When you top or prune or defoliate, you lose the recovery days that would have been growth days. Especially in early flower when veg growth is strongest. Maybe one heavy defoliate or prune. Topping would take too much time to see new growth to become much. By week 3-4 all veg growth stops and focus is budding. So you have a tiny window for stress. Less stress is best, but if you are going to do it, hit it hard and let her glide stress free. Especially week 3-6 let her focus on working and not correcting. So I’d say probably not a good idea.

wylie1331 said:

Can I top a plant that just started to bud?

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Well... You can, but why do you want to do it?

By the time budding begins, the plant has nearly finished its vegetative stage growth. The plant's priority is shifting to reproductive growth. So, you can't expect much vegetative growth at that point.

I once cut back a plant near the end of stretch because the tops were too close to the light. I was also curious. It produced a good yield. Buds lower down developed more than they otherwise would have. My guess is the pruning helped, but I haven't had a reason to do it a second time since then. I might have just got lucky.

Thank you for all the help