I have 2 plants about 3 weeks into flowering. I topped both plants 1 time. I know have the appearance of 4 colas. To trick all 4 into thinking they are the main cola, how close in height do they need to be to each other? I have two colas that are close to the same height, within a half inch of each other. The other 2 colas are about one inch shorter than those 2 colas. Will have 4 colas within 1 inch of each other in height allow them to all believe they are the main cola and produce as if they were the main cola? Or do they need to be exactly the same height? Thanks for the help.
Your not going to trick the colas with plant pschycology... There going to grow as individual colas. It all starts in the roots and depends on how well each cola uptakes nutes and grows with the proper lighting. Best you can do is give em cood care...
Ok, well im confused then. I thought the highest cola was the main cola and would produce the biggest buds. Also thought that was why people would use techniques such as lst, tying down, scrog, etc. to keep the colas growing around the same height so they all produced like the 'tallest' main cola.
Once you top, there is no main cola. You now have two colas who happen to be at the top of the plant. These can't be considered 'main' colas as they are off shoots of the 'main' stalk of the plant. They should probably be referred to as secondary colas. Any colas created of the main stalk should be considered secondary (or lesser) colas. Therefore, the two that are approximately 1" shorter than your secondaries should be referred to as tertiary colas and so on and so forth. You are not a weed whisperer. Best practice is to try to make your canopy as even as possible. All colas will receive equal light and your plant will be happy. Hope this helps. A little at the moment. Good luck.
here is a copy/paste i took from something explaining the lst technique and why you lst. i could post the link but im not sure if that is within the rules... How LST Works This is where I get to those people who were saying “Topping and LST aren’t even close. You’re full of crap.” When you top a plant, you are removing the apical bud (the bud closest to the light) where most of the auxin is concentrated and synthesized. The plant stresses itself out (high stress training) and eventually produces new sprouts along the stem that will form new growth so that it can get a new apical bud and send it soaring towards the heavens. LST is helping to stimulate that growth near the bottom but by tricking the plant instead of chopping it. In nature, if something happens to a plant and the bud that is closest to the light gets blocked, it will try to move around that something. If it can’t, then eventually new growth will form lower along the stem to try and send a new shoot out to head towards the light. When you LST, the reason that you are tying the tip of the plant down is so that the plant gets confused. It is used to producing the auxins in the tip of the plant close to the light. However, because the tip of the plant is pulled down to such a degree, it is not receiving light at the very tip like it used to so it sends the auxins down the stem to produce new sprouts to become new apical buds (or so the plant hopes). but this article i read also answered the question i was looking for.
To be honest, I have never heard of auxins. But, it doesn't sound improbable to me. I LST all my plants, and the reason that I do this is to stimulate bud growth near the bottom of my plants. Wether it is auxins or increased light to the bud sites, I don't know. All I know is that if you have the time to veg, you better choose topping, fimming, LST, S.O.G or S.C.R.O.G. in order to maximize yield. Otherwise, you may be wasting your time indoors. Good luck.
i do the same thong; top to get 4 main stems, and you wont have 4 huge colas but you will have a higher overall yeild
I topped all of mine and its looking very promising at only 8 days flowering. My first grow(bagseed) I let the plant stretch and did not top and the main cola was nice but the yield was small.Hoping this time its better.