So I have a quick question. One time I topped my plant and of course it grew into 2 shoots. But for some reason one of those shoots died after growing for awhile and never came back (might have been accidentally snipped).....Well now on a different plant of mine one of the tops (I don't know if it's the main grow shoot or not it's just a top) suffered some heat burn bc it grew up onto the top of the greenhouse which was hot. My question is how will I know if the shoot will resume as a top? How come I topped a plant once and two shoots came but when one of those shoots was cut again it just died? Is there only a certain time or place you can cut a shoot to make two? Thanks if anyone can clear this up. Ive been growing for years and don't really know for sure.
I've never heard of that happening, but what I know is you can't top it too quick, it's a lot of stress to the plant topping it. Make sure there are atleast 2-3 nodes under where you're gonna top.
When you take anything on the top off, you take the plants apical auxins, the plant has to make and redistribute more. This is the 'lag time' between trimming and new vertical growth. The roots and the side branches still have enough of the auxins to grow, but not the top. That's why toping makes plants 'bushier'. Topping can also throw a plant into stasis for good...some plants can just stop growing completely, and some will die. Some genetic strains will even state, 'don't top this strain'. Ususally most plants will just wait a week or two, and grow more tops out...