topping your plant

nickhigham2112

Active Member
hi all

can anyone advise on topping a plant ,i was talking to a bloke & he mentioned topping your plants for better results ,but im not sure ,if he is right .at what stage would you do this ,how ??? ,& what are the effects of topping ,do you get more bud doin this .


cheers

nick
 

Irie Genetics

Active Member
cheers mate ,my plants have just started to flower is it too late you think

nick
YES IT IS TOO LATE! DO NOT TOP NOW! If you wanted to top you needed to do it at least 2 weeks before blooming. I would recommend topping about a month before flowering. I top most of my plants and let them veg a little extra time and I get HUGE yields. I have an apprentice who does not like to top because it does require more work to keep all of your buds upright but I ALWAYS kill him in harvest weight. Top early in veg and train your plants to grow where you want them and you will get HUGE results. Also, look at an article by Erik Biksa called GROWING ON THE GRID for advice on maximizing your harvest after you top. I also recommend the above mentioned Uncle Ben article as well.
 

nickhigham2112

Active Member
thanks for that ,

my plants are a week in flower ,i had a feeling it was too late ,???
but iv just took some cuttings what are ready for planting now so will defo experiment with a few this time ,i usually put in veg for 3-4 weeks on 18-6 then put them on 12-12 .

its cheese iv been growing ,but only averaging at best 2oz on the best plants in the room then 1 half oz the rest .if i start topping could i be looking at nearly doubling the weight .

cheers
nick
 

Irie Genetics

Active Member
Much of your harvest weight is determined by pot size. How big are your pots? I wouldnt expect double. Maybe 50%-75% increase. I went from 2 oz per plant to 3 and sometimes 4. After moving to larger pots I can pull 6-8ozs per plant. I use 7 gallon pots, 6 plants per 5'X5' area under a 1,000 watt light. I can pull over 1,500 grams of DRY buds per light without effort using 2 weeks in a cloner, 2 weeks in a small pot, 30 days veg in 7gallon pots and 65 days bloom. 12 weeks total cycle gives me over a quarter pound per week to medicate myself. Rastafari!
 

nickhigham2112

Active Member
i go off a 12 week cycle also .my pots are 10ltr whats that ,about 2 half uk gallons .my grow room is 8 x 6 ft so not that big of a room .so manage around 10 cheese plants .i have 1 light 600w .

think doubling the size of my pots is the way ? 20ltr

thanks
 

mike91sr

Well-Known Member
Much of your harvest weight is determined by pot size. How big are your pots? I wouldnt expect double. Maybe 50%-75% increase. I went from 2 oz per plant to 3 and sometimes 4. After moving to larger pots I can pull 6-8ozs per plant. I use 7 gallon pots, 6 plants per 5'X5' area under a 1,000 watt light. I can pull over 1,500 grams of DRY buds per light without effort using 2 weeks in a cloner, 2 weeks in a small pot, 30 days veg in 7gallon pots and 65 days bloom. 12 weeks total cycle gives me over a quarter pound per week to medicate myself. Rastafari!
You pull 3lbs per light with 6 weeks of veg in soil?? Got some pictures of that?
 

skunkd0c

Well-Known Member
you can top the plants whenever you like, they will not be harmed , i only tend to top them if they look too narrow or too tall, to encourage a more bush shape it can increase yield, by producing more colas, i think it is a good idea for many strains
some strains just do not need topping and produce multi colas at the top anyway
topping just before flower or even during flower is ok, it will tend to encourage the bottom branches to shoot upwards and form large colas
flowering will not be delayed

peace :)
 

skunkd0c

Well-Known Member
Id like to see how a plant would recover from being topped week 6 or later into flower.
im not sure what the benefit of topping so late into flower would produce since at 6 weeks of flower the stretch is most likely over
and the plant would of reached its final height and shape

i do not believe the plant suffers stress when you top it or needs to recover from anything,
if it does suffer stress it shows no signs of it
i cant say i have topped any later than 2-3 weeks into flower, although at that stage if a plant had become very tall i would more likely bend it over
or would of topped it before hand

this is only coincidental but the 2 strains that i topped on my current run during the first week of flower
are still the tallest and the first to show buds, topping did not slow them down in any way, i knew they would be taller
and quicker than the rest of the strains and phenos i have , that is why i topped them to try to keep them more even
in height and shape with the rest of the plants

peace :)
 
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