Top or not top plants

whelk

Well-Known Member
Hi there quick question. My tent is only 2 x 4 and about 6ft high. I have grown 3 in there before but usually I do 2 plants in there topped and in 12 litre pots with 250w led light. This time I want to grow 3 plants for a bit of variety and not sure if I should top them or not because I'm worried that they might get too wide... do you think I should top or not? Will leaving them untopped make it easier to grow 3 plants in terms of space? Obviously I will have to try to make them stretch upwards as little as possible. The strains are raw diesel, mimosa orange punch and sweet zombie.
 
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speedwell68

Well-Known Member
I'd top them and tie them down as much as possible. Sweet Zombie is a lovely strain, I had a seed as a freebie a couple of years ago and did a couple of runs with clones.
 

Delps8

Well-Known Member
Hi there quick question. My tent is only 2 x 4 and about 6ft high. I have grown 3 in there before but usually I do 2 plants in there topped and in 12 litre pots with 250w led light. This time I want to grow 3 plants for a bit of variety and not sure if I should top them or not because I'm worried that they might get too wide... do you think I should top or not? Will leaving them untopped make it easier to grow 3 plants in terms of space? Obviously I will have to try to make them stretch upwards as little as possible. The strains are raw diesel, mimosa orange punch and sweet zombie.
Topping removes the apical stem. That doesn't mean that the plant grows wider, it just means you don't get a plant that looks like a Christmas tree. Growers typically top the plant and then do low stress training with the goal of flattening the canopy. LST makes the plants wider and plant shape is heavily influenced by the grow light (blue tends to make plants shorter and wider).

One of the advantages of having more, small plants is that seed to weed time is shorter than with a fewer number of larger plants.
 

go go kid

Well-Known Member
You can control height by twisting stems.
will just bending the tops over work, thinking behind it is the oplant will put its energy into trying to straighten backup again, which it wot be able to do, ive tried it with weeds in the carden this year, well a small part of it, and the plants never grew back up again, just laid there, but didnt stop new growh
 

VincenzioVonHook

Well-Known Member
I always top as I like an even canopy and I find it far easier to get an even canopy with a topping over lst. I'm too lazy for lst. The latest was grown out to 10 nodes (day 25ish) and topped back to the 7th node. It has grown very evenly canopy wise so far with no training after the top. Day 42 now. Not a bad result considering.l it was 12/12 from seed. There's probably 2" max from the highest cola to the lowest.
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Last time I grew a apically dominant plant, the top was getting 1100umol/s and the bottoms around 350umol/s, and the uneven maturity bothered me. Had to harvest the top earlier as I was too lazy and cheap to get side lighting or train the plant properly in the first place.
 

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
will just bending the tops over work, thinking behind it is the oplant will put its energy into trying to straighten backup again, which it wot be able to do, ive tried it with weeds in the carden this year, well a small part of it, and the plants never grew back up again, just laid there, but didnt stop new growh
I don’t know about your experience but I supercrop extensively. The branches do lift back up until you flip. Sometimes almost overnight. I use both snap and twist methods.
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
It depends on how long you keep them in the vegetative stage. I often grow plants without any training and flower them after no longer than 3-4 weeks in veg when they're around 18" tall. You can grow 3-4 plants in that space or you can grow just one with longer vegging and proper training.
 

Delps8

Well-Known Member
I always top as I like an even canopy and I find it far easier to get an even canopy with a topping over lst. I'm too lazy for lst. The latest was grown out to 10 nodes (day 25ish) and topped back to the 7th node. It has grown very evenly canopy wise so far with no training after the top. Day 42 now. Not a bad result considering.l it was 12/12 from seed. There's probably 2" max from the highest cola to the lowest.
View attachment 5230151
View attachment 5230153
Last time I grew a apically dominant plant, the top was getting 1100umol/s and the bottoms around 350umol/s, and the uneven maturity bothered me. Had to harvest the top earlier as I was too lazy and cheap to get side lighting or train the plant properly in the first place.
That's a great looking canopy. Congrats.
 
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