[cbcool]

I had a debate with a friend last night, he said I was losing 15-25 lbs per season by not pinching? I argued he didn't understand plant physiology and the hormones produced by apical meristem and lateral branches.

I feel you lose more weight by pinching full season outdoor plants, my friend thinks you lose more by not pinching, who's right?

I'm sure this subject has been brought up before but I couldn't find anything with a search.

[MountainBudz]

By pinching, do you mean topping? Super cropping? Pinching out the "suckers" as you would with tomatoes? There are many different ways you can "pinch" a plant. I prefer to poke mine. Haha, jk...

[Shovelhandle]

Pinching outdoor plants can be a benefit when the strain tends to make fat colas prone to rot and mold. Topping will let the plant create more, smaller buds.

I think of 'pinching' as topping. Cutting the top growth of a branch.
Defoliating a pot plant is like trimming off "sucker leaves" on a tomato. Personally I don't bother with this.

[Gizmo]

In my opinion unless your plants are very small/young or if your plants are autos, supercropping will yield more and is less stressfull than toping, it will gives a more bushy plant with more bud sites and several top colas instead of a single one who can have mold problem. clearing the low bottom branches is good for air circulation too and to remove branches who receive less light and will produce wispy buds. if you grow from clones, try to experiment a supercropped plant and the same clone non supercropped/pruned/pinched.

[cbcool]

we run everything from seed start, if that helps.

Hey mountain and shovel, yes I mean topping, my friend tops his a good 20+ times through the veg cycle. He say it creates more top colas with bigger top colas that equals more final weight then not topping? I just don't see it being that different in full season outdoor topping or not topping.

Gizmo, all seed starts here. I did pick 3 strains, 6 plants of similar size and soil volume, 3 I have topped and the other I will do my normal method of clearly out the center of the plant and removing sucker branches.

I'll see if there's a noticeable difference in October.

[MountainBudz]

Originally Posted by cbcool

we run everything from seed start, if that helps.

Hey mountain and shovel, yes I mean topping, my friend tops his a good 20+ times through the veg cycle. He say it creates more top colas with bigger top colas that equals more final weight then not topping? I just don't see it being that different in full season outdoor topping or not topping.

Gizmo, all seed starts here. I did pick 3 strains, 6 plants of similar size and soil volume, 3 I have topped and the other I will do my normal method of clearly out the center of the plant and removing sucker branches.

I'll see if there's a noticeable difference in October.

If your plant gets a lot of sun and does not have "competing" vegetation then i'd train it. I have 15 years of outdoor experience and usually top some, super crop some and also LST. LST has always worked wonders in my experience. I also use some more "advanced" techniques that probably doesn't suit a beginner.

The thing about topping, super cropping and LST depends on what I mentioned in my first paragraph. Will these plants receive lots of direct sunlight and not have a lot of competing vegetation or trees next to it? If yes, then your better off letting them grow naturally so they will be taller and the top of the plant will not be submerged within surrounding vegetation. I'm used to guerilla growing and some places I can plant in full sun and the plant gets all training possible and some, I have to leave growing naturally so the top stays high and grabs all the light she can get.

[cbcool]

Yep, I full sun with no competing vegetation .