is it just a preference, or does one really produce more buds over the other? hopefully i'll have enough plants (germinating right now) to try a little of both. but i want some opinions.
i personally couldnt say wether one will produce more than the other and im sure theres a million people on here that will argue for each. what i can tell u is this Lst is just that, low stress training. it puts little to no stress on ur plant when done correctly. Topping is a form of high stress training, meaning the process of topping is stressful to the plant and will delay growth briefly, but in the end you still get more budsites. Both work well seperately and can be used together. it pretty much comes down to what works for you. I use lst combined with minimal topping.
LST allows you to even out the canopy and get more even light to the bud sites, so you don't just have 1 bud thats big, but a couple! Topping allows you to create more budsites, where you top one budsite, 2 will grow to replace it! http://forum.grasscity.com/advanced...-way-lst-tutorial-w-topping-sub-tutorial.html I just read the above 4 way lst/topping yesterday and was pretty impressed. Up until that point I probably wouldn't have even recommended anything but sole LST!
Topping can slow things down a good bit, especially if you do it over and over. LBH ended up with some beautiful plants, but it took him 9 weeks of veg to get there. If you are only gonna veg for 3-4 weeks then topping is probably not the way to go. LST does not seem to slow the girls down at all. I have topped in the past, these days I simply LST, and I start at around two weeks... GL!
hmmm...we're not really looking to veg for too long. prolly max 2 months...more likely only a month. hmmm that's not very specific...now i see why more experienced folks talk about their grows in week or day time periods...it's like pregnancy!!! 2 months doesn't mean anything specific...but 8 weeks def. does.
I've done both and they both have their pro's and con's. I personally don't like the amount of time I had to dedicate tying plants down, retying them, etc. Topping if done correctly doesn't slow down growth much if any at all, the trick is to top the newest growth as it appears and not top like your taking a clone. As for yield, it all depends on the patience you have to allow either the lst'd plant's opened up secondary growth to grow, or the topped plants new main colas. Here is a pic of a plant I topped that didn't require any more veg time than untopped ones growing alongside it: