Topping
- Thread starter Built
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MooseTheGoose
Active Member
I like topping twice. Once after the plant gets to its 4th/5th node. Then train those branches to the width of how wide you want your plant and then top each of those branches. Each time you top you get more bud sites with slightly smaller buds compared to a few branches with a big cola on each of them.
Fladawg01
Well-Known Member
I top my autos when the stems show thickness, and have tight node spacing. I also do this before day 21 +- a day. If they are taller spindly stems, I do not mess with them. Once I top I just LST afterwards.
Here is a FIM on my current grow, and it truly was a FIM not purposely done! If you look close you can see the original center of the plant and she has grown what appears to be a center cola again! Center cola is small for for now, but she has at least another 4 to 6 weeks of growing. She did spread nicely and has quite a few bud sites forming. This is a Zamnesia WURLZ F1 Auto.
Here is a FIM on my current grow, and it truly was a FIM not purposely done! If you look close you can see the original center of the plant and she has grown what appears to be a center cola again! Center cola is small for for now, but she has at least another 4 to 6 weeks of growing. She did spread nicely and has quite a few bud sites forming. This is a Zamnesia WURLZ F1 Auto.
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Nice man yours look happy and healthy, i might top a couple more times then, and then flower it out, mines a green gelato photoperiod
go go kid
Well-Known Member
you can be quite agressive with some strains. i had white widow from greenhouse seeds, i was topping it loads of times and it never hermied on me, i did however get so many buds that were very small and i didn't do it again, waste of time, top as the guys above sugesst, keep it to a minimum to be on the safe side,
it worked on the first lot of seeds frm greenhouse, but i believe they were the original breeders, so the strain was sund and could take the constan
t pruneing
it worked on the first lot of seeds frm greenhouse, but i believe they were the original breeders, so the strain was sund and could take the constan
t pruneing
Fladawg01
Well-Known Member
I only top once, then LST from there, especially with autos, just not enough time after say day 25. Photo periods you can continue until you want to flip. But as another poster stated the more you cut, the smaller the buds get.
Farmer's Hat
Well-Known Member
I prefer to fim, instead of top. Topping stunts growth a lot longer. Fiming is basically just pinching the top bud off. Its less stress and accomplishes the same goal quicker.
Fladawg01
Well-Known Member
I did my first Fim on this current grow and you are correct. She recovered quicker, I still got the lower branches at the node to grow out, but then I got 2 extra stems that formed out of the Fimmed area, almost like they were main colas! Because they took a little bit to form and develop, they are shorter but definitely stout. My plant looks like I flat topped her but beautiful even canopy. Since they were autos she isn't but maybe 20 inches tall at most, but over 44 inches in circumference with all her side branching. Guessing at 4 oz tops from her, maybe 3.5. all on an experiment!
simpleleaf
Well-Known Member
If it's a photoperiod plant, you can top for months, maybe years. I kept a couple alive for 2 years under vegetative photoperiod. As they got too tall for their growing space, I'd top them.
You have to make sure there are leaves below your cuts. I also think taking too much height is dangerous. One time I killed a cannabis plant by topping more than half its height. These days if I need to take that much or more, I'll only do half the plant, wait for recovery, then do the other half.
You have to make sure there are leaves below your cuts. I also think taking too much height is dangerous. One time I killed a cannabis plant by topping more than half its height. These days if I need to take that much or more, I'll only do half the plant, wait for recovery, then do the other half.
simpleleaf
Well-Known Member
You had a different objective than I had. You're trying to maximize growth while encouraging branching. I'm making severe cutbacks for purposes of minimizing height.
Yea i dont chop with scissors or anything, i just roll off the very small growing tip with my fingers
Farmer's Hat
Well-Known Member
If you start fiming early on, cutbacks are rarely necessary. Most plants will bush out and grow wide and squatty, if you fim aggressively. I will often pinch the top bud once the plant has developed 3-4 sets of leaves.
I dont have a lot of experience with Autos, so I cant say for sure if aggressive fiming is a good strategy. The collective opinion for autos seems to be that some fiming is good. However, severely stunting growth is obviously a bad thing since autos will flower after a certain amount of hours. Ive also read that too much stress can cause autos to flower earlier.
simpleleaf
Well-Known Member
I agree fimming is a great technique, very low stress on the plant. It probably is great for starting from seed and going straight through harvest.
BTW, I'm not sure how Built's question became about autos, he said his plant was a photoperiod. I was thinking myself of photoperiod plants, and in a perpetual system. A plant may be cutback for scheduling. The bloom tent is full, another few weeks to harvest, and there are cloned plants big enough to bloom? Or perhaps there's already enough personal stash on hand. Time to keep the mother plant alive and not pay to run the bloom lights?
Farmer's Hat
Well-Known Member
I hate when that happens. Its really satisfying when cycling new clones times out perfectly.
Someone mentioned autos...
Wife snapped a branch yesterday, i tied it up immediatley, then this morning i was expecting it to look sad but it looks like its not bothered by it at all. Just sucks with the timing being early flower. Should be ok right? Its so healthy i hope it has caused too much of a problem. It was split straight down the middle of the joint.
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I've bent or damaged branches and my experience is that, if it's fatal, it's immediately apparent.
Supercropping is a valid technique where the stem is crushed intentionally so that the top of the stem can be bent over to make the canopy more even. It is/was really strange for me to do that—"I'm supposed to break the branch?". But, yeh, it works. The branch forms a knuckle and the plant does just fine. That severity of damage to a branch is not uncommon and things turn out OK.
After about a dozen grows, I…"terminated" two branches in my most recent grow. Frankly, I don't recall specifically how I did it but, in both cases, within a minute or two after I broke the branch, the top part of the branch was wilted and the best way to describe it is that it had "collapsed". My assumption is that the core of the branch had ruptured and the systems of tubes ("vessels") that move nutrient and water had ruptured.
As you've done, putting tape around the damaged area is the traditional approach and, seeing that the branch is still alive, I'd expect it to turn out well.
