TOPPING tops

[stoney917]

allright i would like to hear ppls opinions on whether it beneficial to top ur topped plants. im am tryin this now on a few plants im veggin for the next run to see for myself. for example i took a rooted clone bout 10 in and nipped the tip which made the side shoots shot up atm it looks like 6 main tops.from 10in up. now im gonna top them for clones. and veggem a bit loner to recover then tossem in flower now ive heard that over toppin a plant can cuz it to become less potent. but i also have flowered mms that i cut for years never noticed a difference in potency but wasnt lookin for it. so please post ur thoughts on the subject when i get my cam later ill post some pics of the process/plants if this thread has any interest.

 

[daheadies]

I have NEVER noticed lower potency by topping.. Topping is the one thing that I do very strain specific. Literally for EVERY strain I write down how it responds to being topped and how many times it should be topped.. With about half of my strains I top about 2 or 3 times.. Others only once, or not at all. IMO after topping 2 times you should start bending stems instead of topping more, so you dont lose all your new growth and backtrack everytime you get some growth.. ALSO, my grow partner showed me how to bend pretty much ANY stem, its prob common sense, and you might already know this. But if you pinch the stem really hard to break down the cell wall, it bends easily!

 

[goldenahms]

I'm with daheadies, never have I experienced lower potency from topping. Some strains will just yield more if topped and some just don't like to be topped at all. I wouldn't go more than twice, after that you can do some LST. Experiment, top some and don't top others. See how you yield. I personally like multiple colas as opposed to one thick one. Good luck

 

[BlueberryLovr]

This isn't exactly advanced growing, but what do I know? Topping won't reduce potency. It'll just give you smaller colas as opposed to a single larger one. Some plants don't like it very much while it is almost a necessity on others (ie. Blueberry) if you want it to produce more due to its lanky or low-yielding nature.

Topping a top just gives more tops and creates one big bushy monster. I agree with goldenhms on combining multiple training techniques, but really...it just comes down to trial and error via experimentation or asking folks who've grown the same strain/pheno.