How Many times can you Top a plant?

Check out the sticky thread "Fimming and Topping" in Absoulte Beginners.

I think you can top a plant twice.. never done it, only top once myself.

~Experimentalist

 

I have a clone that was topped twice to make 4 main colas, and 2 of the side branches caught up and are keeping up. Theoretically, you can top as many times as you can handle... That being said, in 4 months I'd bet you can top it as many as 12-15 times, maybe more. I am not recommending this with a plant from seed, as it's a lot of stress. But you could do it if you have enough time and growspace. Also remember that it will take a longer time to flower a bigger girl, so take that into consideration too. Best of luck.
Peace
DM

 

I've topped my plants 4 times already I plan on topping it more too..
to answer your question you can top your plant as many times as you want

 

i top all the way until flower i have had no problems at all.... i only have used clones though.... seedlings are in the future to come... muhahahaha

 

hey there just thought id share my experience i have a plant from seed 6 weeks in veg and im lst and topping her and i couldn't be happier shes bushing like crazy shes growing so much im lst every other day and she loves it iv also topped her 8 times and like i said shes very happy so DONT hurt the ladies and top and lst all you want

 

You can top a single plant as many times as you want. I've seen up to 5-6 times for around 16-32 main colas. I normally do it around 4 for a solid manifold.

 

This is my first time posting and it is as well my first grow. I have done hours of research daily for about a year as well as watching and helping my old-head friends with a lot of experience over the last year. My room is 12.5' X 10.5'. I've decided to go with 16 15 gallon pots, pots were free so I went with em, of all natural soil with low nutes mixed with a lot of perlite and about half coco coir. I'm growing grape God and northern lights from clone. I have about 4000 watts. Mylar on walls and reflective tarp on the floor. I'm using CNS17 grow and bloom. They are grown about 2 weeks from clone. They are currently in 5 gallon buckets. I just topped them. I'm going to give it about 5 days before I transfer them into the large pots. Then 6 more weeks of veg. Topping 3 more times before I flower. I will also be LST'ing. I honestly don't know what to ask. How often do I water my plants? How much nutrients should I use? Do I need anything else? Do I have enough light to support 16 large plants? My genetics are top notch guaranteed, how do I make sure I yield high, and get fat dense nugs? What might I yield? Any tips I could use? Pics coming in a few days.

I'm using a humidifier and dehumidifier with a digital Barometer and a standing oscillating heater and air conditioner for optimal temperature and humidity levels. I'm using 1 8in inline vent fan to blow stale air out and 1 8in fan for fresh air coming in. Also using 3 18in oscillating fans

 

Those are alot of beginner questions for someone who has had experience helping other growers already. Half of your questions don't have answers because there are too many variables for each persons' space and techniques.

The long version - There is literally no way to determine yield based off of genetics because it all comes down to the experience of the grower. And as it is your first grow, I would not get my hopes up of either a large harvest or high quality flower. Just being real with you and there are a few reasons for this.
First, many of your questions rely on your ability to understand the visual signs of problems within your grow. For instance, you can water once a day, once every other day, once a week, etc. it does not matter. What matters is does your plant look like it is drooping or are the leaves starting to curl? What does over-watering / under-watering look like? What does nutrient burn look like and what's the difference between nutrient lockout? is my grow medium PH neutral or not? These questions are what you should be focusing on because once you know the visual signs you can respond appropriately. For instance I water 3 times a day in clay pebbles, but I wouldn't recommend that to you because you're growing in a medium that retains more water. Same with nutrients -- you can water with any recipe you want at 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 strength, as long as it doesn't go over the average maximum PPM/EC/TDS of the veg or flower period whichever you are in and it's the correct NPK regimen.

With that said, another important point is that your light support is based off of square footage of light coverage, that is canopy space and not a per-plant number. For instance a 1000w light covers a 5x5 sq ft canopy space. So you can fit 1 extremely large plant under this light, or 4, or 6, or even 8. The more plants you want, the smaller they will have to be. But if you are trying to put 16 plants within a 10 x 12 space you will have a very cramped grow which results in decreased yield because the plants are both fighting for light as well as space and air flow. And if you are trying to fit 16 plants in that space then 15 gallon pots over overkill - I've grown 5 foot wide bushes 3-4 ft tall in a 5 gallon bucket. The worst thing you can do is try to cram as many plants into one spot as possible. Instead, at least 18 inches should be between plants to give adequate space to fill out.

TLDR; fat dense nugs and heavy yields come from ideal grow conditions for humidity / temps / light exposure / air flow / PH / PPM that differ between grow and veg, as well as their NPK requirements. Advanced training techniques like LST or supercropping can also increase yield. Overall, respond appropriately to visual changes in your plant and know what they mean. And head to the beginner's section in this forum to learn more about some of the basic plant requirements between veg and flower. Good luck,

 

I understand most of that and I have a friend with a lot of experience helping me. But this site has taught me a lot. And there's a lot of people with a lot of knowledge. I just wanted to see what most people said. I don't really want to know what my yields are going to be. More like I want advice as I go and as I post pictures.

 

You can top as long as the plant is alive. Topping too often or not allowing the plant to fully recover is the your biggest concern.

I'm two months into a veg that is taking longer to flip than I thought because of external problems.

But this plant of mine is two months of veg. All lst and topping.
Pictures are about a week ago or so. I have a thread here in plant training, if you like to follow my first lst.
That ruler is 6 inches. The plant is only about 8 inches tall and very wide. Next week, I'll be adding a scrog and trimming.

Lst and topping!!

Good luck!!

 

I've only had them for 3 days. I'm probably just being ancy. But it looks like somethings wrong with it