Right or wrong, I have it firmly in my head the belief that amounts to this equation: less topping = better colas = more stretch = more direct feeding lines and quicker and easier access to nutrients = no fight for dominance = less stress overall to the plant for its life cycle = way better end product. Or so.
Wrongish and I will explain why. Please ask any questions or challenge anything Iāve said that you donāt agree with
āBetter colasā is subjective. What do you mean by better? Bigger? Light exposure? You tread in dangerous territory making colas larger than the environment can handle. If they bulk too much and you donāt have a plan in place, bud rot can rip through your entire grow quickly. It was my biggest concern going into this grow. Once colas reach a certain mass it becomes almost impossible to get full airflow in there. It also becomes very difficult to dry them evenly when theyāre very big.
Direct feeding lines/access to nutrients:
This one is a little less subjective. Take a look at your plants. If you look at the way the nodes grow you will almost always find that your third or fourth node is the node that grows longest/largest aside from the main. Itās typically the one that comes out from the center and raises way up. The third/fourth node gets a massive pipeline for nutrients. Hereās an example:
The third and fourth node on this plant have colas that are almost 3x as long/large as the next closest cola. They even rival the main cola. However you can tell the main cola gets a lot of the nutrition as well, due to it being the apical dominant part, itās much fatter than the others.
This leads into the dominance argument. Using only the third node as the main pipeline gives each cola from that node access to almost equivalent resources, and a massive amount at that. Cannabis is an apical growth plant. Meaning the majority of its resources are going to go to the highest point. So if the third and fourth are pumping like that when thereās a main bud, removing the main bud redirect those resources making them grow even better.
If you take out the singular highest point and replace it with 8 colas all at equivalent height, none will gain dominance and they all will get equal resources. This is why tying the branches down to keep the colas even is super important. It stops any of the colas from gaining more than the others. This is all controlled by hormones and cells in the tips of your branches. Itās a difficult fight some times. If you allow your ends to raise up as they naturally want to you will see those 4 grab dominance and become much larger than the other 4. Hereās an example of a plant that wasnāt tied down properly
If these wouldāve been kept tied down and even theyād all be much more equal
All of that aside, thereās been quite a few comparison grows done from quite a few breeders that have shown the difference between topped and untopped plants is typically negligible in terms of quality and weight with all other things equal.
When under an LED, you need to maximize the amount of light that hits the plant. The difference even six inches of height makes in terms of DLI for my plants is incredible. I need equal light to hit as much as possible without frying or stunting and 6 inches can some times be that difference. Thatās rough. Iām also limited in height. My plants canāt get any taller than 5 feet including the pot which is a foot on its own, plus the risers.
RE: Stress. A lot of growers believe stressing their plants is beneficial. The droughting folks are all about it. However if you have a healthy plant with a healthy myco connection, topping your plants doesnāt stress them. Neither does transplanting them and then topping them. Earlier in this journal I show that with a healthy myco connection you can transplant your plant, then top it, and it will bounce right back to growing. When I top them again and tie them down they go right back to growing. HST is only high stress when you have unhealthy plants.
When it comes to quality, this is dictated by nutrition and to a lesser extent environment. This is why organic grown tastes, smells, and feels better even grown in the same environment as synthetic. Itās also why outdoors has a different taste and growth. Topping and training have no impact on how a plant eats, only where it sends those nutrients.
TLDR: Topping and training only impact yield, not quality. Quality is dictated by nutrition and to a lesser extent environment. This is why a plant that only yields 1 oz can be better in terms of quality than a plant that yields a pound.
They are finishing beautifully