Hi Time is a major factor here so please keep that in mind. I have a 1sq/m budbox with 400w HPS. 3 plants remain (possibly only 2 as 1 looks to be struggling). Is it worth topping or will tying them back do almost as good. I don't want to have to veg for too long but I need multiple colas because I only have 2 or 3 plants growing. Last grow (which was my first - and I had no problems some how!!!!!) I had 9 in the sq/m and didnt need to top them but i did tie them during flowering as they grew too tall. thanks in advance for your opinions
If you top it will take a couple weeks till the plant recovers.. I would use lst however and tie it down instead. That way you don't slow growth and you can start flowering whenever you want. Once you get it down then after a couple days start to try to help the branches from the bottom of the plant come to the top by just moving around the leaves. They stretch to the light on their own so usually this isn't too hard. Once you are satisfied at how many colas you have then put that baby into flowering and you are done. If you do decide to go with topping, don't.. Look up fimming instead and see what you find. Instead of getting two branches out of a cut you get four. Every cut also makes the buds get more numerous, but smaller so I like to lst. Next grow however I'm going to experiment with fimming to see the outcome. Good luck
i see new growth 3 to 4 days after topping...fim is tough and easy to fuck up..jmo..i agree tie it down to expose as many potential budsites to the light...better get nutes if you want fast
cheers guys. I got all the nutes (BioBizz Veg and BioBizz Bloom) but I am worried I will fu@k them up because I added a very weak nute solution about 1.5 weeks into the grow and the next day 2 out of 3 looked like they were in trouble.
sorry i dont agree with it taking weeks to recover from topping it takes a day or 2 before your new nodes start to devolope from my experience i have never been set back more than 4 days from topping
No worries.. Feel free to disagree. I'm a newbie so I just went off my experience because I'm more into lst and not topping plus I was stoned at the time and went with my first thought lol. I don't like cutting my babies though reason why is when I tried it with one to compare the growth for my first grow it took 2 weeks to a month just to get it not to die. I have no clue why it reacted so badly to topping, but I can't stand to see a plant suffer like that. Almost tossed it, but I just couldn't do it after working with it that long. It is now 3 weeks behind the first one that was brought up with it, but the good news is I kept it in veg and now in flowering that plant is looking like a female still so hopefully she won't hermi.. Guess I'll find out in one more week. I put two weeks because you never know it could happen to them as well and I would not wish that on anyone. Time is an issue so if they top then it will still take those 4 days to a week to get back to where it could have been without topping and this close to flowering I'd probably just lst and just top earlier next go around. I think long story short is if you want smaller more numerous buds go ahead and top and hopefully she recovers well so you don't have to relive my pain. If you want the buds to stay bigger and less numerous don't top and just lst. Its all a matter of opinion.
Very true. It is easier to mess up with fimming that is why I have been sticking to lst, but after my experience with topping I'm a little shaken by it honestly haha. I can only justify cutting my plant if I will be getting more from it now kinda thing. New growth can come in 3-4 days and in a week it should be about where it was before, but not always as my story below shows.. Very sad day for me haha.. However heres a sticky for both procedures http://forum.grasscity.com/plant-training/122559-how-fimming-topping-made-easy.html and it was pretty informative. No worries.. Feel free to disagree. I'm a newbie so I just went off my experience because I'm more into lst and not topping plus I was stoned at the time and went with my first thought lol. I don't like cutting my babies though reason why is when I tried it with one to compare the growth for my first grow it took 2 weeks to a month just to get it not to die. I have no clue why it reacted so badly to topping, but I can't stand to see a plant suffer like that. Almost tossed it, but I just couldn't do it after working with it that long. It is now 3 weeks behind the first one that was brought up with it, but the good news is I kept it in veg and now in flowering that plant is looking like a female still so hopefully she won't hermi.. Guess I'll find out in one more week. I put two weeks because you never know it could happen to them as well and I would not wish that on anyone. Time is an issue so if they top then it will still take a week to get back to where it would have been without topping and this close to flowering I'd probably just lst and just top earlier next go around but that's my opinion. Every guide I've read though says it takes at least a week to get back to where it was so I guess it all depends on the grower. Thats awesome you got yours to 4 and fully back to where it would have been if it wasn't cut. I wish I could get mine to go that fast. I think long story short is if you want smaller more numerous buds go ahead and top or fim and hopefully she recovers well so you don't have to relive my pain. If you want the buds to stay bigger and less numerous don't top and just lst. Its all a matter of opinion, everyone does it different, and no way is wrong or right.
I have come to the conclusion that the drainage is the issue here. the soil is cheapo wilko brand shite. I have gone and bought many bags of perlite and also some J.Arthur Bowers Tomato Grow Bag Soil (please give me feedback on this make - i hope its ok)