Topping is necessary to maintain your marijuana plants healthy and to produce high-quality yields, even if it may seem unusual to chop off and discard a portion of your plants’ cannabis growth.
A marijuana plant will grow vertically if left to grow on its own, concentrating its energy on one main stalk. As a result, the main stalk will have several smaller colas on it and one enormous cola at the top. The quality of these other colas will be subpar, larfy, and tiny. The plant will have a small overall size and yield.
When to top marijuana plants
By cutting off the main stalk during the vegetative stage, the plant will shift its energies to side branches, pushing them to grow out instead of up. This helps redistribute growth hormones from the main stalk to side branches. A weed plant becomes bushier after topping.
The initial top, which is often done above the fifth node, shouldn’t be done until the plant has grown six or seven nodes. To ensure that the plant can sustain the shock of topping, it is crucial to wait until it has grown to this stage.
Waiting until a weed plant has more than seven nodes before cutting it off will cause it to spend energy on upward growth that you will simply take off rather than lateral growth that you will keep.
How a marijuana plant receives light
Because the cannabis plant is wide and not tall, all bud sites will receive an equal quantity of light. Therefore, a bushy design allows light to strike all branches more evenly.
The main cola will receive enough of light from a single vertical stalk, but the lower branches will be shadowed out and produce larfy buds as a result. You’ll receive more buds and better-quality ones with a bushy form.
The plant will become bushier and produce even more side branches if these side branches are eventually topped. Additionally, by doing this, you’ll boost the number of bud sites on branches and thus, your yields. A plant will typically be topped 1-3 times over the course of its lifetime.
How late may a plant be topped?
Cutting off the top of the main stem is a component of the topping technique, which is used to teach cannabis plants. The method is made to allow you to freely produce more colas and to disperse the plant so you can utilize all of your available light. As a result, topping can assist you in producing more marijuana!
Most plants only have one primary stem at birth. Topping refers to the process of dividing a primary stem in two by removing the top.
The remaining two growth tips will each grow into a separate stem. In the flowering stage, each stem can develop into a bud or cola, therefore topping the plant once or twice increases the overall number of buds sites under the grow light and aids in maintaining the plant’s flat and wide shape.
The plant, however, can develop numerous colas in essentially the same length of time if you top it when it’s young. This frequently enables you to grow more bud with the same grow light in the same amount of space.
All plant training methods aim to provide gardeners with larger yields and more aesthetically pleasing plants without modifying other aspects of their grow. For instance, when cannabis plants are left to grow organically without training, a lot of light is lost since they do not naturally grow in a way that maximizes the use of indoor grow lights.
Because they result in a bushier plant with more colas, cannabis plant training methods like topping are particularly successful at boosting yields in indoor grow settings.
Due to the use of plant training techniques like topping, you’ll notice that some plants have multiple colas rather than simply one.
Learn about FIMing, a very similar plant training method that produces many colas even though somewhat less of the top is removed.
In the illustration above, the plant on the left was allowed to develop organically, which produced the traditional “Christmas tree form,” which is ineffective when grown indoors under grow lights. As a seedling, the plant on the right was top-topped. As a result, the plant began producing more colas and the dominant main cola lost its supremacy.
The growth tips that develop into new colas are already evident after topping. Because topping disrupts the plant’s symmetry and exposes these growth points to light and air, they simply grow larger and develop into colas. The plant begins concentrating on numerous growth tips, which eventually develop into colas, as opposed to simply one cola.
Topping is eliminating or harming the top growth.
This Uncovers Secret Growth Tricks and Tells Plants to Start Investing Energy in Them.
Topping causes damage to the main stem, which encourages the plant to put its energy into growing several colas rather than just one.
Lower growth nodes will develop into new colas once they are exposed to light and air, but they do so much more quickly after topping, which breaks the main cola’s dominance.
Observe how these growth points have begun to emerge and expand after the plant has been topped (the fan leaves have been removed so you can see the new colas more easily)
Here is an illustration of a plant that was topped after it had developed eight nodes. The yields and overall quantity of colas were improved, even though you might not get as as excellent of a result as if you had topped it sooner!
- Cut off the plant’s top at the stem between the nodes.
- produces two primary colas at the plant’s top, and additional colas can be produced using LST.
- Cokes are evenly spaced out (attached to the stem in the same place)
- Can be used to lower the plant’s height on a vegetative page.
- can hinder growth for one or two days.
In timelapse format, this movie depicts the entire cannabis topping procedure. Each of the lower growth tips, which are starting to ascend, has the potential to produce even more main colas.
Here is a video demonstrating how a plant appears after being topped (time-lapse of about 2 weeks)
You will end up with a plant that is wider and bushier and does not grow a single main cola in the shape of a Christmas tree.
To generate cannabis plants with dozens of colas, some growers will top the plants in various stages. Some methods go beyond this; for instance, manifolding (also known as “main-lining”) makes use of topping many times to create a cannabis “manifold.”
With both topping techniques, you take away some of the growth at the end of a young marijuana plant’s cola, which encourages the plant to produce numerous colas filled with buds rather than just one (like a Christmas tree) (grow more bushy).
The plant won’t be able to recuperate if you top it too soon. Although it can seem like a good idea, waiting until the plant has 4-5 nodes will give you the greatest results and the quickest recovery.
