increased yields without topping

[the gnome]

i use to top most of my plants to improve yield but I was turned on by IC master grower Adrift to this nifty and easy and proven way to increase the yields that topping a plant can do
but a blade never nears your sweet lassies.
some time in veg depending on when you flip, usually sooner..
crease the main stalk about a 3rd of th way down from the top.
crease it good so the top is in a horizontal position.
the branches below it will grow up to it as if it were topped.
I had to re-crease a few of mine because it started to straighten out no matter, tie
so tie it down to keep it in position if necessary.

here are the results i got on a couple.
they hit 12/12 on feb 5th so were in just over 3wks

...
this technique would do well for a scrog and you get an extra top out of the deal!

here is the crimp a month later, this one i had to crimp twice,
you can see it at the very top of the pic
she was quite stubborn about it

..

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this is a very easy way to get topped results with out losing
your top cola.
if you only have or want a fewer plant numbers this is what I recommend, after topping the plants can be further trained to
to really give an impressive canopy on the plant.
you can also run fewer plants under each lamp, but they'll be much bigger,
less soil,containers, watering etc, etc. 4 under he bulb gives you plenty of room and the plants get more light while they fill in the canopy
and I also believe you wont have to spend as long veg time as you do growing tree's to get tree yield.... to a degree
and gets impressive harvests, this is part of the reason,
all things to think on but I like this method and will be using and experimenting with it more from now on.

a big thanks to Adrift for putting me on this technique

 

[GMT]

Depending on the strain, theres a very good chance of losing everything above the crease due to the stem simply snapping. I can't say I'd recommend this at all, topping or lst are popular methods for a reason, I'd stick to one of them if you aren't going for a sea of green.

 

[the gnome]

Depending on the strain, thereis a very good chance of losing everything above the crease due to the stem simply snapping. I can't say I'd recommend this at all, topping or lst are popular methods for a reason, I'd stick to one of them if you aren't going for a sea of green.

yes GMT, i see your point and adding the the following disclaimer
briefly crossed my mind:

***your a complete doofus if i have to tell you to be carefull bending the main stem until it creases
and bend so hard as to snap it off!
and don't try this on 7 day old seedlings***


seriously tho,
I have faith the vast majority of people giving this a go have enough common sense and will prevail in this endeavour.
i was a tad nervous doing this the 1st time myself
and I'm sure to some this seems risky bizness.
of course you'll have to personally decide if the plant will do this and not opt for very thin, weak stalks easily broken .

in reality creasing the upper main stem is as simple and safe as it gets if you determine the plant will handle it,
and the larger majority do.
out of the 6 differing strains in this grow, all aced the creasing an none broke off or had damage.
1 strain candy drop, is notoriously known to me for weak fragile & stems wasn't included
after the 1st few plants i was at ease with the process.
even if it were bent 180deg. straight down it would still be attached and you'd be hard pressed to rip it off fibrous as most cannabis main stalks are.

most the ones I creased had a hollow stalks, and most opened up, like the 2 in the pics

I had one that was extremely hollow, it opened up over 50% and you could see inside it.
and hanging 20 degree's below the horizontal plane.
it wasn't even an issue and it grew along perfectly with all the others i did this to.
in fact some needed a good amount of force to crease,
a lot more than I thought it would take.

but always a chance for failure attempting something like eh

 

[Cartel530]

another thing thing that helps especially on those harder strains that like to snap before they bend is to twist the branch until you feel a slight pop then twist it back the otherway until you feel another, sometimes you wont feel the pop but the twisting will have the same affect, then the plant will lay which ever way you would like it to without snapping. Haven't snapped a branch since and it will allow you to bend over some of that older tougher growth

 

[the gnome]

another thing thing that helps especially on those harder strains that like to snap before they bend is to twist the branch until you feel a slight pop then twist it back the otherway until you feel another, sometimes you wont feel the pop but the twisting will have the same affect, then the plant will lay which ever way you would like it to without snapping. Haven't snapped a branch since and it will allow you to bend over some of that older tougher growth

good point cartel530
you can also do kind of a supercrop thing and squeeze/crush the stalk where you want it to bend to make it more maleable
whatever it takes to get it to lay over.

i should have titled his thread get the same yields as topping without topping.... do this?

 

[gtotoys1]

Love torture!

 

[Sir_Syzurp]

I use this method quite frequently, I did notice though the stress level of repairing that stem seems to be similar to that of topping sometimes even more stressful. I have had a couple strains go in to an almost dormant state from the stress brought on from the crease.

 

[Shulman]

you can use bending or topping to achieve the same thing.That being the top of the plant with the dominance is no longer the top and the side branches all compete to become the new top.Supercropping is cool cos it makes the stem bigger and allows more nutrients and water through and results in better buds then none supercropped buds.Easy way to grow a bush but it involves topping but i guess you could get the same result via bending.is to top it or bend the top and then when the two new branches come up you top or bend those.Topping the top sending them hormones done i think and causes the bottom and sides to grow up, and topping the side branches causes the top to grow bigger.