Does topping more than once increase yield?

Growth · Aug 25, 2024

Our yields have been... pretty bad. Not even sure what the yield on an indoor photo should be if done well.

But... we've been lollipopping and topping once. Should we try topping twice? Someone suggested that to me and says it will give more weight if you top 2-3 times but no more.

Is that true? How many times should we top and how much weight should be expected off a well grown indoor photo?

Blastfact · Aug 25, 2024

It gives you more bud sites. Generally top only twice. Three times if I'm going to grow one big plant and scrog or manifold it out. The two in my 2 x 4 tent will get topped twice. The single plant going into the 3 x 3 will get topped three times. The two plants in the 2 x 4 will more than likely be left to grow natural shape if they have strong stalk and stems. The single in the 3 x 3 will get put in scrog.

Newty · Aug 25, 2024

How much weight are you averaging per plant?

Are you getting seeds from a quailty source?
Strains itself could have a big impact on yield, some have different environmental requirements as well.
How are you feeding your plant?
Your nutrients are going to play a big role as well.

When do you usually top?
When do you usually lollipop?
Do you scrog or do any other training?
When you lollipop, defoliate, and do other training techniques can have an impact on harvest such as not giving the plant time to recover before flipping or doing some of these methods to late in flower.

ArtfulCodger · Aug 25, 2024

Outdoors, we have infinite canopy depth. Indoors we have both a low ceiling and limited canopy depth. What we're trying to create in an indoor grow is as much bud as we can put in the "goldilocks zone" of light intensity. You can achieve that with zero topping, if you do aggressive LST a la Northern Scrogger. Or, you can top a lot of times, more like Welcome to the Grow Tent. Those are just examples of YouTube teachers who top to varying degrees.

Karb2 · Aug 27, 2024

number of toppings is related to the size of the plant and your future vision how big it’s going to finish…

You can over top or under top, so there’s a golden middle zone….

For plant up to 4-5ft final size i would recomend single topping above ~8 nodes

For bigger plants you can start with 4 node topping and then going further depending on the plant size….

stet · Mar 11, 2026

Growth said:
Our yields have been... pretty bad. Not even sure what the yield on an indoor photo should be if done well.

But... we've been lollipopping and topping once. Should we try topping twice? Someone suggested that to me and says it will give more weight if you top 2-3 times but no more.

Is that true? How many times should we top and how much weight should be expected off a well grown indoor photo?

Growth said:
Our yields have been... pretty bad. Not even sure what the yield on an indoor photo should be if done well.

But... we've been lollipopping and topping once. Should we try topping twice? Someone suggested that to me and says it will give more weight if you top 2-3 times but no more.

Is that true? How many times should we top and how much weight should be expected off a well grown indoor phot

Growth said:
Our yields have been... pretty bad. Not even sure what the yield on an indoor photo should be if done well.

But... we've been lollipopping and topping once. Should we try topping twice? Someone suggested that to me and says it will give more weight if you top 2-3 times but no more.

Is that true? How many times should we top and how much weight should be expected off a well grown indoor photo?

You're asking a loaded question bud. How long do you want to veg for? How bigs your tent? What light do you have in that tent? Just ask Google questions pertaining to those questions will get you started. Everything depends on what you want to do for time related to yield ect. Good luck

amneziaHaze · Mar 11, 2026

topping even once reduces yield since you will veg a lot longer.you can achive good results with just LST. and to get best yield plant a shit tone of plants

MercDod · Mar 12, 2026

amneziaHaze said:
topping even once reduces yield since you will veg a lot longer.you can achive good results with just LST. and to get best yield plant a shit tone of plants

Topping does not reduce yield. Not giving you a hard time here Amnezia, just figure your partaking on the good plant. I think depending on the circumstances topping once, or twice and LST will give best yield although I have been proven wrong before. Also in some states there are limits on the amount of plants that can be legally grown.
In answer to OP, depends.

amneziaHaze · Mar 12, 2026

MercDod said:
Topping does not reduce yield. Not giving you a hard time here Amnezia, just figure your partaking on the good plant. I think depending on the circumstances topping once, or twice and LST will give best yield although I have been proven wrong before. Also in some states there are limits on the amount of plants that can be legally grown.
In answer to OP, depends.

yes mainline will give amazing results but veg time is way longer than just lst

Ninjadogma · Mar 12, 2026

When you top a plant you create a hormonal disruption. It removes the meristem apical dominance and forces the plant to reprioritize to lateral branches. You don't get this same effect through LST and sometimes you dont even get it from topping if the plant wasn't mature enough.

There's a hybrid trick you can try... instead of taking the top, find the most dominant fan sitting highest up on the branch and remove it. It disrupts the auxin flow similarly to removing the top. It's not an LST move but it's as gentle as one. What you can expect is the top will slow it's growth because it's status has been downgraded to just another lateral branch.

