Yield vs. Cropping/cutting your plant

In theory let's assume you have adequate light coverage on each and every leaf in your plant - just for a second.

Now let's take a look at Yield.

Yield depends on light basically, so assume that light is constant here.

Now take 1 plant which is grown w/out any modifications.

And then we have plant 2 which was chopped into say a single cola or maybe fimmed into a 4 cola plant. Whatever. It was dorked with but not in too much excess.

Will there be any more yield in plant 2?

I wonder that while even though LST and FIM and other techniques might help with better light absorption, the act of cutting the plant itself will injure and slow its growth process just as much if not more to counter any yield gains...

What do YOU think?

a small yield on a sea of green plant is cool when you account for the fact that there's a hell of a lot more plants. But really, the genes play a huge role in that: i lolli'd a purple kush with great results, and a mendo purps with horrible results.

but if you go the 4 cola route, i've seen that have both a greater and lesser yield in different cases. at the end of the day, many experienced growers just go with huge SOG grows and get a shitload perpetually. I personnaly like a little mild training or a screen of green style canopy.

I'm all for single cola growing to save on space. So I'm trying to do that. Just worried it will really hurt the plant.

It is on day 42 right now from sprout. It's been on 12/12 now for about a week. It is about 8" tall and has like 4 or 5 nodes and some big fan leaves. I'm thinking about trimming everything below the upper big fan leaves and then just see what happens.

What do you think?

sometimes hurting the plant ends up being tough love. I like to get brutal on some plants (remove all fan leaves on days 21/45 of flower, savage pruning, etc) and leave other plants to just live a natural, undisturbed life. no clear winner in every situation, but SOG definetly isn't more stressful than its worth.

in your case, it only has 5 nodes, leave it be. maybe kill some leaves, but don't sacrifice too many budsites. i def made that mistake hardcore on my 1st grow.

Only some strains should be lollipopped. Kush is not one of them. Only take off the weak growth and do it half way in veg

I FIM and LST now because at one point i didnt an i learned that its best to do so.

i let mine do what they want, i only cut leaves when they need to be cut. i used to do LST and topping but found with my style its better to let them do their thing. amytime you cut there is a healing period, and i dont like my plants growth to have any hiccups, plow straight through with no issues will always be greater and healthier.