Uncle Ben's Topping Technique to Get 2 or 4 Main Colas

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DaveCoulier

DaveCoulier

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Firstime: It sucks to cut your plant in half because it looks like you've done a horrible thing afterwards, especially when yours is so tall, but half of you growth appears to be stretching to begin with :( Or it could just be bagseed. My buddy has 5 bagseed plants in my tent and one of them has long internode distance, while all the rest of the plants have short internode distance.

If you topped above where your plant became trifoliate(2nd true node), you will end up with 5 main tops hopefully. Those little new leafs will each become like a new top that you previously cut off. Just check out my picture I posted above to see what you'll end up with if she's growing well. My plant grew 5.5 inches in 10 days after being topped. Im sure UB's plants grow even faster, but he's been at this for 40 years more than I :).

If it were me...Id probably leave that girl untopped. Id love to see what a truly trifoliate plant can yield versus an topped plant, thats assuming you top the rest of your plants. Id be worried it'll revert to being normal if you topped it for whatever reason.
 
First Time Growin

First Time Growin

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Okay, well then I will top my other plant and leave this one be. What do you mean by stretching? what does this mean? and why is it bad/ how does it happen?
 
DaveCoulier

DaveCoulier

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First Time Growin said:
Okay, well then I will top my other plant and leave this one be. What do you mean by stretching? what does this mean? and why is it bad/ how does it happen?
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Stretching ends up giving you greater distance between your nodes, and that means more popcorn nuggets instead of meaty buds. Your plants will automatically do this when you start flowering, but its not something we want in veg.

Do your other plants look like that? What type of light are you using? How close is it to them?

Btw, how tall is that plant?
 
First Time Growin

First Time Growin

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Um yeah, both of my plants are(this is my first grow only got 2) pretty much the exact same, besides one being trifoliate... they got same hight (7 inches) and quite a bit of space inbetween each node. I am using one fluoro balast with 2 coolwhite's on it(48w ea) and also one CFL Ballast that has four 1ft CFL lights, dont know their wattage nor kelvin temp, but it is really bright and i added that 4 cfl ballast 4 days ago and the plants startted to grow alot more. i guess the 1 fluoro balast was defeniatly not enough. ( i know this but am on the shittiest of budgets) They are very close almost touching, except the CFL beacuse it produces a bit of heat... also their strain is G-Funk if that matters?
 
First Time Growin

First Time Growin

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DaveCoulier said:
Looks like you topped high there. You'll get more than 4 tops if they all grow out strong.
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That sounds great, unfortunately i dont understand what you mean... By 4 tops do you mean like 4 Main branches(which will produce cola's) and i thought this would only happen if i cut it much lower, like the tutorial was discussing on the first page.. look forward to ur reply.. peace:peace:
 
DaveCoulier

DaveCoulier

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If you cut between the first node and the second, you get 2 tops. If you cut between the 2nd and 3rd node, you will get 4 tops. Every time you go up another node, you get 2 more tops. Basically count how many "sucker branches" there are below where your cut is, and thats how many new tops you can end up with. You'll get quite a bit more since the plant is trifoliate. Between which nodes did you make the cut?
 
First Time Growin

First Time Growin

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I didn't top the trifoliate because you had said it might cause it to revert back to being a 2 leafer instead of three.
I topped my other plant and have the photo's (1 page before this one) I cut it right above the 6th node (guessing i toppd the 7th future node??)


Also i am even more confused now.


DaveCoulier said:
If you cut between the first node and the second, you get 2 tops. If you cut between the 2nd and 3rd node, you will get 4 tops. Every time you go up another node, you get 2 more tops. Basically count how many "sucker branches" there are below where your cut is, and thats how many new tops you can end up with. You'll get quite a bit more since the plant is trifoliate. Between which nodes did you make the cut?
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what do you mean? i thought on the first page he had said it will get 2 branches from usual topping but if you do the FIMming that is suggested it will get you 4 instead. are you saying the higher the node, it can surpass 4 main colas?
 
DaveCoulier

DaveCoulier

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Woops. Got confused for a minute bout which one was topped. Im thinking you may have gotten confused and topped from the wrong direction? You wouldn't be the first. You top above the second true node from the bottom up.

You can definitely get more than 4 tops. My trifoliate plant has seven trops growing out. Would have been 9, but the sucker branches at the bottom never grew out.

BTW, UB doesn't recomment fimming. Not sure where you got that one from. Fimming is unpredicatable with how many tops you get.
First Time Growin said:
I didn't top the trifoliate because you had said it might cause it to revert back to being a 2 leafer instead of three.
I topped my other plant and have the photo's (1 page before this one) I cut it right above the 6th node (guessing i toppd the 7th future node??)


Also i am even more confused now.




what do you mean? i thought on the first page he had said it will get 2 branches from usual topping but if you do the FIMming that is suggested it will get you 4 instead. are you saying the higher the node, it can surpass 4 main colas?
Click to expand...
 
First Time Growin

First Time Growin

Active Member
DaveCoulier said:
Woops. Got confused for a minute bout which one was topped. Im thinking you may have gotten confused and topped from the wrong direction? You wouldn't be the first. You top above the second true node from the bottom up.

You can definitely get more than 4 tops. My trifoliate plant has seven trops growing out. Would have been 9, but the sucker branches at the bottom never grew out.

BTW, UB doesn't recomment fimming. Not sure where you got that one from. Fimming is unpredicatable with how many tops you get.
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What do you mean "topped from the wrong direction?" like instead of going bottom up i went up to bottom? because all i did was cut the newest growing leafs at the top of the plant. so if you look at the pictures i have posted of the "after-cut" do u suggest i am to cut even LOWER?
 
Katatawnic

Katatawnic

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First Time Growin said:
What do you mean "topped from the wrong direction?" like instead of going bottom up i went up to bottom? because all i did was cut the newest growing leafs at the top of the plant. so if you look at the pictures i have posted of the "after-cut" do u suggest i am to cut even LOWER?
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Are you aiming for four main colas like is this thread's title?

If so, then yes, you are to cut lower, above the second node as instructed.

If not, then you'll top where you prefer.
 
First Time Growin

First Time Growin

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I see... I understand now... but why would i want to top less branches? isn't the point of topping for you get more main cola's? wouldn't topping higher result in more bud production?
 
Snak

Snak

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First Time Growin... If you have a half an hour, read this as much of this thread as you can. All these subjects have been covered in detail already, and I'm sure that your answers will be found faster that way.

Good luck :leaf:
 
Jack in the Bud

Jack in the Bud

Active Member
Uncle Benny,

How you be?

If I may let me tell you a bit about where I'm at and ask a question or two.

It's been 15 days since poking some seeds into the dirt (I did soak them between some wet paper towels for 24 hrs. first). Had a 93% germination rate. Got them close under the fluoros on 20/4 and enough of a fan generated breeze on them to keep them shaking around gently. Most appear to have two sets of leaves past the cotyledons so far. Had a few (but way far fewer than in the past) plants get so tall and spindly that they fell over but being as I started more than I could possibly finish out I just culled them out. Also culled out some runts due to space considerations. They haven't seen anything out side of the 60 to 70 degree temperature range. No CO2 suppliment or additional nutrients yet. The soil mix is the one you recommended to me some time back. Don't know if I got all the proportions of the various components to it just like you would have but I did get everything in there that you recommended including those soaked alfalfa pellets.

My plan is to follow as closely as possible (with what I've aready got hardware wise) the 4 Cola method you started this thread about.

The main thing I'm unclear on right now is how much longer you let the plant veg after pinching before you'd consider switching the light to 12/12 to begin forcing. I realize that there's the final height factor to consider (and I can't really accomodate any more than 4 foot above the container) but I should certainly think that the plant needs at least a week or two more of vegging after being pinched back so that it can develope that healthy 4 cola scaffold.

As always, any comments, advice or guidlines you'd wish to share will be greatly appreciated.

Stay safe.

Jack
 
B

BurnDatShit35

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ok so i have a plant wich i trained down it has about 7 or 8 little side branches and what ever. i notice thou what would normally be the top of the plant the main cola still growns more abudantly. If i where to top it now would all of the side branches become large colas assuming i took care of them porperly
 
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