Topping & bending question

supeRoots · #1 02-09-2009, 04:08 PM

What is a good rule of thumb/way to tell if a strain is a good candidate for topping?

Indoors, the goal would be to get the most resinous meds without a lot of low grade meds.

farmer jay · #2 02-10-2009, 04:50 PM

i think it depends on what you want to get out of your plants, weather or not to top or bend (also known as "super cropping"). Soma has a short section in one of his books about it. in my personal experiences, i know if you have limited space, you dont want to do a lot of super cropping. i topped my new haze superior, and they got 3' round, and produced squat. though it was very good smoke. the ice on the other hand totally mutated out in shock to being topped in my environment, and takes twice as long in the veg. i think it was just unstable seed stock, because we dont see what we expected out of any of the seeds obtained. i think experimentation in your specific environment will be the only way to truly see what will happen. but if you have limited space, maybe only do one at a time. Soma bends his when they are big. i top mine as soon as i can get the scissors under the sixth shoot, my polar frost put out 2 huge colas, and plenty clones. all the others are slowly being "trained" to do so. i have had the polar frost since '96, and she knows just what to do for me. and yes, one hit still gets me pretty damn high. no ceiling, low tolerance, polar frost is the future of dank. oh, and it hasnt even been tried outdoors yet :) :) :). i cant wait to get her available to those in need.

LEX · #3 07-12-2009, 07:05 PM

Yup Its Called Super Cropping ...theres Was A Two Or Three Page Article On High Time Magazine ....where This Guy Was Suppercropping All His Plants..and He Would Produce Pounds Lol

MynameStitch · #4 07-20-2009, 07:26 PM

Well, I have always supercropped every plant I grew Normally you want to wait till they get some nodes on them before cutting.

Depending on how big you want your plants to get.. if you see your plants at the height you want them at, or a little before then cut the top, this forces lower branches to try to grow and catch up to the the top most branches, if you see the tops growing too fast the side branching that is, you can tie back the top 2 so more light can get into the canopy and down lower so the lower catches up.....so you end up having more branches higher towards the light and you can end up having a nice even canopy of big colas and not so much small pop corn buds.

Lighting can also plays a role with this... depending if your using cool blue or more of an orange spectrum.....

kgb420 · #5 07-29-2009, 07:35 PM

usually sativas are better for bending,
like the Casey Jones I bought at Blue Sky that I am growing right now, the branches are easy to bend at a 45*angle more so than other strains I have grown

DWCjunkie · #6 08-06-2009, 12:42 AM

speaking of blue sky strains and bondage...

hindu skunk bends easily without breaking and mine responded to a late topping for height control very well.

bubblegum didn't like being topped or tied. screw her though - she can't handle my lack of pH control and oaksterdam no longer carries bg anyway.

i almost got some casey jones on my last trip but since they finally had it on a day i was in town i got purple kush instead...

stimothy · #7 08-13-2009, 10:00 AM

If you want to keep your plant a certain height and the branches are long enough to bend, bend them. If you do not have the side room for bending then top them. I have found that I usually only need top Sativa dominent strains and only if there is no side room to bend them over. I preffer bending over topping because you can get the same effect with most strains. Indicas usually are short and bushy enough that they do not need topping or bending.
If you put a picture of the plant(s) your thinking about topping, not only can you get good reliable information on if it needs topping, bending but maybe get some advice on other vital information, lighting, temp, nutes, etc. etc. A picture tells a better story anyhow!

philfish · #8 08-13-2009, 06:02 PM

I grow both indicas and sativas and I used to top them, now I FIM them early 5-6 nodes to get them to get bushy. Then as they grow larger I supercrop all of them. It seems to produce more, especially the one of my favorites, Grape Kush.
I try to fill my growing space as I can, so I usually bend them into a sparser area.