Uncle Ben's Topping Technique to Get 2 or 4 Main Colas

Nice Chocolope Wrecks.. how tall is that lady?

Yep they're the first leaves..generally they are rounded.

This thread is awesome, this is exactly what I have been planning to do with the females that show in my 10 kali mist seedlings. I thought training them was going to be hard but now its looking like it will be easy, assuming I dont kill them before they make it to node 5 or 6, this is my first grow so no garantees I wont totally fck this up

will be posting pics starting when I top them

This is great info

rathou said:

• cotyledons ? - the first leaves formed or?
  
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The cote leaves, the small round tipped leafs that first appear when the plant germinates, are not the first set of "true leafs", those are next, the first set of single leafs that form right after the cote set. Then the second set is usually 3 leaf sets, with 3 tips on each leaf, then you might get one more set of 3 or it might go to 5 leafs, or 5 tips on each leaf - at any rate, you've got the cote' leafs, then the single leaf set or first true set of leafs, then triple leaf set or second true set of leafs. Okay? Work your way up from there, right now your at node 2 and working on node 3, lol!

Holy SATIVAS of info mashun over load. I just got to the LINK O RAMA post back down there about post #100.

HINT on speed reading the forum threads for the BEN-isms==scroll past everything else.

There's sooo much 'peat and repeat, if you scroll past all the pics of shriveled and twisted leaves and the inquiries of those who haven't taken the time to read two pages, THEN you can get through 1,000 posts in a week or so and learn a little something whilst you are doing such PLUS you might find your answer without polluting the thread with another repeat repeat repeat inquiry. This homie is doing his homie-work.

I figger that if I advance to the level where I'm producing great healthy root systems and bushy trees from bagseed, THEN i might consider some "store bought" seed. I'm amazed by the folks who post up "first grow" and they've spent a fortune on all the goodie goodies but then their super double whammo hubba bubba white funkadelic plant(s) look more like Charlie B's Christmas tree than the plump and sassy bitch it should be.

Just venting a little after another few hours trying to catch up and weed through the information. Yes be very careful reading my posts as i do pun.

Thanks again to UB and other no bullshit growers who take the time to help others understand the process. Thanks to RIU for not siding with those who would align themselves against simple and straightforward growing.

I'm going to have the best fucking tomatoes EVER this year__no__ doubt.

puff puff.

theres no node at the coytledons, if you cut just above them your going to have a nice green chopstick to harvest. bahahaaha

1oldgoat said:

UB.While reading about gardening myths, I stumbled upon some research on how to make a plant shorter and still retain proper flower size. Have a read and let us know if you've heard about this.

Pickling your Paperwhites - Using Alcohol to Reduce Growth of Paperwhite Narcissus​

William B. Miller
Professor of Horticulture
Director of the Flowerbulb Research Program
Cornell University


The paperwhite narcissus is a popular bulb for indoor forcing in the winter months. Unlike most other daffodils, paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta) do not require a cold period. They are simply planted in pots with soil, or even more commonly, in dishes or bowls with gravel, marbles or other decorative material. With a little water, they rapidly form roots, grow leaves and shoots. The white, fragrant flowers usually open up within 2-3 weeks of planting.

A common problem with paperwhites, however, is that they often grow too tall and flop over.

Recent research conducted by the Flowerbulb Research Program at Cornell University has found a simple and effective way to reduce stem and leaf growth of paperwhites. The "secret" is using dilute solutions of alcohol. Properly used, the result is paperwhites that are 1/3 to 1/2 shorter, with equal sized flowers that last as long as normal.

What to do
We suggest planting your paperwhite bulbs in stones, gravel, marbles, glass beads, etc. as usual. Add water as you normally would, then wait about 1 week until roots are growing, and the shoot is green and growing about 1-2" above the top of the bulb. At this point, pour off the water and replace it with a solution of 4 to 6% alcohol, made from just about any "hard" liquor. You can do the calculations to figure the dilution, but, as an example, to get a 5% solution from a 40% distilled spirit (e.g., gin, vodka, whiskey, rum, tequila), you add 1 part of the booze to 7 parts of water. This is an 8-fold dilution yielding 5% alcohol.

Then, simply use this solution, instead of water, for further irrigation (watering) of your bulbs. It's as simple as that. The result will be a plant that is 1/3 shorter, but with flowers just as large, fragrant, and long-lasting as usual. But, the plant will be nicely proportioned and won't need support stakes, wires, or other gizmos to keep it upright. You will see results within just a few days. You can have some fun by doing a simple experiment having one bowl of bulbs given normal water and the other given the alcohol. You will see a dramatic difference, as shown in the picture. This could be a neat activity to occupy kids during the upcoming holiday season!

