To top or not to top (my first indoor grow)?

[RicinBeans]

I was hoping to get someone's opinion on whether I should try topping one or both of my plants in my first (indoor) grow. I'll provide pics of each plant below, but here is my general grow diary that I've been updating on this site, that contains a lot of details about every aspect of my grow.

I have a couple of concerns where topping is involved. First of all, when I looked at videos of people doing it on YouTube, the plants were typically growing a bit differently. 6 nodes seems to be the generally accepted time to do it, where the center stem is growing out, and slightly above nodes 5 & 6. My (#2) plant, however, grew its 5th/6th nodes, and then seemed to grow its 7th and 8th ones like right on top of them, without the center stem first growing out much. It kind of caught me off-guard, and I wasn't sure how to handle it. I fear that now, it might be too late for me to do any topping with it.

#1 was quite stunted for some time, and has only been showing signs of recovery in the past few days. It's very small compared to #2, and I kind of fell like I should leave well enough alone with it, rather than give it another challenge.

The entire grow has been somewhat complicated, with drainage, gnat and potential mold or fungus issues (the latter of which I can only speculate on). It's why I'm generally leaning towards letting them just grow a bit more an doing some sort of LST on them. I figured it couldn't hurt to get some opinions from experienced growers though, so I figured I'd throw this thread up and see if anyone has any opinions on the matter. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

While the details are in the journal, it's probably worth mentioning in here that both of these germinated seeds were planted in their pots on 8/22. The diary's first entries have July listed - it's a total brain fart, and something I didn't notice until it was too late to edit the post. Anything you see in that last post mentioning July actually refers to August. So these germinated seeds were pit in the dirt a little over 5 weeks ago.

 

[Dirtbag]

What ever happened? Did you top? I'd have told you to top once they grew a bit more.

 

[Narsbars]

A lot of time with photos I top a few times and extend veg long enough to see recovery. Then I use some LST, tying some branches down so the canopy will end up an even height. Give them a little extra time in veg to make up for any injuries and you should be good to go.

 

[RicinBeans]

Oh wow I totally forgot that I created this thread haha. I did top #2 around 3 weeks after this post, and fimmed #1 the day after. That first fimm attempt didn't work out though, and the only result was that the next set of leaves that grew out of it were missing their tips. I fimmed it again after that though, and the results of the fimming, as well as for the topping of #2, were spectacular. I came back and updated my grow diary, and you can see two videos I included in that last post right here. There are two videos - the first one just a video taken of the tent on 11/15, and the second one is a sildeshow of (almost) daily photos, where you can see how the plants responded to their topping/fimming. You may want to watch it a 2x speed for more of a flipbook effect.

In short though, when I topped #2, not only did the top node immediately (and with no recovery time, surprisingly - it almost seemed like it stimulated immediate growth) grow into two main stems, but branches from lower nodes shot up to the height of those two main stems, for a total of four colas of about equal height, with even a couple more popping out from lower in the plant, though those aren't as high up as the other four.

The second attempt at fimming #1 resulted in a near halt in vertical growth while horizontal growth kicked in, and what appear to be numerous colas quickly manifested as the plant came to resemble a small bush. You can see what I'm talking about in both of the videos in the linked post, but they're even more apparent today. I'll probably record a new video today or tomorrow and I'll either post it in both threads or post it in the diary and link the diary post here.

My current plan is to flip these to 12/12 in about a week from now. I've heavily pruned both plants several times since my last post in here. While their fimming/topping recovery times were virtually non-existent, there was a point past which growth seemed to slow. Additionally, with #2, it seemed like the heavy, leafy growth was lower in the plant, whereas I wanted all these new cola-bearing stems to develop more. The theory I was working under was that the plants were starting to get to a point that they were too robust and (especially in the case of #2) large for my lights to sustain continued rapid growth, and that maybe colas in particular have higher energy demands than other stems/leaves. At this point, as a result of all the pruning of the lower portions, they don't have much of a place to grow aside from higher up - #1 is almost lollipopped right now. As such, I feel like my returns will diminish at best from continuing to prolong vegetative growth, and #2 might even outgrow the tent, so I'm just going to give them time to recover from the last pruning (a couple of days ago), then flip them into flower and see how it works out.

 

[RicinBeans]

A video I took today as I gradually transition them into flowering. I've been at 18/6 through most of the veg stage, and am now shifting that ratio by one hour per day until I get to 12/12. The number of cola sites seems promising, and it looks like the topping/fimming was definitely beneficial. All that remains to be seen is how well these lights can grow buds with so many colas to support. Fingers crossed.