Too late to mainline?

Mainlining wouldnt be impossible. I would just strangle the shit out of her in 3 or 4 places and bend her over then around and let her heal that way. Would heal from it way faster and you'd achieve similar results. You got a nice main stalk goin so shouldnt be much issue.

What i mean by strangle is squeezing her main branch until it becomes very flexible.

 

If your branches are thick, use pliers. If theyre thin enough, use your fingers. What you want to do is squeeze the branch until it starts drooping over without snapping.

Heres a link.

Crimping Cropping Techniques to the Cannabis Plant

Bending Cropping Techniques

 

You could still mainline now, but to do it correctly you would have to top your plant all the way down to the 3rd node. All that growth you have above it is totally lost, that is several weeks judging by your photo. That is why its recommended to start mainlining when you have 4-5 nodes at most, as any growth beyond that is completely lost (plus the time it took). Given that I agree with Rezerg, choose some other method to get the vertical growth under control.

 

Yes I think you can still do some training, but obviously the results will not be as good as they would if you had started sooner (the older a plant is, the more set it is in its growth pattern). Just be careful because your stems are thicker & stronger now that the plant is older and has never been bent, you might have to do some supercropping (lightly crushing the stems) to make it work well. Next time if you want to mainline be sure to start by the time the plant has developed its 5th node or so.

 

That plant absolutely looks like its still in veg to me........

 

My 2 cents would be to not top it, remove the pink trellis, and then tie that piece of clothes line about 3 nodes down from the top and use that to bend it over as far as you can without tipping it over. Then tie the line so she stays put. In 4 - 5 days you may need to tie the line down again a little further out, but all the branches will start growing up giving basically the same effect that you were looking for in mainlining her. Plus you will get more flower sights off from the branches as they grow larger upwards.

 

I am going to respectfully disagree with you here, what you are describing is LST (Low Stress Training) and will not give the same effect as Mainlining. If you read any tutorial or detailed description of Mainlining, the point is not to train the plant to grow more sideways and tame its height. The idea is to create a "hub" or "manifold" off of a single node, creating a center for equal energy distribution from the roots all the way to each cola on the plant. That is, the remaining colas after topping & pruning (usually 8 but as many as 16 sometimes) all get equal amounts of nutrients from the roots because they are all the same size and equal distance from the roots. Tying down the top of the plant will not achieve that specific goal in any way, it is a form of growth training but honestly its not going to give anywhere near the same effect as true & correct Mainlining. See this detailed tutorial from Nugbuckets:

Main-Lining Tutorial on Training Marijuana Plants | Grow Weed Easy

 

I'm sorry, but, i know exactly what mainlining is. The Procedure that i described is a LST version of training, where as a mainline is a HST version. Both ultimately end up doing the same, they give you a certain amount of branching to produce multiple colas along the main branching. This can result in a 2 Branch split, a 4 way split, or more. It is far too late in this plants growth to achieve the result of a split stalk manifold.

 

Anyone here besides me actually mainlining?
Mainlining is something you should definitely have a full plan for the whole grow. It is HST but you actually do less defol and trimming than you do for an LST all your stress from a manifold comes early on in your grow. It's actually zero stress for flowering. It will add time to your veg cycle for recovery but I'm loving my results so far.

SL by Gruntgrower posted May 1, 2018 at 11:03 AM

SC2 by Gruntgrower posted May 1, 2018 at 11:03 AM

SC1 by Gruntgrower posted May 1, 2018 at 11:03 AM

SL by Gruntgrower posted May 12, 2018 at 12:41 PM

SC1 by Gruntgrower posted May 12, 2018 at 12:41 PM

SC2 by Gruntgrower posted May 12, 2018 at 12:41 PM

Here is my ladies so far currently sitting at over 40 colas for 3 plants. Two at 16 and one at 8.
If you have any questions, ask away.
Your first top should be done when your plant has 5-6 nodes, but topped at the third.
Beyond 6 nodes is pretty much a waste of growth if planning on manifolding.
You can manifold later in the plants life, but you will have to plan on a longer veg cycle to make sure you recover and can build the manifold.

 

We have all said from the beginning of this thread that its far too late in this plants life to start mainlining, that was already established. While it is true that LST gives you a certain amount of branching to produce multiple colas along the main branching, I totally disagree that "both ultimately end up doing the same" as you stated. No LST method (the one you describe or any other) gives you completely equal and matching mainlines coming off of a single node that ends up delivering equal amounts of nutrients to all colas. A mainlined plant is like an octagon (8 exactly equal sides) whereas when you tie down the top of a plant you do not get that. You will get a multi-way split along the main branches as you said, but that does not achieve the equal nutrient distribution that mainlining does.

 

yes. its been a while. that's the last mainline i did.