Wait till the plant has 4-5 or more nodes.
A too-young seedling’s growth may be slowed by topping. A much faster recovery is possible by delaying cutting for a few more days.
To generate short, bushy plants with many of colas, growers take use of the plant’s natural response to topping. The abundance of colas enables the plant to utilize indoor grow lights effectively once it has been moved to the blooming stage, resulting in the highest yields.
The best results will be obtained if you opt to employ one of these ways when the plant is young, often when it has established about 4-5 total nodes.
By overcoming the plant’s propensity to develop a single main cola while it is still young, you can arrange your various colas whatever you choose as the plant grows without having to deal with a plant that resembles a Christmas tree.
Later in the vegetative stage, you can also top your plant, but because the main stem will be longer, you won’t have as much flexibility in how you position the colas.
Your plant will need some time to recover in the vegetative stage after being topped, but typically this just makes the plant ‘fill out’ more rather than grow taller, which is frequently desirable for indoor growers.
Only use topping during the vegetative stage. In fact, you should never use a training method that includes cutting or harming your plant during the blooming or budding stages of cannabis growth.
Only light training methods, such as LST or bending, should ever be used to modify the shape of the plant during the flowering stage.
Training a plant from the very beginning of the vegetative stage is the only way to produce a plant with several colas.
In the flowering stage, cannabis plants become significantly more delicate and stop developing vegetatively (producing new stems or colas).
A flowering plant does not grow higher or form growth nodes, as can be seen if you observe one. the only “aims to produce buds. At this point, topping is useless. Usually, damage to your plant during the budding stage will result in lower yields overall.
By the time your plants reach the flowering stage, much of the growth structure has already been established. If your plant has taken on a shape you don’t like, you should typically try to regulate it as best you can.
You must act quickly to stop the plant from growing any taller if it is already too tall in the flowering stage for your grow arrangement.
My advice is to utilize bending (LST) to limit the height of additional growth.
The plant won’t get much taller until blooming is fully developed (after the initial flowering stretch), so you may just attempt to hold out until harvest.
The connections to each node at the base expand very quickly after topping.
These thicker connections indicate a more balanced distribution of energy throughout the entire cannabis plant.
This thickening of connections by your plant indicates that it is strengthening the “nutrients and other building blocks may be delivered more easily thanks to the internal system of the stem. Each of the impacted stems experiences quicker growth, larger colas, and higher yields as a result.
One indication that the plant is directing energy to the new colas is the thickening that occurs at the base of stems (where before it was putting the majority of its energy into just the one main cola).
The most frequently utilized stems have a tendency to thicken over time, eventually resembling tree trunks.
By removing a cannabis plant’s growth node during topping, you instantaneously reduce the plant’s height. This may be especially helpful if you’ve allowed your plant to grow excessively tall. Additionally, topping increases the amount of colas, which can produce more bud when harvested.
It is advisable to top your marijuana plant when it is still young and has 4–5 nodes (sets of leaves) altogether. Although you could apply it a little early, the younger your plant is, the more probable it is that you may unintentionally stunt it.
“To top the plant is to separate the main cola of your marijuana plant into two by removing the most recent node. However, trimming the tip of any stem is sometimes referred to as topping.
Directly above the following node’s leaves is a nice position to top.
In other words, make a top-to-bottom incision through the stem just above the next set of leaves.
The two yellow dots in the diagram above represent the two new primary colas that will receive energy from your plant as a result of this.
These two new colas create a V that is simple to bend and expand out. A few weeks later, you can top these two fresh colas to make a total of 4 colas. This can even be multiplied by two to get eight colas from a single can “manifold. Find out more about cannabis manifolding.
The plant tends to get bushier after topping, distributing its energy much more equally throughout the entire plant. This is another advantage of topping.
Lower branches frequently grow upward to form new main colas. This is especially true if you use LST and topping to open up the plant and let more light reach the bottom branches.
It’s also possible to top your (vegetative) plant down to the node you wish to lower height if you’ve developed a really tall plant, but keep in mind that all the time the plant spent growing tall will be lost. Try to top the plant early in its life to acquire the most flexible colas without reducing vegetative time.
Plants that are way too tall while you’re still in the vegetative (non-budding) stage can be promptly topped to reduce height as necessary. This can prolong the veg stage because the time used to grow the additional growth will be lost.
You might want to learn more about main-lining if you want to top the plant several times (creating a manifolda plant training technique).
Does topping apply to outdoor growing?
Whether you grow cannabis indoors or outdoors, topping your plants can help them yield more, which is what every grower strives for. Topping, which is an accurate cut at the node, is the first thing to grasp. While it sounds simple, the time of topping is crucial. When to top a plant relies on the health of the soil, the health of the plant, the lighting, the size and age of the plant, and the growth objectives. Topping forces a plant to grow laterally rather than vertically.
Topping cannabis plants is a crucial step to maximize the overall quality of the harvest if you are new to cannabis production. By shifting the developing propensity from vertical to lateral, it is a tool that aids in controlling the plant’s overall shape.
The result is that the cola on the supporting branches grows thicker and stronger. However, topping is not the only element involved in generating high-quality, significant yields. Health of the soil, hydration, and light are further considerations.