to fim or not to fim?

Growing outdoors in Northern California. Organic. Bag seed mostly. Planted in late May. Still a week or two from determining sex.
I have limited space and planted quite tight, anticipating the when the males are removed there should be plenty of space for the rest.
Starting to see a hint of preflowering and it looks like I might have a disproportionate number of females. Not unhappy about that but may find I have space issues.
Thinking about ways to train for max health and yield.
Maybe a SOG type thing.
So then I wonder about FIM.
Curious how late into flowering it can be done and whether it would benefit in any way.

As far as I'm aware you can't really fim or top plants that are already in flower as they don't tend to grow top shoots in the same way they do in veg but if it's just starting to show sex it's not too late to fim or top the plants and if your culling males then it would be worthwhile fim img and training branches to spread out more

Hi
Thanks for responding.I appreciate your opinion.
In the end I couldn't bring myself to do it. Worried that I didn't fully grasp the technique and the plants would be unhappy and delay flowers.
Instead, I decided to just train by bending the tops down and tying them them off. It ought to get the plants to flatten out on top. Though it might have been better to do it earlier. Definite hints of preflower. Probably take the males on a week or so when they are showing more clearly.
What do you reckon?
Pics are of:
The bag seed zone where its getting crowded (7 plants in approx 8x8').

How I bent the tops.

The top of a typical plant.

You could have just topped the plants in order to have more colas instead of doing it the fim way if you weren't comfortable enough to try it out. The best way I learned to top was just doing it to one or two plants a time per cycle in order to get the technique down that way you can be confident in yourself that you only have one topped plant and it's a good learning experience. Looking forward to seeing the plants in flower man! Take care

Hey, thanks for the advice.
I have/am considering topping some but am concerned it might be a bit late. Plants are beginning to show early preflowers. How late is it practice to do it?
Thought training was safest. But am reconsidering.
Maybe I'll top a couple, film a couple and train the rest.
I ought not to be scared to experiment.

If they are already starting to flower I'd just let it run its course and not touch them. You'll Have More Opportunities In The Future And Topping Should Be Done In Early Veg For Best Results Like 2-4 Nodes Is Good.

Wish I could get definitive answer on when is the latest you can apply these techniques.
I know ideally you start training and topping early, but think I have read you can do some gentle pruning after preflowers show...

Still better safe than sorry so I'll leave em be.
Don't think I have caused any harm by bending tips. Hopefully during the stretch canopy will even a bit.

Thanks for the advice.

pope creek said:

Growing outdoors in Northern California. Organic. Bag seed mostly. Planted in late May. Still a week or two from determining sex.
I have limited space and planted quite tight, anticipating the when the males are removed there should be plenty of space for the rest.
Starting to see a hint of preflowering and it looks like I might have a disproportionate number of females. Not unhappy about that but may find I have space issues.
Thinking about ways to train for max health and yield.
Maybe a SOG type thing.
So then I wonder about FIM.
Curious how late into flowering it can be done and whether it would benefit in any way.View attachment 3454698

Click to expand...

Regarding the FIM TECHNIQUE not every plant responds the same to this process. Some will shoot out 4 new shoots while other just shoot out the 2 usual new growth you would get from a regular topping or pinching of the shoot.

The nice thing about a FIM is that I like to do this on my last topping before I go to flowering. Even if it doesnt shoot out the 4 new tops and just throws out the 2 new shoots. The nice thing is that when you FIM unlike topping the main top that you cut still remains there so you are left with a nice tight cluster of flowering sites that have good internodal spacing which will form into one large cola during flowering.

This is the reason I like to do it on the last trim and clean up I do roughly 10 days before I flip my ladies and it sets me up nicely for good canopy growth and main colas.