Hey Al - looking mighty fine again. I’m always very fond of the lunchtime pic
even when it’s late
Hello everyone.
Hiya Tangled
to 420! Great that you’re able to join in. I have been wanting to share some experience with Al about using CBD in bipolar disorder, and other conditions involving the potential for mania, so its great to have you both here. I’ve posted about it in my journal and the med threads so I’ll just seek out those posts and link them here, once I find them
And Al, another topping tech, that I am currently using for the first time, is the
Uncle Ben’s Topping technique. This give a similar effect and outcome to the quadlining method but with much less stress on the plant because there is no massive leaf removal. Basically you grow to about 4-5 nodes and then chop off all nodes except the first two. You then get 4 mains with a number of secondary branches coming up the center (depending on the plants genetics). I’ve been documenting it in my current journal.
This was Bubba Hash pre-topping (had just started pushing out node #6)
These are after topping ...
And this is a few days ago only 3weeks and 2 days later. Bubba is on teh right, it’s hard to tell, but each of those 4 mains is now a lot bigger/taller than the plant was when I topped it.
In the coming days I’ll grab a pic from the side that shows it better.
As you can see from all our responses about topping and training, there are many ways to do it! Including not doing it!
Often folk just pinch out the 3rd, 4th or 5th node as soon as its out. My first topping I did that. I pinched out the 4th node and then pinched out the tops of the 2 new tops that came up from that and had 4 mains that way (that actually took more growing time than the UBT tho and didnt produce the 4 strong mains that the UBT does). Others like to let the plant grow up a bit more and then take more off. This lets you know you have a good healthy plant and a decent root system before you act.
It’s also true that many growers like to grow a plant without topping at all the first time around to see what the growth structure is like, but many of them are long time growers with perpetual garden setups and many other plants on the go. Topping or training/bending will definitely get you better yields than not doing either.
Magnesium however is something that cannot be preloaded into soil in the quantities needed, without locking out other needed nutrients. Mulder's law.
So I know that’s sound in theory. But it doesn’t account for the many “water only” grows that people do.
I’ll just sit back and enjoy the show! 