There really isn't a time penalty like you think. It's more like you're taking a linear growth and converting it to 3 dimensional growth. It's actually an increased grow rate that seems slower because its a much larger region.

Ninjadogma · Mar 12, 2026

amneziaHaze said:
topping even once reduces yield since you will veg a lot longer.you can achive good results with just LST. and to get best yield plant a shit tone of plants

This is more of an autoflower problem or if you have a deadline to meet.

amneziaHaze · Mar 12, 2026

i didnt know the trick with just the fan leafs removed.but it makes sense leafs that generate the most energy produce the biggest branches.
you are right i am making it look like you lose months you will lose only a week or 2 soo not a big deal.
and yea just the lst gives a plant that goes all over the place a lot harder to control than when you top and send them all to their opposite sides.
but each time you top you lost 3 bud sites and people usually top 2 times soo now its 6.over time those 6 could have made 2(12) to 8(48) of new buds sites to cover the box soo now you have to spend time again to cover the holes in your box.

i once saw a guy do the craziest outdoor grow i have seen in my life.he kept the whole plant half a meter from the floor and it was massive when it bloomed it was beautiful

MercDod · Mar 12, 2026

Topping increases bud sites.

Hossgrows · Mar 12, 2026

amneziaHaze said:
i didnt know the trick with just the fan leafs removed.but it makes sense leafs that generate the most energy produce the biggest branches.
you are right i am making it look like you lose months you will lose only a week or 2 soo not a big deal.
and yea just the lst gives a plant that goes all over the place a lot harder to control than when you top and send them all to their opposite sides.
but each time you top you lost 3 bud sites and people usually top 2 times soo now its 6.over time those 6 could have made 2(12) to 8(48) of new buds sites to cover the box soo now you have to spend time again to cover the holes in your box.

i once saw a guy do the craziest outdoor grow i have seen in my life.he kept the whole plant half a meter from the floor and it was massive when it bloomed it was beautiful

As a ol farmhand, I've seen it tied down and growing amongst soybeans before.

MercDod · Mar 12, 2026

Hossgrows said:
As a ol farmhand, I've seen it tied down and growing amongst soybeans before.

My current grow of Mimosa Cake Autos by FastBuds, Topped once and the longest stems tied down (LST) at 37 days old and another 50 to go.

Hossgrows · Mar 12, 2026

MercDod said:
Topping increases bud sites.

I don't know about all that. Because I grew one topped and LST, and one by gods hand. They were both close in dry weight, the topped one had larger buds, but the other had more buds, but never completely filled out because of a cold front that came thru and stressed it out, made all the leaves fall of. If it'd stayed healthy it'd have been more than the topped plant.
But I liked the topped one better, it was way easier to take care of, got better lighting thru the canopy, and I didn't have to stand on the top of a 6' ladder to check on it,

Some plants probably do better with topping while others don't

Harvest pics

Grownsince95 · Mar 12, 2026

Ninjadogma said:
When you top a plant you create a hormonal disruption. It removes the meristem apical dominance and forces the plant to reprioritize to lateral branches. You don't get this same effect through LST and sometimes you dont even get it from topping if the plant wasn't mature enough.

There's a hybrid trick you can try... instead of taking the top, find the most dominant fan sitting highest up on the branch and remove it. It disrupts the auxin flow similarly to removing the top. It's not an LST move but it's as gentle as one. What you can expect is the top will slow it's growth because it's status has been downgraded to just another lateral branch.

There really isn't a time penalty like you think. It's more like you're taking a linear growth and converting it to 3 dimensional growth. It's actually an increased grow rate that seems slower because its a much larger region.

Topping, LST and to some extent supercropping all break apical dominance and redirect auxins. They do it by different mechanisms so one is high stress, and one is low.

MercDod · Mar 12, 2026

Hossgrows said:
I don't know about all that.

Do a simple google search
"does topping a plant increase bud sites"
Common Knowledge
Not a hater, Im friendly.

MercDod · Mar 12, 2026

Hossgrows said:
I don't know about all that. Because I grew one topped and LST, and one by gods hand. They were both close in dry weight, the topped one had larger buds, but the other had more buds, but never completely filled out because of a cold front that came thru and stressed it out, made all the leaves fall of. If it'd stayed healthy it'd have been more than the topped plant.
But I liked the topped one better, it was way easier to take care of, got better lighting thru the canopy, and I didn't have to stand on the top of a 6' ladder to check on it,

Some plants probably do better with topping while others don't

Harvest pics

Also, Nice looking topped plant!

amneziaHaze · Mar 12, 2026

MercDod said:
Do a simple google search
"does topping a plant increase bud sites"
Common Knowledge
Not a hater, Im friendly.

soo you have 5 branches you remove 3 and now you have more?

Does topping more than once increase yield?

Does topping more than once increase yield?

Growth

Blastfact

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Does topping more than once increase yield?

Does topping more than once increase yield?

Growth

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Karb2

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