This is how to actually mainline a cannabis plant. Topping is topping and is also not as exactng, FIMing is simply lazy. To start, the root system of your plant MUST be at least a month old, with your plant having grown at least 5-6 nodes, and ideally working on the 7th or 8th. For this tutorial, I'll be demonstrating with Blue Widow on a 24/0 light cycle in 5 gallons of regular potting soil. For the veg cycle I'm using a 2 foot T5 panel and two single T5 lights, all of which are full spectrum. In these photos, she's healthy and ready to be cut up. The bottom of the pot has a reservoir consistently full with water that has nutrients cycled through it (NPK: 12-40-12) every two days, and the plant was only top watered until her roots reached the bottom of the pot at 5 weeks, and she's been able to drink whenever she wants since then. These photos were taken at 5.5 weeks, and the mainlining process was started on day 1 of week 6.
To start the process, wash your god damn hands. Then, take a sterile blade or pair of scissors and "Top" the plant all the way down to the third node. This is something some growers are comfortable doing, and most know what happens afterwards. Since you're effectively making the third node the end of the neural pathway, all the plant's energy is diverted to what it still has left. In order to make damn sure you don't accidentally kill what you've put six weeks of love into, leave the fan leaves that are directly attached to the third node on for a day or two, until she bounces back. Here's where it gets a little uncomfortable for some growers: To properly mainline a plant, you also have to remove everything underneath. That even includes the cotyledons. At this point your plant should look like the one in the photos.
After a day or two, you should notice significant growth in the two new main kolas coming off of the central stem. There is a point to all of this, I promise. To further the process, SLOWLY bend the mains until they are facing the growing medium, and tie them down. String will probably hurt the plant, and since this process only takes a week, I used a rubber-coated paper clip. I just cut it in half and bent the ends where I needed them to be.
HAPPY DAY! The mains have turned up like Lil Jon in Atlanta for the weekend, and you're ready to split that bitch four ways. Again, wash your god damn hands (especially if you smoke cigarettes) and get to topping. For a stretchier plant that will space out and grow exceptionally tall, cut it at the third node, and cut at the first node for optimal space management. If you top at the fourth or second node, you could run into space issues (i.e. two mains trying to occupy the same space and one over-growing the other). Not an intrinsically huge problem, but it could negatively affect the evenness of your canopy and cause undergrowth in one kola while simultaneously causing overgrowth in another. At this point you are GUARANTEED to have a perfectly even canopy, provided you haven't run into any terminal issues, so it just depends on how big you want her. For this plant I cut her down to the first node and left a symmetrical grouping of fan leaves to ensure the transition to four main kolas. They can be removed a day or two later with no consequence. This not only keeps her short, but that shorter pathway takes less energy for nutrients to get from the roots to the buds. That energy can be put to better use in better places, like the buds. From here you can keep doing this as many times as you want. For those that prefer the Screen of Green, I've seen a 24" tall, 32-headed monster that produced almost a half pound of dried bud. For me, four is enough for now. If I ever move to outdoor gardening, I'll move to eight heads, but even the most monstrous hydras are susceptible to the Law of Diminishing Return. Another grower that also uses the mainlining technique found that the jump in yield increase is the greatest between four and eight mains. There is certainly a great jump between eight and sixteen, but since you're still starting with one main stem at the bottom, more heads doesn't necessarily mean an equal increase in yield per head.
This is the beginning of week 8. The two fan leaves are from branches facing opposite each other, yet they're a perfect mirror image. The canopy is completely flat, with the lower fan leaves spreading out. On the four new main kolas I've removed the first node completely since they were using more energy than they were absorbing from the lights, even with the single T5 bars sitting on the sides of the pot. The next week I'll be forcing the growth direction a bit upwards by defoliating and changing to four red lights in the panel and two blue lights in the single bars.
Blue Widow at the beginning of week 9. This is the last week of vegetation before I begin the bloom cycle. Because she's sitting in a DWC, I've been keeping her reservoir full while drastically dropping the humidity on top. This has led to an insane amount of resin production. During week 8 I went through and aggressively removed the fan leaves, leaving an upper canopy where most of the flower production will happen, and a lower canopy of new growth to pick and choose from once buds start forming. Defoliation during the bloom cycle is a dangerous game with photo-period strains, because Mary Jane gets kind of bitchy when she gets stressed. Once buds have formed and a few of the hairs have turned orange, some growers will pluck fan leaves in strategic spots to divert more of the plant's energy flow to her flowers. Too much of that shit and she'll start to grow balls, then she'll fertilize herself, and it's an ugly auto-incestual mess of seedy, weak bud. If you're lucky enough to avoid that, she'll still be more susceptible to her light source damaging her. Defoliation during the vegetative phase, however, will only make her stronger if it's done right. While mainlining I pulled leaves in multiples of four, always from the mirror image of the previous branch, and never pulled more than eight at a time. One reason for doing this is apparent from the photos: It forces the plant to grow faster, and in the direction you want it to. Another not-so-obvious reason will be seen later during the bloom cycle, when she starts producing more anthocyanin to combat the lower light levels (darker colors like purple absorb more than lighter colors like green). Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23433030
Looking great so far and extremely helpful. Fellow grower Nugbuckets sets up his gals with 32 colas; most ive done is 8. Have you ever tried mainlining a clone?
Today marks the end of week 10 overall, and the end of the first week of flowering phase. I kept her at four kolas so I wouldn't have to worry about stress training during flowering. Since she's in an enclosed space, I've been supplementing the diminished lumen count with single T5 bars, as she's a full 28" away from the HPS light. Every morning I wake n' bake with her, fill her reservoir with nutrient water, sing her a song, and check for any deficiencies. The beautiful thing about this process is that 15 minute PMCS is the only thing I have to do. Like most stoners, I'm fucking lazy as shit. I don't have the time, patience, or facilities to spend an hour every night finger-fucking a ScrOG setup, so creating a manifold in the center works best for me. I have split a clone in a similar fashion, but I prefer the symmetry of growing from seed. Clones are usually pulled off a well-aged plant, and more often than not will have started growing asymmetrically. This is exactly the opposite of what you want from a mainlined plant, so if you're going to split a clone, do so with a clone that was pulled off a young plant. Or support the industry and spend your (hard-earned?) money at a seed bank.
Yeah, sorry I didn't specify clearly. The point of mainlining is not only to have an even canopy with symmetrical kolas and better light reception throughout, but after photosynthesis to distribute the energy those kolas are receiving evenly. This basically makes life easier for your plant. Light from the top can reach through the center to lower bud sites easier as well.
Not sure I see much of an advantage over traditional low stress training, super cropping, and topping... pretty cool though to each his own.
Week 4 of bloom, Week 12 overall I've never guaranteed "tripled yields" or 35% THC or anything, just a more even canopy as a bonus for indoor growers, neurological symmetry, and multiple, easy-to-manage kolas instead of just one. There's plenty of implied advantages, but you are absolutely right, to each their own. It's true that topping can create just as many heads if not more, I just prefer things symmetrical and even. There's ten thousand ways to fuck a football man, mainlining is simply the best way I've found for Obsessive-Compulsive individuals to thoroughly control the size and shape of their grow.