i never understood what topping ment until i read all the old emails i had from the person who got me started in growing.... read this...<br> "WELL you obviously have to put the seeds in dirt. usually it takes a week to get them to come up when they do atfer the fourth to sixth set of leaves you can cut the bunchy top growth off of it (topping) or just let it grow(single stalking) with out cutting it . but topping promotes more growth sites by multip the main stalk into 2 main stalks.(in case your wondering where they grow from ) they grow from the (croth) where the stalk meets the leaves on each side and all the leafsets or (nodes) we talked about that .after those stalks grow up you can repeat doubling it again .everytime you do it ,but watch , because they will grow very wide ,streching to get the light and they will fight for the light by trying to overcast the rest .when they do you lose light energy to the lower portions of the plant. use the grow big in this stage to water with ." <br> i didnt know that topping was cutting the top so it multiplyies the main stalk into 2 main stalks, i always thought that topping was to take clones, lol silly meee, i noticed that 2 of my clones are growing 2 main stalks and i think topping is fucking cool, 2 plants in 1, or go crazy if you got the time to wait till it repairs the stem and make like 6 plants in one.. i just thought i should post this up because im sure im not the only one that didnt understand what topping is used for..
Check out about FIM'ing a plant in the FAQ's you can get more than just 2 tops some get 4 or 8 and if your lucky or get good at it 12 new top's.
yea you just keep cutting the top of the main stems.. first u get 2... then u cut those 2 and u get 4... but my guess is do it when their young.. i have 2 clones that i toped off and 1 that i just cut i want to see how wide they get and how much buds that give... who knows maybe its easyer to kee doing topping off you probbly get alot more buds off 1 plant then from 3...
Topping and tipping are both different i assumed. Topping a plant was to cut the main stem under the new growth so as to stunt the plants growth entirely,thus nothing would grow higher from that point. Tipping was to take out the little tulip in the new growth to create two new branches in its place. Fim-ing was to only take 1/2 of this tulip instead of a full "tip" and then a random amount of branches would grow. Therefore the saying fim ->**** i missed. (Edited by Kiwigrower at 11:34 am on Aug. 12, 2002)
Actually......Fim'ing recuires you to cut off the top 90% of the newest growth, leaving 10%. The plant does grow taller than the point at which you cut it. The branches that would be coming out of the top are then surged with everything on it's way to the top of the plant, causing it to "bush out" and power up the rest of the plant. While it can't really grow taller for a couple of weeks, the main stem and the other branches are in full spurt.
Actually guys ... I used to top my plants and got 2 new stalks. I also FIMed a few for 4 new stalks. You can see my FIM thread in beginers for pics. I used to like the idea of topping and FIMing but I will never do it again. First of all you can get the same growth results faster from training the plant. I also found that topping and FIMing often deforms the plant, taking away from its natural beauty. You do get more tops but you are ascraficing yield. The new stalks that grow in are much thinner then the original stalk and this causes the buds to be much smaller. So you can have 1 big natural bud or several smaller buds. I will never top a plant again. Its just something to think about guys. I tell you this from experience and its only my opinion.
Good Post Ph, i agree 100% Iam leaving my girls alone, and will only prune,no topping for this guy,Ill be training for now on, it will most certainly increase yield.. ..I learned my lesson. CG
It all depends on your set up. If you have a massive light like CG you might as well leave the plant and not top/FIM it, as all the plant will get plenty of light, even as the main top cola pushes the light further away from the rest of your plant. With the larger lights you can have good buds all round the plant and still keep your main cola. But if you have a smaller light then you need the light as close to as many of the buds as possible. So if you top/FIM the plant then you have more buds at the top close to the light. This gives you more top quality buds from each plant. They may be smaller but there are a lot more of then and i have found that FIMing increases the yeild of a plant!
Right on Skuzz. The lights intensity is the deciding factor for the TOP/FIM crew. Just to add, a pretty plant isn't always the best plant.
Actually ..... read the post a little closer. You can accomplish the same yield by properly training your plant! You dont need a huge light for a nice yeild but the yield will increase after a certain point due to an increase in light. I mean the reasoning behind each of these methods is to increase light to the buds. UNDER THE SAME LIGHT training is a much better method then topping or FIMing .. period (my opinion)lol. Using training methods you get to keep the BIG DENSE buds and have just as many as you would have by chopping up your plant. Just look at Kiwis or Herb's gardens. Small lights and plants trained without topping to produce BEAUTIFUL, dense buds in a very nice quantity. Plus your plants react MUCH MUCH faster to training then they do to topping or FIMing or even pruning because of the required time to heal. CW- Just to add, I was trying to make a point ... beauty is in the eye of the beholder. ... but I guess you get to keep your job .. ugly girls need lovin to ... i'll keep growing the pretty ones.
