topped plants vs non-topped plants

just wondering in your experiences does it take longer for a plant that has been topped multiple times to show hairs vs a plant that has not been topped? i have 4 plants so far 2 show hairs one it think is a male and the 4th has been topped many times and not seeing any signs, all of them are same strain of indica germinated the same time planted the same time all under the same conditions. your thoughts please

From my limited experience the plant will flower when it will flower and if you top it or not it will still flower regardless based on photoperiods and hormonal changes in the plant, topping or not topping will make no difference in regards to when the plant starts to flower, in my opinion and based on experiences I've had outdoors. But others may differ on that.

I'm no expert, but I think the plant needs to be mature. I veg for 8 weeks and when I flip I get hairs within days.

srichard722 said:

just wondering in your experiences does it take longer for a plant that has been topped multiple times to show hairs vs a plant that has not been topped? i have 4 plants so far 2 show hairs one it think is a male and the 4th has been topped many times and not seeing any signs, all of them are same strain of indica germinated the same time planted the same time all under the same conditions. your thoughts please

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got pics of suspected male?Are they all the same strain?

when comparing a topped plant VS a plant that is just left to grow I would think the plant that was topped would be behind developmentally. plants that are invasively trained are in a period of shock for a few days or longer after such procedures. That being said the topped plant would take longer to catch up. Hormonal changes in growth and light sensitivity would be irregular/ unpredictable. The plant would mature at a different rate, just because we flip the light schedule doesn't mean the same results.

kiwipaulie said:

I'm no expert, but I think the plant needs to be mature. I veg for 8 weeks and when I flip I get hairs within days.

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your plants are most likely pre-flowering with 8 weeks veg you will see pistils before you filp to 12/12

skunkd0c said:

your plants are most likely pre-flowering with 8 weeks veg you will see pistils before you filp to 12/12

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Is that what it is haha, I was wondering WTF when Iooked the other day, as I hadn't noticed them before.

srichard722 said:

just wondering in your experiences does it take longer for a plant that has been topped multiple times to show hairs vs a plant that has not been topped?

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If you would have said "can", instead of "does", then I would have to say yes, in my experience that can be the case. I pop a lot more plants than I flower, so it's important for me to find the males and females asap and use a scope to locate preflowers. Often the first preflowers appear near the top, if that top is much taller than the branches (strong apical dominance) they will usually be there first, and if you remove that, you change the hormone balance causing it to rebalance. It needs to accumulate enough flower hormones over time. If you remove the part where it accumulated the most (leaves...) it CAN indeed cause a delay.

So depends on where and when you topped it. And since you mentioned "topped many times", yeah, if you remove the tops and hence leaves and the part the preflowers appear first, continuously, I'm not surprised you don't see any signs yet.

Diabolical666 said:

got pics of suspected male?Are they all the same strain?

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yes all same strain ill take pics of male but im 90% sure its male

Just An FYI, when the plant starts to have alternating nodes, it is mature enough to flower

well i could not get any good pictures but i have identified 3 females one male....the one that i topped showed her first hairs today here she is

germinated the seeds dec 3 had them in soil a few days later...guess i could of vegged a bit more another week by w/e

Could be because a plant that is topped many times will be shorter -- further from the light. It could also be stunted if it was put into flowering to soon after being topped, or was topped during the early production of pre-flowers. I've always been under the impression that same strain/pheno/environment should have the same flowering times. Are we talking pre-flowers or actual blooming flowers? How long between signs in non-topped plant vs the topped plant?