A few other thoughts

• Do not use beer or wine, as the sugars in them will cause major problems with the plants
• As with humans, paperwhites can also suffer alcohol overdoses! We suggest 4-6% alcohol as a normal and safe range. If plants are given much more than 10% alcohol, growth problems will start, and 25% alcohol is dramatically toxic. So, moderation is the key!
• It is not strictly necessary pour off the water after the plants are rooted (as we suggest above). You can just as well add your 5% alcohol without pouring the water off. The result, though, will be a lower than optimal alcohol concentration around the roots, and, ultimately, growth will not be reduced as much as you expect. The reason to pour off the water is to simply maximize the alcohol level around the roots.
• Basically, the higher the alcohol concentration (within reason), the shorter the plants. So it is not critical whether you use 4, 5, or 6% alcohol. Just stay well below 10%, where growth problems become noticeable.
• If you do not have alcohol for consumption in your household, rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) works just as well. Since this is usually 70% alcohol when purchased, a dilution of 1 part rubbing alcohol to 10 or 11 parts water is appropriate.
• Why does this happen? We are currently working on this, but we feel it is simply "water stress", where the alcohol makes it more difficult for the plant to absorb water. The plant suffers a slight lack of water, enough to reduce leaf and stem growth, but not enough to affect flower size or flower longevity.
• I thank Erin Finan (Cornell '05, horticulture undergrad) who worked on this as a senior project, and to Leslie Land of the New York Times who first posed the question "Does gin affect paperwhites?" to me in early 2005. Jan Doornbosch of International Bulb Co. in New Jersey graciously supplied bulbs, and Group 1 of the Royal Dutch Wholesalers' Association for Flowerbulbs and Nursery Stock, Hillegom, The Netherlands, provided financial support for this work.

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The effect of alcohol on growth of 'Ziva' paperwhite narcissus. Left: Untreated plant, growing in pebbles with water. Right: Plant in pebbles, grown with 5% alcohol instead of water.

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facsinating! I need to keep my plant height around 4 feet with the space I have and Im growing a sativa dominant so Im a litte conerned of what is going to happen. Not sure I want to kill my plant trying this but, if anyone can vouch for it I might give it a go. Unfortunately I dont think paperwhites make a good analog to cannabis, but the principal is the same, might just have to use lower doses(Id be willing to try 1% using vodka) Also you might get a bit of carb boost from the alcohol.

I've seen that but wouldn't bother with it. Study used a bulbing monocot. I wonder what hormonal affect the alcohol has?

ive had 2 "failed" topping atempt getting only 2 not 4 main colas. In this pic above the red is 3 nodes and below is a node with single point leaves and then the cotyleons right below that> So just above the 2nd true node would be 2 above the red right???

Thanks for ur help

It looks like you need to go up 1 more node from the red dot. If you top where the red dot is you'll have 2 tops

ok that is what i thought i had been doing wrong thanks man

can you top a plant at that age?

Uncle Ben is recommending to wait until the 6th node, but is that reallly neccarry? I definately dont see 6 nodes on that plant

does anyone know how the harvest off of a single plant having been topped to 4 colas, would comare to a plant topped to 2 colas and trained into a CCOB such as Hobbes' does with his plants? ...I guess I shoudl find the link... here it ishttps://www.rollitup.org/smoke-reports/244210-kali-mist-serious-seeds-3.html

Uncle Bens topping for 4 mains worked great for me.

Thedillestpickle said:

can you top a plant at that age?

Uncle Ben is recommending to wait until the 6th node, but is that reallly neccarry? I definately dont see 6 nodes on that plant

does anyone know how the harvest off of a single plant having been topped to 4 colas, would comare to a plant topped to 2 colas and trained into a CCOB such as Hobbes' does with his plants? ...I guess I shoudl find the link... here it ishttps://www.rollitup.org/smoke-reports/244210-kali-mist-serious-seeds-3.html

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Well I kinda think it's a good idea to wait. Having some decent roots before topping certainly can't hurt and that's why it's recommended. Now to check out that link, thanks

TDP here's what I think about the CCOB method, or LST.. whatever you want to call it. It's probably what I should be doing considering I use cfl's..either that or a scrog. I think I would yield more by keeping a nice ,full and level canopy. These cfl's don't have the penetration that an hps or mh has. So yeah I think in some cases it would yield more, but I just had to try UB's method and I really like it. It's definitely a method I'll use again

Yea I think its good, I havent used it yet, its my first grow and seedlings arent ready to be topped yet. I want to flower all my seedlings but I want to keep my phenos in case I have something really nice(which I think I do) and so I plan to clone the tops that I remove. at harvest I will know which clone is the keeper and Ill have myself a mother plant to start a perpetual harvest with. Hopefully I can clone with success

I hope your cloning endeavors are a success as well

Warped1 said:

I hope your cloning endeavors are a success as well

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lol I kinda fucked it up... I topped them all and everything was clean and I think I did a good job but... I didnt keep track of which top came from which plant... so now Im not going to know which one was the mother of which clone... ahhhhh

but I do have a plan B. I topped above the second node, when the two top branches get bigger im going to rechop the plant down to the first node and itll have 2 colas, then I can clone those two branches, Ill just flower my first batch of clones and use the second batch to keep track of which mothers are good. I cant believe I made that stupid mistake!

Im going to have one wicked root system, after I top the plants again above the second node im going to let the two branches grow out until they are at 5 nodes and then top them back down to the first node. Ill end up with 4 colas hopefully, just a bit of a variation on Uncle Bens technique. Obviously this means that vegg time is going to be substantial=massive root system going into veg. It also means my plants will be more mature going into flower which can only be a good thing.

that all sounds pretty confusing as I read through it, Itll all make alot more sense in 2 weeks when the process of topping and topping and topping again is complete, Ill post up some pictures once its all done.