Topping and/or trimming plant in veg state

[bibsoconner]

Here are some photos of my White Widow (feminized, photo period) that has miraculously survived my newbie attempts to kill it :). It's still in vegetative state. The bottle is for scale, but I am fertilizing with Grow Big and Big Bloom. I'm forced to have it spend some time (12 hours) inside and some time outside (6-8) as I'm limited to 1 light and I'm using the light for a Cream & Cheese plant that is in flower phase. I'm in Southern California. Days are currently getting longer but are still only about 10.5 hours of daylight. Yes, I am saving up my money for another light :)

I've been reading up on topping and pruning.
1. Would you top this plant? Precisely where? Feel free to put a picture in Microsoft Paint (or similar) and draw a line at the exact point of cut.
2. Trim any lower branches?
3. Put in bigger pot? I have a 5 gallon fabric available. I think this plastic pot is 2 gallons or so.
4. Anything else to be doing?
5. Bonus question(s).... If I top it, can I put top in soil and try to clone? Can I smoke top? (well, I know I can smoke it. You can smoke anything including paper. But will I get high?)
Thanks!

 

[BigBlonde]

Would you top this plant? Precisely where?

I usually top my plants between the 4th and 5th set of leaves, not including the first set, the cotyledons.

Trim any lower branches?

Not yet. Opinions differ about trimming, also known as defoliating. I tend not to trim a lot. I would probably wait till the plant is further along. Do take off any leaves that are touching the soil.

Put in bigger pot?

Yes, eventually, when it's bigger. I prefer fabric pots. I use 5 or 7 gallon sizes.

If I top it, can I put top in soil and try to clone? Can I smoke top?

I don't know about cloning, but maybe.

I wouldn't smoke the top. There wouldn't be much of anything it to make it worth the effort.

 

[GNick55]

firstly never ever put a indoor plant outdoors..
secondly she is way to stressed for anything, absolutely zero reason to top..
honestly start over when your ready and have what you need..
just let that flower and hopefully finish..
you can top a healthy plant anytime after 5-6 nodes, if i top i wait till 10-15 nodes that way you’ll get a more fuller even canopy.,

 

[Bluebuddha]

Is this plant a re-veg from a flowering? I ask due to the fuzz like leaves.

I wouldn't top it or cut it in any way. I'd grow it out a bit, maybe another foot, then bend the top lightly to get more secondary shoots. I'd then take cuts and clone.

If that's a seedling, it has very different phenotype that I haven't seen in a long time.

What are the origins?

 

[GNick55]

Is this plant a re-veg from a flowering? I ask due to the fuzz like leaves.

I wouldn't top it or cut it in any way. I'd grow it out a bit, maybe another foot, then bend the top lightly to get more secondary shoots. I'd then take cuts and clone.

If that's a seedling, it has very different phenotype that I haven't seen in a long time.

What are the origins?

it’s been over stressed and watered too frequently or not at all..
it’s sick and unhealthy

 

[BigBlonde]

if i top i wait till 10-15 nodes that way you’ll get a more fuller even canopy.

I'm going to remember that for my next grow. 👍

 

[bibsoconner]

Is this plant a re-veg from a flowering? I ask due to the fuzz like leaves.

I wouldn't top it or cut it in any way. I'd grow it out a bit, maybe another foot, then bend the top lightly to get more secondary shoots. I'd then take cuts and clone.

If that's a seedling, it has very different phenotype that I haven't seen in a long time.

What are the origins?

It's a white widow from Seedsman. You can read my previous posts if you want the gory details, but in brief, I'm a newbie and this (and two Cream & Cheese CBDs from Seedsman) almost croaked from my rookie mistakes. Other seeds did die. I started inside and probably had the light too far, then too close. And too much water as folks mentioned above. I was about to toss it (a guy on this site did say "it's toe-tag time"), but I took my wife's advice "It's called weed. Throw it outside in pots in the garden and forget about it." Since I was going to toss it anyhow, I did so. And it (and the two Cream & Cheese) made a miraculous recovery. In fact the Cream & Cheese have done even better (see my other post today). However, at some point I became convinced that I was doing the exact opposite of the right thing by having them outside in winter. About mid-december I asked the group and the consensus seemed to be that the two Cream & Cheese were in fact flowering. They were about 2 feet tall at that time. I brought one of them inside (I was still gun shy about indoor lights) and left the other Cream & Cheese outside. With the White Widow I brought it inside but also supplemented with outside light for a total of about 18 hours (12 inside, 6 outside). I've since been told that bringing plants in and out is a very bad idea. I'd point out in my defense I have only 1 inside light right now.
So, yes, it's very possible that it (and the Cream & Cheese I left outside) have gone from flower to veg.

