I'm not topping my plants this time

The description of Tuna Kush describes it as a small plant that isn't a big yielder...small, hard buds....We'll see. The Triangle Kush is supposed to be a taller, thinner type plant. So far, that's true. It has been sluggish and spindly so far. Not a vigorous grower. The Tuna Kush, on the other hand, is ridiculously vigorous.

Update:

Okay, I'm probably never going to top/train my plants ever again! By not messing with them, I have reduced the grow time by as much as two weeks. I have found that, every time I top my plants, they get set back by about a week. Whenever I supercrop, it also sets the plants back while they recover from the damage done. I just let them do their natural thing this run and I couldn't be happier. Even the bottom branches grew out and produced some nice buds.

Since I wasn't physically manipulating the plants, I decided to do the latest "cool kid" thing and incorporated some side lighting. I've done it before, but not with a lot of light. This time, I hung my HLG 300 Red Spec lengthwise in the corner of the tent and dialed it up to ~160 watts. I'll probably always include side lighting from now on....maybe even look into some of those under canopy lights, too. It didn't get rid of all the larf, but it certainly is helping the lower buds to ripen faster and keep up with the upper buds.

Anyway, the Tuna Kush was supposed to be a short, squat Indica...but it has turned out to be a large beefy-budded monster! One of the cultivars is denser and a little slower-growing than the other one. They both are producing a very musky, plum wine kind of smell. One is slightly more fuel/gas leaning and the other is more incense-y.


The Triangle Kush BX were very slow in veg, but now producing some nice, small, tight buds on lanky stems with long internodes. I have them in 2-gallon containers, but the containers are even smaller than described...more like 1-1/2 gallon. I just didn't have room for big pots/plants in my Gorilla Shorty tent.
The Tunas are in 3-gallon pots that are more like 3-1/2 gallon size. So the Tunas have the advantage of more room/roots than do the Triangles.

The Tunas are entering into week #9 on this coming Friday and they are yellowing nicely. The Triangles are still VERY dark green even though I've cut way back on the Nitrogen. They seem to be more sensitive to Nitrogen.

Anyway, I'm sold on not topping. No matter what, I'll have plenty to smoke. I know that from past experience. There isn't any need for me to SCROG, etc. The plants seem happier to me this way.

Is there an argument relating to finishing time throughout the structure of the plant?

In those lovely pics of one massive tall cola with much lower side branches, will the top of the cola mature first getting the ambers but the side lowers won't be ready?

So do you overcook the top cola to get the lowers up to spec, or chop when you have the ambers you want on the cola and risk underdone lowers?

I had this with a black domina and it was a right pain deciding chop time.

Personally I'll top and lst to get an even canopy so the maximum flower is taken at the right time. Just my 2 cents.