thing...

Sea Of green
Highest Yields with Lowest effort,
Highest Yields per year
(Leo don't like this one)... many small plants higher yields, less work less veg time, downsides include high plant count requiring more clones, and possibly resulting in higher criminal penalties if your over your state/county limits... other downside is very bad for new growers... they tend to veg too long and/or continueing to feed N in flower and growth gets to excessive and some plants overshadow others and kill them... this also does not work with all strains...

Screen of Green
Must Tedious Style of growing
Most Work
longest veg time...
Some of the Highest Yields per Square foot, some of the highest Yields Per light, highest yields per plant
(leo likes this one) Least Plant count for a higher yield for Strict Limits...
Very bad for new growers, new growers will snap branches all over the place, they will have too much N in flower, causeing excessive foilage, and they will not know to do a heavy deleaf under the screen... so yields would be bad for a new grower
some strains absolutely cannot do this method
Lowest Yields Per Year Per light... (I know someone's going to try calling me out on this one...LOL)
Click to expand...
Fimming, or Fuck I missed is a hot topic here. It actually involves trimming 3/4 of the new growth on new plants in order to promote new tops. Search it on the Forum, there is a ton of info

Edit: https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/200413-fimming-my-blaze-complete-how.htm

Topping: https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/151706-uncle-bens-topping-technique-get.html
 
Canibitual

Canibitual

Well-Known Member
whoops, Corrected mistake...

Fimming doesn't look any different than topping later in growth... Results won't be any different than topping and cleaning up the bottom of the plant...
 
Canibitual

Canibitual

Well-Known Member
most techniques are meant to raise yields while lowering plant counts... some work... some work at the expense of a higher yearly yield..

I'll refer to the DEA's stance on this... "a more filled in canopy, will always yield more."
 
smokeytokeybear

smokeytokeybear

Well-Known Member
anybody else have any personal exp?
what are the yield differences? are they huge or moderately the same?
what about time to have the desired effects that you are trying to accomplish?
 
TechnoMage

TechnoMage

Well-Known Member
I tend to top first and then once I've got some new growth, bend them down to spread them out a little bit. If you just slightly crush the stem at the bend point you'll end up with a very nice thick joint at the crush spot. This can actually help support weight later. My current grow I'm going to let most just grow straight, maybe lollipop them a few weeks into flower. My hashberry/lockdown I'm going to try a single pot SoG in.
 
Robfather

Robfather

Active Member
Annoying yes but have you ever seen a plant topped 25 times? The guy knows his shit when it comes to topping, plus you learn ghetto slang at the same time!
 
Howard Stern

Howard Stern

Well-Known Member
Canibitual said:
whoops, Corrected mistake...

Fimming doesn't look any different than topping later in growth... Results won't be any different than topping and cleaning up the bottom of the plant...
Click to expand...
:roll:

It depends on how you do it and what you want out of your plants. FIMing is the way to go IMHO. Most of the times I get 3-4 tops, and they recover way quicker than topping in my experiance. What I do now is fim or top them around 8 inches, then when I pot them up to 7 gal pots I do a little LST and pull the top branches to the side a little. All you have to do is pull the 4 tops down to the side and allow light to get to the other nodes that will soon grow to be more tops! Just make sure all the "tops" are the same height. If you pull them down to far the plant will spend time redistibuting energy to the NEW top. You do that on a few plants your yeild will go up greatly! LST is something you can do in 5 min a day! And it will increase your yeild a shitload! It will also increase your veg time for 3+ weeks but when you get the hang of it you wont go back!

Here is what someone on here did with LST. It wasn't me, but this picture inspires me to do better!

View attachment 2465928View attachment 2465929View attachment 2465930
 
Howard Stern

Howard Stern

Well-Known Member
Robfather said:
Here's some more ghetto slang while dude tops his plant 50 times!!
[video=youtube;ShL9yg2_YLo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShL9yg2_YLo[/video]
Click to expand...
holly shit that guy sounds dumb as fuck! LOL There is something to learn from everyone and everything, I guess if you didn't know a fucking thing about growing this video MIGHT help someone?
 
topfuel29

topfuel29

Well-Known Member
Topping is trimming below the meristem of the plant. Any where on the plant.
FIM or Pinching off is cutting or pinching the meristem of the plant. The plant breaks its axial dominance and turn into a bush.
Roots have meristems that can be topped or FIM or Pinched to get the same results as the top of your plant.
 
Canibitual

Canibitual

Well-Known Member
smokeytokeybear said:
still no yield diffs tho......................
Click to expand...
Yield Differences Vary greatly with strain... for instance, I'd Estimate 15% more with a decent strain done in Scrog than in a sog , but the veg time would loose 2 grows a year vs sog... so if you get say 2lbs per light with Scrog (max) x 4 crops a year = 8lbs and with sog say 1.75lbs x 6 per year (no veg) = 9lbs

now on a large scale that would be say a 20 light flip (40 lights)
Sog = 420lbs per year
Scrog = 320 per year

actual results would be significantly less, as getting more than about 1.5lbs total on any grow over about 20 lights in a real life situation just doesn't happen often in the real world...
 
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