Help with topping, when to stop

[radrichie61]

Several of my plants have just blown up after topping. Couple still need topping easily, but those that have been topped with a lot of resulting bud sites, is there a point in time where you should stop topping so much and then just let it do it’s thing? I would assume the answer is yes. When would that time be here are some pictures below if you’d like to give some comments thanks a bunch.

 

[Emilya Green]

As the plant matures, the nodes will stop doubling every time you top because instead of coming in pairs, the nodes begin alternating at the growth tips. This makes the practical limit on your number of nodes around 64, and usually with what I call the whack-a-mole method (chopping every time I saw an opportunity) I would end up with around 32 buds going into bloom.

 

[radrichie61]

As the plant matures, the nodes will stop doubling every time you top because instead of coming in pairs, the nodes begin alternating at the growth tips. This makes the practical limit on your number of nodes around 64, and usually with what I call the whack-a-mole method (chopping every time I saw an opportunity) I would end up with around 32 buds going into bloom.

Thank you

 

[radrichie61]

When you say chopping, are you thinning small buds. Can you explain.

 

[Emilya Green]

When you say chopping, are you thinning small buds. Can you explain.

by chopping I mean topping. I top the middle bud rising out of the Y where there are two small budlets sitting in the notch of the Y ready to raise up. As long as I can top the rising bud to replace it with two buds just below it, it is a win.

 

[radrichie61]

by chopping I mean topping. I top the middle bud rising out of the Y where there are two small budlets sitting in the notch of the Y ready to raise up. As long as I can top the rising bud to replace it with two buds just below it, it is a win.

I was just confused as you stated you went from 64 to 32 bud spot so you were using the whack-a-mole method so I thought maybe you were clearing out half of the smaller bud site locations perhaps.

Here are my plants today.

 

[Emilya Green]

In this drawing you can see the difference when the plant has reached maturity. While still in early veg, new growth is not alternating and you get sets of new nodes with a new node reaching up out of the middle. If you top the plant as is shown in the left diagram, the little pre-buds in the notches of that node will become primary, and they will each begin to grow upward. By chopping the middle top pre-bud, you now have created 2 primary buds on that branch where before there was just one.

Each of these two new primaries will form a similar pair of nodes as they grow upwards, and each of these can be topped in a similar way as they try to gain dominance. 2 becomes 4 and 4 becomes 8, within a few weeks. You have to be very aggressive to create a 32 bud plant.

At some point the plant simply says no more, and each of your growth tips will start to alternate, stopping any further attempts to double the branching. About this time you will also start to see pistils, showing you that the plant is now mature and could be sent to bloom at any time. They say that every week you spend growing the plant in veg at this point, you double the eventual yield.

There is one caveat to all of this. The more buds you create, the less resources there are to go to each of them, therefore quality and size of buds can go down, but aggressive fertilizing can help. As in all things, there is always a balance to be found. Good luck in however far you wish to take this.

 

[radrichie61]

While I understand most of that I was not aware of the alternating nature of these tips and will utilize that as strong sites on each if possible. My Critical is doing great with topping and LST. Green Gelato and Amnesia Haze are more finicky.

 

[NAGreengo]

Topping a plant does not change a cultivars genetic pre disposition of phyllotaxy.

 

[bluter]

just a quick off topic random here ...

that broad leaf ground plant looks to have PM. i dunno if it is PM or just the type of plant, but if it is PM i'd get the cannabis away from it.

 

[NAGreengo]

@bluter , it looks to be typical leaf variegation patterns my friend.

 

[radrichie61]

just a quick off topic random here ...

that broad leaf ground plant looks to have PM. i dunno if it is PM or just the type of plant, but if it is PM i'd get the cannabis away from it.

Typical look. No pm and thnx for the sharp eye.