16000+ watts medigrow: og kush+ 13 x 1kw hps + 3 x t5 badboys + grotek = *HAPPY JOY*

fumble said:

thought you might like this....

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loving it!

Beansly said:

I've always been of the opinion that if you don't absolutely HAVE to, then don't top. There's a misconception that topping gives you a better yeild for the most part that's not true. It's more about hight control and light to canopy efficiency imho.

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well, it's a tool as much as any other technique, right? i'm not concerned about height, but canopy control absolutely effects yield. obviously cutting a chunk off a plant isn't going to increase yield in and of itself, but if it results in a more even canopy and better light distribution across the room in general....
(around here there's an added bonus: you can't grow pop bottle sized main colas at optimal rH's without risking a bunch of it to bud rot)
and with tree grows and a plant that tends towards vertical growth, optimising that lateral space amounts to optimising yield.

it's not something i would recommend across the board; i certainly wouldn't recommend it for sog, and you know i don't make blanket statements of that nature very often, but i'd say with larger plants there's a definite advantage to topping/fim/lst/some sort of canopy control. it just so happens i'm a fan of topping; it's the lazy stoner in me.

mellokitty said:

thanks for the FIM info, jozi.....
april, see why i'm confused too? i burnt almost an entire afternoon on google trying to figure it ooot and the closest i got was that it had *something* to do with topping.

so let's go over this shall we? funny thing is, i'm familiar with most of these techniques, i'm just still hazy on what's called what.
here's what i've gathered so far (and PLEASE correct me if i'm wrong):

supercropping= multiple toppings + sideways training (adapted from bonsai technique)
topping= cut off a couple nodes of the main stalk
lst= essentially supercropping without cutting stuff off
monstercropping= ? something to do with topping in flower, right?
FIM= kinda like tea-topping
is there a name for when you split the main stalk without removing anything? that's always mutey and fun.

did i miss anything?

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Oh kitty... here goes:
Supercrop= pinch and roll the stem (aboot 3" down from the top) between your fingers til you hear the pulp grinding inside, then simply bend the top over without totally snapping the stem. It forces the hormones from the apical tip down to the lower branch tips, which helps promote an even canopy. It can be done multiple times (and is my chosen method), and doesn't overly stress the plant.
Topping= just cutting off on or more nodes from the main stem.
LST= light stress training, basically just bending and training your plant to fill a given area or shape. The bends are gentle as opposed to supercropping.
FIM= fuck I missed. Which, as was said somewhere above is just snipping the top 80% of the newest growth tip, supposedly leading to multiple tops but it's kinda hit and miss.

Not sure about splitting the stem...

Beansly said:

I've always been of the opinion that if you don't absolutely HAVE to, then don't top. There's a misconception that topping gives you a better yeild for the most part that's not true. It's more about hight control and light to canopy efficiency imho.

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Eh, I don't really agree with that. It is definitely about height control, and light penetration but also allows lower branches to shoot up into the light thus receiving more light, thus increasing yield overall. You won't have the big mongo top cola, but many smaller but high quality colas. I use topping and supercropping, then train them onto a SCROG then profit.

Wolverine97 said:

Oh kitty... here goes:
Supercrop= pinch and roll the stem (aboot 3" down from the top) between your fingers til you hear the pulp grinding inside, then simply bend the top over without totally snapping the stem. It forces the hormones from the apical tip down to the lower branch tips, which helps promote an even canopy. It can be done multiple times (and is my chosen method), and doesn't overly stress the plant.
Topping= just cutting off on or more nodes from the main stem.
LST= light stress training, basically just bending and training your plant to fill a given area or shape. The bends are gentle as opposed to supercropping.
FIM= fuck I missed. Which, as was said somewhere above is just snipping the top 80% of the newest growth tip, supposedly leading to multiple tops but it's kinda hit and miss.

Not sure about splitting the stem...

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purrrrfect. i had forgotten the whole pinching vs bending thingy.

and what's the difference between supercropping and monstercropping?

Sorry kitty, I forgot that one. Monster cropping is just when you take a clone from a plant about halfway through flowering (I don't advise this). Once they revert to veg they throw branches out every which way, forming a multi-headed plant without topping. It can be good, but it can also backfire bigtime. I actually had a Casey Jones develop a genetic mutation (and not a good one) from doing that. No bueno.

Wolverine97 said:

Sorry kitty, I forgot that one. Monster cropping is just when you take a clone from a plant about halfway through flowering (I don't advise this). Once they revert to veg they throw branches out every which way, forming a multi-headed plant without topping. It can be good, but it can also backfire bigtime. I actually had a Casey Jones develop a genetic mutation (and not a good one) from doing that. No bueno.

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interesting. i've heard that reveg causes branchy plants. i can't wait to see what my reveg group does; [sheepish] if anything [/sheep].
i'm still a bit incredulous on the whole process; i feel like i should be sacrificing a goat or a virgin or something to kickstart the process.

tell us aboot your mutant... i love a good sci-fi story.

Wolverine97 said:

I use topping and supercropping, then train them onto a SCROG then profit.

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underpants! --> ??? --> PROFIT.

Jozikins said:

Topping works okay, but I've noticed the colas get so heavy on mine that they rip the main stalk apart.

