Sombrero Training Primer
@NickHardy
Hey Nick - so I have some time tonight and figured I’d do this Sombrero training thing for you, since you’ve already started.
First, the concept:
The idea is to get either two or four gigantic mains up the middle with a full, many cola, ring around the lower part using the nodes below the topping. This allows for a ton of stem under the two or four mains, thus making those colas huge. At the same time you have a nice fat ring of buds down low. The first obvious question is, don’t the center colas rob all the light from the ring? They don’t if it’s done right. You gotta pull out the ring as wide as you can. That way with the light shining down on the plant, the light sees the mains and it sees the ring. No blockage. What happens is, while the central mains are growing out, the lower ring is too. It’s also side branching for you. In a perfect world, the lower ring buds end up about right up to the bottom of the upper buds and the whole plant looks like one unit.
The process is the same for photos or autos, with one important difference. With photos, you have as much time as you choose. So you can start on any node you want. With autos, you are fighting their flower fuse. So you have to begin asap. This will become clear, but using this method with autos you don’t take any lower nodes off - you will use them to make the lower ring. So you keep nodes one two and three and make the ring from them.
The Process:
I’ll present the steps as if we were talking autos. For photos, it’s exactly the same but top the main stem wherever you want and follow the same process.
1. Let the plant grow unfettered and untouched until the 3rd node is up. At that point begin spreading out the branches from the lower nodes. Use skewers and wire, or whatever you use to spread a branch. Continue spreading daily, obviously as evenly around as possible.
2. When the 5th node is out, top the main stem above node four.
3. At the same time, now those lower branches should have enough going on to top them as well. Top each of the six branches you get from nodes 1,2 and 3. You now have 12 mains for the lower ring. That’s plenty. Side branching will give you more and you can increase the number of ring colas as you see fit. For a photo I’d go super wide and top the shit out of everything, lol. With autos I stop at those 12 and let the side branching take care of it.
4. As the new growth develops on the branches you’re pulling wide, do not take it. Let it grow. Later on you will selectively remove what you don’t want and keep what you like. This growth will become the “fill in” buds that will make the lower ring more like a canopy. Those buds can all be taken if you want just the ring with no middle growth. I do it that way sometimes. The advantage there is your outer ring colas will be bigger in proportion to how much of the center new growth you remove. In that case you just keep the middle clean, like so clean you could water down the middle of you wanted.
5. You will never touch the two or four upper mains. They just grow and grow and will likely need support later. If you want Dual Sombrero, top the main once. For Quad Sombrero, there are two ways,
a. Use the node right below the topping to make the third and fourth main
b. Top the main then top those again.
I prefer the first method.
6. Keep the lower ring as even as you possibly can at all times. When the stretch hits you want that ring to be as close to perfectly horizontal as possible and so even you could use it as a level. The idea there is that it increases your odds of getting an even growth ring. You’ll have to fight the dominant colas a little to keep them even but it’s easy. Just takes attention.
That’s pretty much it. It’s as easy as it gets. When it’s all done it will look something like a Sombrero, thus the name.
Here’s some examples:
First let’s look at my current Apple FritterAuto. She is done Quad Sombrero. I used the node below the topping to be main 3 and 4. The lower ring is made from the first three sets of side branches. In this particular case I decided to leave the lower ring at just those six with no secondary lower branch topping. It’s an experiment to see how the yield compares using this method at its most minimalistic. But same thing, just fewer outer colas. In this close and far view, you can see the evenness of the lower ring, the cleanliness inside, and the four mains up the middle. All you have to do to see the rest is project a little, lol.
Here is my personal record auto (13.8 ounces jarred), a Watermelon Wedding Cake XXL auto like what I have going now. This was grown in coco and water and trained Dual Sombrero. In this picture you can see what happens to the lower ring by the end.
Here’s an outdoor photo grown Dual Sombrero. Photos outside fill in way faster and get way taller and you end up with something like this.
So as you can see, this method can yield big. But it’s gotta not be a squat indica. Hybrids (50/50 or sativa leaning) or sativas only.
It yields, it’s simple, and it looks cool as hell.
What’s the downside?
Well, there’s a few. It works outside or with bar lights. I wouldn’t use it with a center mount light like a quad board or something. You also need space (vertical). And you can’t combine using this method with a canopy method in the same tent. But those are about it.
It’s not as if this is some radical method I invented. Lol. It’s just lazy man’s training that works well. I am 100% certain it’s been being done for years, and I take no credit for inventing it. Maybe for naming it though….
I think this is fairly thorough. Any questions now or later just ask! Hope it helps. Good luck!!
