Number of tops related to yields

[Rama777]

Yo! I know that as the number of tops increases, the weight of the colas decreases. Topping in a tent makes perfect sense because of height restrictions and light penetration. A double cola, shorter plant will out yield a single. 4 colas? Yeah probably so. I’m sure it’s strain dependent and there are other variables, but at a certain point you won’t get more yield right? What is that point? For an equal period of veg duration, at what point roughly does the increase of the number of tops simply decrease the size of the colas and not add anything to potential yields?

 

[Rama777]

Currently on my first grow, I have about 16 tops per plant, up to 20 on one. Because of how crowded it is, there’s a lot of shade. I feel that 12 tops would have produced the same yield.

Perhaps the ideal number tops is proportional to the size of the growing space. I think in my 3x3 space that 48 total tops would have made the canopy more open and the light penetration deeper. I had to kill a hermie but if I had not, I would have ended up with 72 tops or which I believe would have been too crowded.

Now of course I could have pruned there buds higher up and maybe that would work just as well for yields as fewer tops. So there’s that option as well.

I’m tempted on my next grow to train some to have 12 tops and some to have as few as 6-8.

If I only have 6-8 though, with the tying down I have to do to extend the veg, it would also result in the removal of a lot of side branches leading up to the flip. I do wonder if that would slow down growth and hurt me in the long run. I wouldn’t be able to just clip them as soon as they shoot up. I would need to let them grow out some in order to not have the 6-8 main tops get all the growth attention. If they did, they’d get too tall too fast in my context. So I just don’t know if clipping a fair amount of branch growth would reduce my yields, or if by the flip, the remaining tops would explode in thickness just fine.

 

[BryanOconner]

Hell of a question . To answer your question will be YES AND NO yield increase .
Depends on the light used first of all. Put it this way i could grow under hps not topping but pull 12 ounces plant from a 2 half foot veg every day of the week. Under led quantom boards i cant do it with out topping the plants. i have to use shorter plants and have many tops and i cant pull that much yield from a single plant under qb boards . more in the 4 to 6 ounce per plant max .
More tops more coverage area for the light to hit . Cut the bottoms off that are not getting light will get you more yield under the new led lights . With high pressure sodium 600 or 1000 watt lamps you can veg much bigger .
Under hps many tops or a few main tops the plant will pull the same yield .
One major advantage of having smaller tops is less chance of molds smaller buds .

 

[2Water]

There is a diminishing return, most people follow that 8 tops per plant in a tent is sufficient, but depends on your setup mostly

 

[Rama777]

Thanks for the insight. I actually am using a 600 watt HPS and will be doing so on my next grow as well. Then after that when the weather warms up I’ll be using and LED.

 

[Rama777]

Do you find that HPS penetrates deeper than LED boards? Is that why you say you could get the same yields under HPS with fewer tops?

 

[Rama777]

Hell of a question . To answer your question will be YES AND NO yield increase .
Depends on the light used first of all. Put it this way i could grow under hps not topping but pull 12 ounces plant from a 2 half foot veg every day of the week. Under led quantom boards i cant do it with out topping the plants. i have to use shorter plants and have many tops and i cant pull that much yield from a single plant under qb boards . more in the 4 to 6 ounce per plant max .
More tops more coverage area for the light to hit . Cut the bottoms off that are not getting light will get you more yield under the new led lights . With high pressure sodium 600 or 1000 watt lamps you can veg much bigger .
Under hps many tops or a few main tops the plant will pull the same yield .
One major advantage of having smaller tops is less chance of molds smaller buds .

Would you mind elaborating a bit more on your experience with HPS vs LED for how you can treat the canopy differently?

 

[BryanOconner]

Do you find that HPS penetrates deeper than LED boards? Is that why you say you could get the same yields under HPS with fewer tops?

Side lighting . HPS bounces off walls grows the middle and bottom of the plants . Led straight down lighting .
I like hps better for larger grows where yield is the key . With led its more for personal use .
I hate how led veg i refuse to use it .
Led less heat only good thing about them but suffer the yield decrease . My opinion is for QB boards not the new led bar led

 

[Rama777]

Hell of a question . To answer your question will be YES AND NO yield increase .
Depends on the light used first of all. Put it this way i could grow under hps not topping but pull 12 ounces plant from a 2 half foot veg every day of the week. Under led quantom boards i cant do it with out topping the plants. i have to use shorter plants and have many tops and i cant pull that much yield from a single plant under qb boards . more in the 4 to 6 ounce per plant max .
More tops more coverage area for the light to hit . Cut the bottoms off that are not getting light will get you more yield under the new led lights . With high pressure sodium 600 or 1000 watt lamps you can veg much bigger .
Under hps many tops or a few main tops the plant will pull the same yield .
One major advantage of having smaller tops is less chance of molds smaller buds .

Would you mind elaborating a bit more on your experience with HPS vs LED for how you can treat the canopy differently?

Side lighting . HPS bounces off walls grows the middle and bottom of the plants . Led straight down lighting .
I like hps better for larger grows where yield is the key . With led its more for personal use .
I hate how led veg i refuse to use it .
Led less heat only good thing about them but suffer the yield decrease . My opinion is for QB boards not the new led bar led

What about LED do you dislike for veg?

 

[Rama777]

Just to clarify here, when I said that I feel like 12 tops per plant seems ideal for my space, I meant total with the side branching as well. I suppose that was probably obvious but just ti be sure..

I found on this grow with 6 main tops that for the 6.5 week veg I did, I had too many side branches which resulted in more tops than I wanted.

So this next time around I was thinking I have 2 options.

1) Top above the 2nd node to have 4 mains, LST for height control to get around 6 weeks of veg in, and end up with 12 tops or so total. Probably not much pruning.

2) Top above the 3rd node to have 6 mains, LST as above but then prune off more branches before the flip to run with the desired number of tops.

Pros and cons to either approach?

 

[Pilted]

I usually only top once on the 7th to 8th node then I grow the lower branches usually resulting in 10-12 main branches. Sometimes the one top is not enough to get the lower branches growing so if that happens I usually super crop to help Dave on height. 27-27-63 tent doesn't give a lot of head room.

This plant one top, one super crop.

 

[Pilted]

This plant just one top.

 

[Pilted]

I'm getting about 5-6 ounces a plant, I am trying to get that up to 8-10 ounces. But I have tried multiple tops and yield was less then this method. I think it's more dependent on the strain but filling your tent with heads will improve yield.

 

[TheCarFather]

My first immediate thought was if you were going to top more than "usual", you'd want/need to also veg at least a few weeks longer than "usual". I prefer to let my plants grow for about 2 weeks after topping before flip to let the hormones do their thing. The more topping, the longer the veg.