Plant too big and beginning to flower. Can I top it?

Hi, so I'm growing a Choco Candy by Zambeza on my balcony. It's been growing for 2 months. About 2 weeks ago it stopped stretching but a week ago pre-flowers started appearing and now on week 2 of preflowering it is beginning to stretch a bit, How much more? Don't know but I'm afraid it could look too out of control, I mean it is in my balcony.

I'm not worried about government (I'm in Mexico overlooking the sea surrounded by palm trees. Impossible to see unless wearing binoculars). But I'm going to be away for 2 months leaving a cleaning lady in charge of it (who doesnt know what it is or doesnt ask) but I'm afraid my parents could come by and check my apartment which belongs to them and say "what the hell is that monster?". They've seen the plant before when it was very small and asked about it and I said it was "Salvia from Argentina". They believed it, they're so innocent. But if it becomes a monster I'm afraid I couldn't hide it.

So the question is what happens if I top it now? Those colas are lost? or it just forms new colas and keeps a lower size? The colas are beginning to pre-flower like I said.

Pictures would really, really help here... close-up and full plant.

Also include sunrise and sunset times.

spek9 said:

Pictures would really, really help here... close-up and full plant.

Also include sunrise and sunset times.

Click to expand...

Sunrise Today:7:27 am↑ 101° East
Sunset Today:7:01 pm↑ 259° West

Monster or supercrop then lst.
FF

FastFreddi said:

Monster or supercrop then lst.
FF

Click to expand...

...and transplant. Those pots are very small for a two month leave of absence.

Supercrop it!

Pinch the stem at a point that will be your height limit.
Pinch it between your thumb and point finger. TILL it begins to bend over. bend her till it's just below 90 deg and stop.
Do this with the bent in part towards the center of the light - as best you can.

problem solved... It can done again if need be..

This will also make you some real nice buds on the bent branch!

Nice, I think I will super crop it. Making clones is not for me, I already tried with 6 cuttings using clonex and none survived, they all rotted.

Dude first off I hope you live in a legal state or else growing it on your balcony is kinda retarded lmao. Shes looking great to me! It's too late to top off and it wont do anything! No point, just get some nice grow lights and do it indoors, shes looking beautiful, well done. Whatever you do, don't try to top it off at this stage

Hi, I have just super cropped it.
Hope you can notice in the pic, but it blended nicely, none of the branches broke. I think I'm good at this.

Amazing, it's been only 1 day and the flowers are now pointing upwards. Are the branches going to need some wire or the plant can take care of that on its own?

avillax said:

Amazing, it's been only 1 day and the flowers are now pointing upwards. Are the branches going to need some wire or the plant can take care of that on its own?View attachment 4484982

Click to expand...

Is there any harm to the plant or yeild super cropped so late / in early flower ?

Super crop as low as you can on the branch, and throw a heavy (so the plant doesnt push it up) screen over the top. Without training to go into specific holes in the screen, it will take a few days extra to find it's way up.

Once you get past week 3-4 of flower, you wont gain much more height.. so you just need to do whatever you can to stymie upward growth during that time. Super cropping will buy you a few days, the screen will buy you a few more.

Also, what size is that bucket? Looks like 2-3 gallons?

Smaller pot size should help reduce the amount of stretch, but no matter what, without constant training, you'll end up with a tall plant... she finds a way lol

I've had to supercrop multiple times on the same stem because they would have grown back up overnight. And I supercrop well past the stage of flowering your at with that plant if I need to.

Here's an update, it's been about 3 days since I super cropped it and it keeps growing like nothing happened. Actually, it is still stretching up from the main stalk and the farmost colas. Yes, it is a 2 gal bucket. It started preflowering 1 week ago and now I can see resin and trichomes with my lens. It is a monster, highly recommend this Choco Candy by Zambeza.

So, since it keeps stretching up, can I super crop the already supercropped branches? Meaning the branches will look like a "Z"?



I'm also attaching pictures of a cola from the same strain I planted way earlier but that got stunted for growing in coco which now I hate. I was able to fix it by moving it to regular dirt with sheep dung fertilizer and it gave me a decent cola, but just one, which I have just harvested. It has nice nugs with lots of crystals and magnificent smell.

avillax said:

So, since it keeps stretching up, can I super crop the already supercropped branches? Meaning the branches will look like a "Z"?

Click to expand...

Yes. I've done this multiple times, just yesterday in fact on one of the plants I bred and it grows vertically like crazy.

By the way, coming back to an unanswered question. Do branches need support with thread or something? I'm using thread only on the fattest branch, the rest are without support and everything just seems fine. This has turned out to be a monster of a plant so perhaps it can recover and create badass nodes on its own to resist the weight without aid?

avillax said:

By the way, coming back to an unanswered question. Do branches need support with thread or something? I'm using thread only on the fattest branch, the rest are without support and everything just seems fine. This has turned out to be a monster of a plant so perhaps it can recover and create badass nodes on its own to resist the weight without aid?

Click to expand...

I don't support mine. If anything, I tie the branches down. The supercropped branches will always continue to grow towards the light. I don't do that very often, but when I do tie, it's down, not up.

Your gonna leave that plant alone for two months? Hope it doesn’t start to smell and neighbors start asking questions. Also hoping your parents/housekeeper doesn’t recognize it later in flower is hoping for a lot. Plan better. Trash it. I couldn’t imagine worrying about getting busted every day for 2 months. Too many things can go wrong.

Good job though looks good.

spek9 said:

I don't support mine. If anything, I tie the branches down. The supercropped branches will always continue to grow towards the light. I don't do that very often, but when I do tie, it's down, not up.

Click to expand...

On the rare occasion I've been a bit severe with supercropping so it hung downward I've set a plant stake under it until it got a callus at the bend and started to support itself again, oops!

Coalcat said:

Your gonna leave that plant alone for two months? Hope it doesn’t start to smell and neighbors start asking questions. Also hoping your parents/housekeeper doesn’t recognize it later in flower is hoping for a lot. Plan better. Trash it. I couldn’t imagine worrying about getting busted every day for 2 months. Too many things can go wrong.

Good job though looks good.

Click to expand...

In Mexico cops can't break into your house without an order, and they would only get one if you're growing some serious weed farm. There are also no funds to be persecuting home growers who live in private condos (no cops here). Also, while this weed has great smell, it is not very pungent and it is more fruity than marijuana-like. Also since it is growing in my balcony there's plenty of air and breeze taking smells away. Even if somebody smells it wouldn't know exactly where the smell comes from. Also, my condo is always half empty, and the plant is hidden among other plants. I've already harvested other plants before with no problem. I once had a tiny Alice by delicatessen seeds and that shit was really pungent for a tiny plant, I would bring it inside my apartment and it would stink it all in 1 hour.

I instructed the maid to come twice per week to water/fertilize it. I think it will be fine, only thing I'm worried are white flies.