topping question??

[baet]

i have 8 sourdiesel x cheese outdoor plants, two of them are veryyyyy tall and not bushy at all... should of all but one been topped long ago, but thats alrite. i seriously supercropped one plant thats 7ft tall three times!! i supercropped it last time about two weeks ago and has grown two feet in height since then!

question is when a plant is topped does all plant growth above ground stop, or how does that work, will other shorter branches continue growing to bushen out plant, how long will the plant stop growth?
please help, would like to top some possibly before flowering commences if it could enhance yield.

 

[Pseudo]

topping increases growth hormones to lower branches

 

[baet]

hmmm, i might try to convince my two other grow buds to top two of em, theyre gonna trip when i suggest it ha, hmmmm.

 

[cave]

hey baet

i dont know then your season end but i would probably not top anymore it slows down growth.. i would suggest to LST them. if you are not firmilliar with that here it is http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=115377&highlight=low+stress+training

 

[baet]

thanks cave ii was lookign for that thread,

ive completelly pulled over one plant, more in the sun now, and it looks great, probably six ft long now with a row of heads/branches going up the middletop of plant, right side and left side of plant, very symmetrical!
but because of the height i wouldnt be able to pull plant down... but maybe even pulling it down at like 45degree angle would do sum good. idk.
ill try to post pics tomorow.

edith yeah, this plants grow in height sooo fast, and i think they will stretch a BUNCH in flower, so maybe topping the one thats like 7 feet tall would be beneficial.

 

[cave]

np..sounds crazy must be a sativa.. ya if you are worried about stretching so much i would top and LST as much as possible.. sounds like they got out of hand on ya lol
best of luck
hope to see picks soon
peace

 

[baet]

theres a few different phenos.
ones basically very tall with skinny branches that make it look like a super airy christmas tree, and ones mix of sat and indo that doesnt stretch too much and has some bushy quality and better internode distance, and third which has become ONE of our plants is awesome, super bushy and really good close internode distance and branches keep up with height growth. first pheno thats superrrr tall with sh*tty airy branches with horrible internode distance is three of our plants rite now, which all have been supercropped and just shoot up like crazy a few days later, one foot of growth only a week after supercropping on the stretchiest one!
but the stretch is from the sour diesel, i just read a few days ago that sour d must be topped to get good yield , ha.
also the stretch began when we had them all in a small chicken wire fence, that blocked too much sun from reaching lower plant growth, that was prolly almost two months ago tho.
tomorow ill talk to two mates who are in this with me, see if theyd be alright with topping one of them.
we have 5 weeks atleast til flower, not completely positive on exact time.

 

[cave]

sounds good are they sour diesel or are they a cross.. i have never grown it but i would not think it would stretch that much but what do i know.. do you have enough sun light? that and not alot of water will make them stretch

 

[baet]

they dont get a lot of direct sunlite, they out of direct around 530-6 :/. but they get enuff fersure, i know the direct sunlite is a factor to my plants stretching, i water em every day, they get enuff water...

hopefully pics tomorow

 

[microgram]

hey Baet, one thing I don't like about not knowing the genetics... is not knowing the genetics. Growing from quality seed like your SD at least gives you an idea of what strain and the necessities to figure out how to care for it.

I know that some strains do not do well with topping at all, and as far as i recall: topping could lead to lesser quality bud. but if that's the case, you could always make bubble hash from left over leaf to increase the potency of your tokes!

Pics pics pics .

ug.

 

[hanuman]

Topping cuts the growth hormone from the tip and spreads it to the secondary branches.

Here's a cheese that has been topped twice:

If you look at the links in my sig, you'll notice that I top all my plants, with usually very bushy results :smile:

I recommend pruning all the growth tips (I do it it the middle of the tip itself, FIM style), as long as the plant hasn't started to bloom (or even to stretch).




h

 

[exploziv]

From what I have tried, best tech for outdoor growing is to top them early on, then pinch and supercrop them, and use some LST into flowering when needed...

If you can't LST them.. I guess you have no other option than topping them.

Good luck!

 

[LazLo]

This poor Fruit Juicy was topped by a rabbit last week. With 90 days till harvest, it will be interesting to see how it does. As well as the WW and NLXS Peter Cottontail sampled. Going to hit them up with some nutes this week.



Keep smiling. It will drive others nuts!

 

[baet]

hmmm, ill have pics up hopefully later today, gona have to borrow dads expensive camera...:/

im just torturing myself with the thought of topping em early on at 1ft and 2ft, and imagining huge bushes and excellent yield, ha.

i guess the question would be, which im sure its hard to answer because of genetics and only having 4-5ish weeks of veg left: would topping the freakishy tall one be beneficial to yield? and with out pictures its probably impossible, just throwing it out there and keeping thread alive til i get pics.

hanuman-great looking cheese bush! take the opposite of that plant structure wise, and thats one of my plants, haha. 8 ft tall, with long airy branches on one side(sun dominant side) almost reaching top of plant but not really, and then even shorter airrry branches on the other side reaching like half way up plant.

lazlo-that exact same thing happened to my purple kushes last year, had small plants outside for a day with out cage and had been eaten by suspected rabbit, plants were topped, one finished off nicely with three horizontal armlike branches, only yielded prolly 2 oz but looked cool.

 

[baet]

^^^^ 7ft of stretch, actually branches are catching up after two supercroppings but top? or not. 5 weeks of veg left.




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^tall airy trees 6ft, to top or not to top?















^^^ earthbox and 20gal smartpot. earthbox slightly dissapointed, never my idea though anyways, especially two plants in it which was my two other friends idea seemed no bueno :/ , they stay constantly underfed(which isnt earthbox fault, but id much rather use 10 gal smart pot for each plant any day) cant see but bottom fan leaves stay yellow and dry and then die, but just hit it with age old foliar which did some help.

 

[baet]

bump

 

[cave]

looking good baet
i would top if you think you have recovery time or just tie the plant to it self or just tie them to the chicken wire you have there but if you are not worried about people seeing them i would just let them grow

 

[baet]

hmmm, yeah, topping is mainly only debateable now with the one on the first picture, we are leaving all the others alone besides supercropping one more we did today
the question would be, would i yield more off leaving it and letting it develop its main cola there at the top after probably another 1.5-2 ft of height!, or yield more topping and letting other branches catch up and plumpen up yielding more? i would top it about half a ft down where two branches that are like 5-6 inches sit....
hmmm i guess its in natures hands after i top it, theres no way of knowing, ill think about it, my friends already wanna top it, but i could probably swing them either way...

 

[cave]

if you top it you will get more buds but not necessarily more yeild it depends on the strain the toped buds wont get as big as the untoped buds but there will be more of them toping might give more yeild because there is more branches for the buds to grow but not always beneficial

 

[neongreen]

topping increases growth hormones to lower branches

Just for the record...

When you top a plant, you remove the apical meristem. The apical meristem is a group of cells which produce growth regulators (auxins), which inhibit the growth of lateral shoots.

There is a good explanation here:
http://click4biology.info/c4b/9/plant9.1.htm

By bending the tip of a plant down, you can achieve the same effect as topping, since the bend prevents auxins getting to the lateral buds further down the stem. In response to the lack of auxins, the lateral shoots grow.

This is one of the reasons "layering" works so well.

Some shots of my current grow and "layered" plants


Earlier on they looked like this



More recently



Knowing how to manipulate auxin is a useful tool in the growers tool box