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^^^this^^^ but i LOVE that. (well, not so much when it actually happens, but wow. and then it's time to get out the botanical tape and do surgery.)

i am relentless with the tie wire; we usually use a tomato cage around the main plant and then taller bamboo stakes around the rim of the pot to support the branches when they start to get unruly.

at this point they haven't quite outgrown the cages yet:



this green stuff is pretty schweet. it was promo-ed to mr kitty by a friend of his and we're lovin' it. reusable too.

mellokitty said:

underpants! --> ??? --> PROFIT.

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What's phase two?

mellokitty said:

interesting. i've heard that reveg causes branchy plants. i can't wait to see what my reveg group does; [sheepish] if anything [/sheep].
i'm still a bit incredulous on the whole process; i feel like i should be sacrificing a goat or a virgin or something to kickstart the process.

tell us aboot your mutant... i love a good sci-fi story.

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It's definitely scary. I had these two CJ plants vegging that I didn't have space for in the veg area, so I decided to try putting them in the bud room during lights on, moving them out each night to sit under a fluoro bulb. This went about as smoothly as you'd imagine, some nights they stayed in the bud room, some nights they came out and so on and so forth. So of course they started flowering. Then I decided to try to halt that process (only a week or so in) by leaving them to sit under a continuous fluoro. They kept flowering. I added more light, and eventually they put out new veg growth so I in my infinite wisdom decided to finally flower them. In the meantime, due to an ill-timed fishing trip and a lackadaisical wife type substance, my newly rooted (and healthy) CJ plants died of thirst. I decided to take some clones from the two I had just reverted back to flowering, about 2-3 weeks into 12/12.

The clones rooted fine, did the crazy branching thing and I moved them on like usual. About 6 weeks into flower I started to notice that the buds were reeeeaally loose and airy, way more than typical with this strain. Figured maybe temps were a bit high so I upped the co2 and kept going. When finished they were loose airy crap, still good trichome coverage but zero bag appeal. I qt ziplock would hold about an oz or less. I managed to get a few cuts back from a friend who I also gave the strain to, and I've kept the mutant around out of sheer curiosity. To this day, over a year later it's still a mutant and I think it's actually degrading further from what I can tell over the last several months. Something happened from all of that stress and it's now a part of that plants genetic code.

Werll that cause you all not as smart as me nyaa
Jk

I just meant that you wont get two of the same sized colas instead of one, but used like you guys mentioned it does help, and the bud rot issue is an excellent point. I guess it's more of the purist in me than anything logical lol.

Dear god information overload lol Ok wow well done where is my note pad!!!!

Why am i still lost !! I let them grow to the 3nd nod and snipped the top, this made 4 main colas . From there i keept scooping the new growth out( I had done this with my peppers this summer and the bushes were huge , so i applied the same technique and got very similar results. Damn next time i need to take pics as they grow pretty neat to watch, they seemed to have new branches and leaves every day, I'm assuming i did the top, fim, scrog thing ??? lmfao
Well this afternoon i'm gonna attempt some more clones, i think thats what i'm doing lol damn i wanna kitty!!

I'd call that "multi-topping", or something clever. Either way, really.

Wolverine97 said:

What's phase two?

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if the underpants gnomes don't care, why should we?

I'm a huge fan of revegging now. I revegged my pink plushberry, I didn't repot it or cut off roots but she's in coco. I just feed veg nutes and in 2 weeks she was throwin fucked up leaves, by 4 weeks she was throwin normal leaves. By 6 weeks she was a nice big bush. Still veggin her.

I use that green tie wire with foam on my outdoor plants it works great ESP If a brach ripped

TheLastWood said:

I'm a huge fan of revegging now. I revegged my pink plushberry, I didn't repot it or cut off roots but she's in coco. I just feed veg nutes and in 2 weeks she was throwin fucked up leaves, by 4 weeks she was throwin normal leaves. By 6 weeks she was a nice big bush. Still veggin her.

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good to know!!
they're starting to do a bit of the twist right now (getting light veg nutes, we've worked our way up to 400ish). not much else to say. no new growth as of yet. they don't seem to be drinking much; is this normal? just over a week in, now.

Joedank said:

I use that green tie wire with foam on my outdoor plants it works great ESP If a brach ripped

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omg, it's like heaven and earth from the ol' "roll o' green twist tie" isn't it? it doesn't restrict growth, but it stays put....
now i'm spoiled. damn product pushers.... "first one's free" indeed.

april said:

Dear god information overload lol Ok wow well done where is my note pad!!!!

Why am i still lost !! I let them grow to the 3nd nod and snipped the top, this made 4 main colas . From there i keept scooping the new growth out( I had done this with my peppers this summer and the bushes were huge , so i applied the same technique and got very similar results. Damn next time i need to take pics as they grow pretty neat to watch, they seemed to have new branches and leaves every day, I'm assuming i did the top, fim, scrog thing ??? lmfao
Well this afternoon i'm gonna attempt some more clones, i think thats what i'm doing lol damn i wanna kitty!!

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it's so much fun applying the stuff we learn from the garden in the "Garden" and vice versa.... i mean, i multitop all of my culinary herbs... it's happens by itself when you cut some to use them
i was thinking about topping a few of my lilies when they were starting to do their thing but it sort of freaked me oot so i didn't. maybe next year. i'm going to have even more lilies than i already do; there should be a few to spare.