Topping sativas

[DA420]

I am growing Apollo Haze by brothers Grimm which is predominantly a Sativa they are only about 2 and a half weeks old and some are already getting close to being a foot tall my tent is only 5 feet tall and I know with sativas they can grow quite a bit taller during flowering so from what I have read I shouldn't top it because of it being sativa and the breeders recommend growing a single cola so I was wondering what others opinions? This is my first grow and I'm kind of excited about putting them into flowering anyway so when is the earliest I can put them into flowering as I said they are about 2 and a half weeks old ( from when they broke soil ) and about 9 inches tall


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[Weaselcracker]

Yes you can top them if you want. It's not an issue. I would start flowering now if height is an issue. You can put in a scrog screen or you can bend the plant sideways and train it down to flatten it. Which is probably what you'll have to do.
But yes you can top it no problem. That's not going to save you much height though- just means you'll have more tops and it will be bushier.

 

[DA420]

Yes you can top them if you want. It's not an issue. I would start flowering now if height is an issue. You can put in a scrog screen or you can bend the plant sideways and train it down to flatten it. Which is probably what you'll have to do.
But yes you can top it no problem. That's not going to save you much height though- just means you'll have more tops and it will be bushier.

Is it okay to put into flowering this early? I know it won't yield as much this grow and I'm fine with that as long is it will still turn out good


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[Dwight Monk]

Personally I would try topping or training if you have the space (get more bang for you buck so to speak), and then put into Flower when you think you will run out of height room after they done stretching in Flower.

 

[Weaselcracker]

If you can put a scrog screen in- that should give you the tool you need to solve the stretch issue. All a scrog screen does is gives you something to tie the plant down to. Then you can just keep tying it down to the screen (I use pipe cleaners) until it's done stretching. Without the screen you'll have to put more work into it- tying the plant down to the pot and to its own lower stem, as well as supercropping and topping and whatever else you can do to flatten it down a bit.
With a screen pretty much any plant should be controllable.
With no training of any kind I think you're in for some stress. If you flip to flower right now you may get away with it, but it's doubtful- depends on the stretch amount obviously and how much actual room you have to play with between top of pot and whatever point is 'too close to the light'. But as the monk said, you'll yield better if you let it build a decent root system first.
A cannabis plant cannot flower till it's sexually mature. This happens at around 4 or 5 weeks of age, roughly. Let's say it's 4 and 1/2 weeks in this case. The main difference between flipping to 12/12 now and vegging on 18/6 for another two weeks before flipping, is that under that two weeks of 18/6 they'd receive 1/3 more light, and therefore be larger at the start of flowering.
In other words (and you may know this already) they won't start flowering right away if you flip now- they'll still be vegging for a while longer, just on reduced lighting hours.
I'm facing a similar question with four sativa seedlings I have started. Because they're two strains that I'm not very familiar with, I'm not sure how to approach them. The two Ace Honduras plants look very stretchy. Ace reccomends only vegging them for two weeks. The other two are Golden Tiger, which is not quite as stretchy. I'm trying to decide whether to flip now or to let them veg and scrog them later. I'm leaning towards scrogging- because if I flip now I feel like it would make the most sense to have them in their final size pots. And I really don't like having small plants in large pots. Makes it tricky to water. Maybe I'll put two in 12/12 and scrog the other two later. Decisions decisions...
Whatever you do- plan for the worst and have some stretch control in place.

 

[Gauge Steel]

DA, this is solid advice from two 420 studs. Look at there grows current and past. Nuff said!
Good luck and start a journal. I want to watch these girls go! Pass on how you got to where you are so you can help someone else!
Guage

 

[nivek]

Yep, what weasely said,, he be be man on sativas, Indeed

This plant on the front left is full on sativa, mama thai/Thai Stick. It has been topped, only once, trained into the screen there, scrogged I guess, and flowered for ninety one days

Usually I need to cut the plants out of the screen but this one I was able to remove whole, and this is what it looked like

One hundred grams all dried and jarred up, great stuff too, cheers weaseley