? of the Day: Is there an optimal # of tops for an individual plant?

Discussion in 'Plant Training' started by FATTYJAY22, Jun 5, 2012.

  1. So we have been throwing this question around my area for some time now and I felt it was time to bring the GC community in on the debate.

    I have a patient of mine who is quite old-school when it comes to cultivation. He has told me a story numerous times about a horticulturist friend he had. Story goes, his friend determined over time that 8 MAIN tops on a cannabis plant is the optimal number to produce the highest yield per plant.

    Now I have done limited experimenting myself, not really shooting for the 8 tops, but usually going for a higher #, more in the 10-30 tops per plant range. I have so far found, the more tops, the more final weight.:p

    So this is where I ask you GC, what is your experience with this? Is this just another wise-tale from the old days, or is there really something scientific here? :confused:
     
  2. #2 Jellyman, Jun 6, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 6, 2012
    Larger plants yield more bud, assuming they both get enough light to all budsites and have room for the extra root growth, and growing more tops makes for a larger plant. Sometimes the number of tops can be increased faster than the growth rate of the roots can support maximum bud growth on them. Sometimes the container size isn't large enough to allow unhindered root growth through the end of flowering if the plants are allowed to grow larger/more tops. Any plant in any environment can reach a point where the time it takes to create additional tops doesn't increase yield any more than if that time had been used to simply grow the whole plant larger.

    Growing indoors, the 2-D amount of floor space each container takes up is another limitation to the efficacy of growing more tops. Plants get wider with each set of new stalks and once they reach the width of the pots they're growing in, it usually becomes a waste of time to grow any more. All of the area outside the pot's diameter that you spend extra time growing colas in could have been filled by separate plants grown at the same time. For example, let's say it takes forty days to veg enough stalks that your four plants fill a 3x3' area at harvest when grown in 5gal, one foot wide buckets. If you can grow enough stalks in thirty days that each of nine plants finish at the width of their containers, you'll have roughly the same harvest with ten fewer days growth, electric bill, work, etc. Sorry if the example was unnecessary.

    All in all, there is an optimal number of tops for any given plants in specific growing conditions, but there are some situations where this will be a great many of them and some where using time to just grow the whole plant larger will cause the same increase in yield. There's no rule of thumb governing how many will be optimal.
     
  3. ^^^ someone rep that, I have to spread more first.

    Just to add to all the good stuff Jelly wrote,.....when you over-top, you risk a hermi, careful.

    To top or not to top is often a style question. If you plan to scrog, you will need to top,...as an example
     

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