I Want to Top My Plants. Any Pointers?

[heathaa]

well my plants are all at a foot tall and going on the fourth node. i heard to take fingernail clippers and clip the top growth so it branches out. should i cut just the top? or should i wait for the plants to get a lil bigger and go down a node or two? how does everyone else do it?

 

[Cannabis Krew 420]

Im going to try this for the first time this year too... Im afraid ill stunt the plantss too much

 

[pickle8]

I topped mine at the fith node back to the 3rd node. You could also wait till they get a little bigger if you really want to. i've just cut the top off as well. End result looked the same to me.

 

[Merlin34]

You can top at a foot tall. Just look for the Y in the plant you will see three growths, one in the middle and two outside it. Clips the middle one and the other two (and the lower branches) will catch up to the top. Also after about the eighth node you will get a perfect Y withe the top growing out of the middle. Clip that top and now you have 2 identical tops. Granted, every time you top your buds might (will) be smaller, but what good is a bud really if it weighs more than a quarter?

 

[wheezer]

uuuuuuuuuum ok.....I don't think I understood all that, but yea, you can do it either way, it doesn't hurt anything, and it doesn't make the buds smaller either, maybe on an indoor grow that your flowering right away, but that would be it. I top mine at the forth node, and that causes 2 tops, and brings the lower ones up some, and thn I top those 2 tops again on their forth node, and a couple weeks later you should have about 6-8 nice even tops. Then you an again later if you want, it's up to you, and the strain. Of course, some strains react better to it than others, but I've never found it to be counterproductive. Good Luck!!

 

[heathaa]

so im at the 4 and 5th node now i should cut the main stalk at the third node and leave everthing else?

 

[bob loblough]

i did and it seems to help bush out waaaay more.

plus, i have a few extra clones from tops starting to take root now, and thats always a good thing. id cut after the 4th. i would suggest to try it...

 

[mive]

i did and it seems to help bush out waaaay more.

plus, i have a few extra clones from tops starting to take root now, and thats always a good thing. id cut after the 4th. i would suggest to try it...

i thought taking clones from topping wasnt supposed to be that good? care to elaborate how you rooted the toppings?

 

[bob loblough]

i dunno if its that good or not, i just figured i would try to get them to root since i was cutting them off anyway.

i just stuck em in water. thats it.
i left 2or 3 nodes on the cutting, used the 9oz party cups, covered them with aluminum foil kinda bent inwards to support it, poked a hole in the foil and changed the water every couple days

4 of 6 survived and to be fair, they havnt completely rooted yet. its only been a little over a week. but the ,uh...white blobs or root masses or whatever started poking out a couple days ago.

and i suspect that using a rooting hormone would make ones percentages go up...

 

[heathaa]

well today since im at the 5th node im going to cut back to the fourth node. could this make them stress too much and go male?

 

[bird313]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNuanYP7sb8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[wheezer]

no man, it ain't gonna stress em' like that, you'll be fine. I've heard that topping and removing lower branches and le3aves is supposed to cause stress, but I have never seen it. They seem to grow better when you do.

 

[Waiakeauka]

bird313,

How many nodes did you have when you topped the plant in the video?

 

[heathaa]

bird313,

How many nodes did you have when you topped the plant in the video?

on that seedling it was like 2 nodes. i well i did mine at 4 or 5 and i did it a few days ago and it still seems like the plant never missed a beat. now them things are going on 3 feet tall but theres no new undergrowth yet it just got started but check my signature and theres some pics