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.
 
tstick said:
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.
Click to expand...

I did it once years ago.......no likey. Never did it again.
 
Why top anyways just bend. Same result less downtime. I can't remember the last time I 'topped' a plant in the traditional way. I just find without evening the canopy the yields are subpar, I can get so much more weight from keeping that canopy even. Each bud receives basically the same amount of light and they all grow about the same size. Less shading out the lowers. But everyone's got their own ways, so I'm not knocking any method one way or the other. If it works for you then giver
 
TtZoo said:
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.
Click to expand...
Legit question. I reduced the overhead light and increased the side lighting with the intention of equalizing the ripening throughout the plant. Thing is....I have several big colas that are almost en par with the main cola. My understanding of this strain, from the description given, was to expect a moderate-yielding short, squat Indica that produced small, tight nugs. I popped 3 seeds...One was male. The other two grew like monsters and the stretch was ridiculous. So, now, I'm looking at way more weed than I ever planned on getting from this strain. I just hope it tastes good! At this point, I think I'm probably going to hand-trim the best colas and then freeze the rest of the lowers and try making some fresh-frozen piatella with my vacuum bag sealer. That will save me a bunch of trimming and I'll have plenty of material to experiment with from the looks of it. I've been wanting to try and make piatella for awhile. I don't have a freeze drier (yet), but if the resin washes well, then I'll just air-dry it, vacuum seal it and pop it in the fridge for a few months...
 
Jjgrow420 said:
Why top anyways just bend. Same result less downtime. I can't remember the last time I 'topped' a plant in the traditional way. I just find without evening the canopy the yields are subpar, I can get so much more weight from keeping that canopy even. Each bud receives basically the same amount of light and they all grow about the same size. Less shading out the lowers. But everyone's got their own ways, so I'm not knocking any method one way or the other. If it works for you then giver
Click to expand...
1736474648710.png
 
Yep...bending is good....but this was an experiment and I didn't want to do anything other than let the plants do their thing. They seem to know what they are doing. I guess that shouldn't be surprising since that's the way nature intended them to grow out in the Sun -where the light moves across the sky and penetrates all angles of the plant. In the tent, typically, the light is just overhead and so the sides of the plants don't get lit. Thus, the side-lighting. I just move the plants around in the tent, myself so that they get as much exposure to all the light sources as possible.

In the Shorty tent, I have the new AC Infinity Ion Beam lights attached to the tent poles and shining inwards from all corners. They do a pretty good job in a small tent, but nowhere near the side-lighting I'm getting from hanging the HLG 300 RS vertically in the corner.

Anyway, looks like I'll be making hash! :)
 
tstick said:
Legit question. I reduced the overhead light and increased the side lighting with the intention of equalizing the ripening throughout the plant. Thing is....I have several big colas that are almost en par with the main cola. My understanding of this strain, from the description given, was to expect a moderate-yielding short, squat Indica that produced small, tight nugs. I popped 3 seeds...One was male. The other two grew like monsters and the stretch was ridiculous. So, now, I'm looking at way more weed than I ever planned on getting from this strain. I just hope it tastes good! At this point, I think I'm probably going to hand-trim the best colas and then freeze the rest of the lowers and try making some fresh-frozen piatella with my vacuum bag sealer. That will save me a bunch of trimming and I'll have plenty of material to experiment with from the looks of it. I've been wanting to try and make piatella for awhile. I don't have a freeze drier (yet), but if the resin washes well, then I'll just air-dry it, vacuum seal it and pop it in the fridge for a few months...
Click to expand...

Nice work on the side lighting, that would address the issue. Never thought of putting lights at the side. That's got me thinking re my set up. Thank you
 
I don't top anymore either....I feel I get faster finishes with equal yield. I use under canopy lighting in a hydro tent to help lowers finish in time. Soil tents just get a high hung main with plenty of par. I supplement all tents with uva and ir for better penetration and bud density.
Current hydro grow of autos with no topping20250103_064913.jpg
 
Some good opinions backed by experience in these couple pages, i just do whatever the situation calls for, if I need to have one plant fill a 5x5 and that plant will sit in a veg room for 2+ months before it goes into the flower room, you can guarantee I'm topping, if that same plant starts in a flower room and needs to get to flip as quick as possible I'll start it in the corner of its eventual footprint and bend it towards the opposite corner, if i have 9+ smaller plants to fill the same 5x5 I won't top them and take advantage of minimal veg time and minimal height discrepancy between the main cola and the side branches, but if it's 4 plants to fill that 5x5 then yeah I'll top at the 3rd node for 4 heads then bend them outwards to fill a 2.5x2.5 per plant. It's horses for courses for me, there's no one technique that fits all situations.
 
Some plants have such apical dominance they need to be trained or topped to force them to branch out. Topping can force the tall spindly plants to branch out more. I take them on a plant by plant basis. Presently I have 7 plants growing 3 I topped 4 I left alone. One is an auto flower, I broke the apical dominance and now I have 10 more or less equal sized colas. The other 2 I topped, one never missed a trick, just bushed out like I wanted. The other stunted a little as they are wont to do but has gradually caught up. The ones that don't get topped make bigger, denser but fewer flowers. Quantity wise it's probably a push. I do it mainly to control the height on those sativa leaning tall boys.
 
Just now planting seeds after short planting pause to allow for HVAC and plumbing work to be done. Not topping to hopefully speed things up.
 
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