Thanks for the props PH. I did top Purpy on the first round one time. Granny was a reveg and did the branching by herself, Lil' G I left alone and she grew straight up. I have to say I was most happy with Purpy for the grow I do. I got 6 tops as the result of one topping. The main stem branched into 2, and 4 more lower branches caught up with the 2 mains. That gave me a nice bush that had an even canopy. I think this time I will experiment with Fimming and topping to see which works better for me. Definitely going to top at least once instead of letting it go straight up and training. That is how I grew Granny on the first round and Lil'G, and I was not happy both times given my light setup. I think I am going to train Princess this time though. She has two main stems that I am going to make into an arch. Like a McDonald's arch just to see what happens.....This growing should be fun not a hassel. Experiment with those girls and see what works best for your circumstances I say.
The more I think about it the more I think I might have jumped the gun. I need to do a few more experiments before I can say 1 method is better then another. I dont think topping is bad, I just think it takes away from the natural beauty of the plant. If I dont top and JUST get 1 main bud I wouldnt be happy either. I am not sure how exactly topping has effected the lower stems of my plant but I do know that the training I did has helped light penetration to the lower buds. I wish I would have trained the 2 new tops more. I guess FIMing would be ok also if you didnt mind having a long veg state. I dont know .. im just thinking .. I will have to experiment more. I just read CW's post in the FAQs again and after reading Herb's remarks its causing me to reconsider. I actually had a picture of Herb's LiL G' in my mind on that last post. That plant just looks awesome. I guess it really depends on your grow space and lights.
oh wow, i didnt know that when u top off the plant u get smaller yields, thanks for the heads up.. good thing i didnt go crazy and topped all my plants, that was the only reason i topped 2 of the plants i wanted to see how much more they give and how long it takes to start growing again.. cause my big mother plant just started to grow the 2 new stems and its been like 2 weeks i think... so i think u grow quicker without topping.. and if u get less yields when u do top, then the wait plus the yield is not worth waiting for.. thanks for the info....
I fimed both my plants early in the vege stage, 4 weeks in, then by the time i turned on the flower power, at 7 weeks i had 5 top top bud ites to train. I tied these away from the center of the plant, and gradually pulled them down lower than my secondary bud sites. Now my secondarys and primarys buds are all approx the same size, and i have 13 of them on each plant. My next clone which i just rooted im not going to fim or tip at all, but train the one main stem completely horizontal, parallel to the light. Although a ten week vege cycle,i hope to get a magic carpet, hovering above the floor.
Eddie I would not say that topping reduces yeilds. I got more from my topped plant than I did from the untopped plant. Actually it was twice as much. I learned that there is a fine line when you have low wattage bulbs. Top too much and the plant has to spred the energy too much, but topping once seems to work wonders. A good balance between getting optimum light to the whole plant and the plant not having to dispense energy to too many sites. Think of 6 main colas as opposed to 1. Plus you can take advantage of the height much better. The shorter the plant the better and further the light penetrates the canopy. The choice is yours......I personally found this to work best for me. Kiwi has the right idea. I too pull the taller vegetation out away from the center to allow more light to the lower growth. No need to prune that way. I just rotate my plants daily so they get good light all around and help them build stem strength by forcing the plant to follow the light source.
Listen to these guys .. they really know their ****. I was mistaken on Kiwi's garden and I apologize. I didnt think his plants had ever been topped or fimed so I stand corrected. Originally I was thinking the same as Herb. By not topping and bending the main stalk almost completely horizontal it would allow the lower nodes to grow vertically. So that every node on the main stalk would become a main cola itself. I would think that the actual main cola would also start growing towards the light and become even with others at some point. The only real bad thing I can see on pruning, toping, or fiming is the extra veg time required for the plant to heal. Do as Herb has said and experiment on your own .. find the best method for your situation.
The more you top/FIM the more veg is required, but for ppl with space and light restrictions its the best way to go. You will end up with more quality weed. In my experiance with a 400w HPS and no hieght restriction (well 6 feet) one FIM is all that is needed plus some training. This does not cause too much vegging and I normally get about 6 good colas per plant. We are now thinking of experimenting with scrog. Its a bit of hassel but we will see how it goes!
Exactly my method there Skuzz. Only I topped instead of FIM. This time I am experimenting with FIM. I was going to do a scrog this time but I need to have to ability to move my plants easily so it is not going to happen just yet. Scrog grows require a long veg time as well because FIMing is a requirment and you must let those babies grow out to fill the screen. Good luck on your scrog.....
Im bringing this back up, but after reading about 8 or 9 other posts with the same main point (topping/fimming etc) I found this one to be the most informative and thought it should be bumped back up to the top for noobs like me to see before posting I dont really need to TOP mine, coz i have a pretty tall area, but this so called 'training' sounds very intruiging! And i am gonna have to do some searching on this topic. Also dont really understand FIMing either, but will search it! Later guys