Two questions for you....
1. How do you bend a plant? String?
2. Would you continue to bring it in and out, OR I could leave outside all the time (currently 10.5 hour days and days are getting longer - Southern California) OR I could bring it inside for exactly 12 hours of light. I don't want to mess up my Cream & Cheese that is currently flowering and getting 12 hours of indoor light.
Thanks!
P.S. I did try some clones from this already. They died. Again, I probably didn't know what the heck I was doing. I was confused about the part about "pick a branch with 3 to 5 nodes on it". Not sure what nodes are. I'm guessing you have to pick branches that would go on to form bud, NOT fan leaves.
P.P.S I feel like they should have in person classes on this stuff at the local community college or garden shop. It's complicated!

 

[elusiveshame]

Two questions for you....
1. How do you bend a plant? String?
2. Would you continue to bring it in and out, OR I could leave outside all the time (currently 10.5 hour days and days are getting longer - Southern California) OR I could bring it inside for exactly 12 hours of light. I don't want to mess up my Cream & Cheese that is currently flowering and getting 12 hours of indoor light.
Thanks!
P.S. I did try some clones from this already. They died. Again, I probably didn't know what the heck I was doing. I was confused about the part about "pick a branch with 3 to 5 nodes on it". Not sure what nodes are. I'm guessing you have to pick branches that would go on to form bud, NOT fan leaves.
P.P.S I feel like they should have in person classes on this stuff at the local community college or garden shop. It's complicated!

You can use string, clips, or something like a tomato cage.

I've been using 90 degree clips and garden wire for my current grow: https://www.thcfarmer.com/threads/elusives-grow-2-is-starting-tonight.145186/page-7#post-2910667

As for question 2:

It looks like you're already at/about to be over 12 hours of daylight according to this site: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/@11071615

I would personally bring it in and put in my tent - but *ONLY* if it's the only plant in there (you don't want any potential cross contamination and you don't want to bring in bugs to your other indoor plants), then put it at 12/12, and let it ride until she's done. If you keep her outside, she's going to reveg and you'll have to wait until there's 12 hours or less of daylight in the fall.

Edit: I'm a doofus and read the daylight site wrong. Regardless, I'd still bring her inside, but you may not want to listen to me :P

 

[Zen_Seeker]

1. Would you top this plant? Precisely where? Feel free to put a picture in Microsoft Paint (or similar) and draw a line at the exact point of cut.

No. It’s sickly and needs to grow healthy first.

2. Trim any lower branches?

No, same reason.

3. Put in bigger pot? I have a 5 gallon fabric available. I think this plastic pot is 2 gallons or so.

Yes, when it’s healthier. I’d use the fabric pot. That will help with the roots.

4. Anything else to be doing?

Yes. Read up on growing plants here or anywhere. Even the differences between growing in soft pots, plastic or clay. You know you’re doing somethings wrong and others have pointed thing’s out. So study up. You need to understand what’s wrong not just follow others replies blindly.

5. Bonus question(s).... If I top it, can I put top in soil and try to clone?

Yes & no. When it’s healthy you can top it. If the cutting is big enough and healthy enough it will root. But you should follow normal cloning steps. Just putting it in earth will probably kill it based on your past attempts. Search this site to follow cloning steps.

Can I smoke top? (well, I know I can smoke it. You can smoke anything including paper. But will I get high?)
Thanks!

Not really. Leaves and branches don’t have much THC. You can dry it and make tea which can be nice before bed but you’re not going to be “high”.

Buy some cloning gel/powder to start. Read up on cloning. Then you can make clones to practice on.

Get or make a good indoor grow area. Tent, box, room, whatever. Something you can keep clean and manage. Don’t bring plants in from outdoors. You have no idea how easy it is for insects, fungus, moulds, etc can get on the plant or in the soil. By the time you notice it could be hard to remove or it may spread first.

Plants take time to react to changes. Don’t do to many at once or you will stress the plant. You also won’t know the proper results if you made 5 changes at once. How do you know which change made the best or worst result?

Anyway, start here. Baby steps and patients. You’ll be fine.

 

[onTheGreenMountain]

Moving the plant in and out like that has stressed it out. It looks like it's already flowering and maybe even reveging? It's got trichomes on the leaves and a few buds forming. The change in the light is doing it. It doesn't know what to do. Photo plants are light sensitive, it's what makes them photoperiod. If you can't get a grow light for extra plants yet, I would just stick to autos until you can. edit: (we could give you advise for saving this plant but with the weird lighting, it won't help) You can run your light at whatever and the plants will still do their thing, that way you can have more than one plant under the same light. Good luck!

 

[AmiT]

If this plant get back indoor on a 18/6 veg, it should re-veg and stretch for producing some clones. In your case it could be interesting, while waiting for some new light (you know you can not do indoor/outdoor - it's dangerous for your indoor plant health - and veg with 10 hours is not veg)