When to top

[Timduck]

Originally I wanted to top early after the 3rd node but after reading and rereading I was thinking I should wait till she is 16 inches or so tall the thought behind this is that if you top the tap root stops growing is this true

 

[Punisher84]

Originally I wanted to top early after the 3rd node but after reading and rereading I was thinking I should wait till she is 16 inches or so tall the thought behind this is that if you top the tap root stops growing is this true

Ive topped plants that were 3" tall....

 

[SoLowDoughLow]

I usually top when it gets about 5 or 6 nodes, but it's just a preference. Depends on how much room u got too...

 

[Hotwired]

It all depends on how tall you want the plant to get.

With stretchy plants you want to get them quick cause they will stretch BIGLY after the topping.
With short squat plants you let them go a bit so they can stretch out by themselves.

Nodes don't really matter. Height does on inside grows.

 

[socaljoe]

There's not really a wrong way to do it as long as you have 1 node for shoots to grow from.

My preference is to let the plant grow to 5-6 nodes and then I top it back to the second true node. This will give you 4 main branches.

 

[Hotwired]

There's not really a wrong way to do it as long as you have 1 node for shoots to grow from.

My preference is to let the plant grow to 5-6 nodes and then I top it back to the second true node. This will give you 4 main branches.

That works great from seed but clones are a pain in the ass. I still have a hard time getting 4 perfect branches from clones. I try to top very early now. Like 4 or 5 days after planting them. Then I keep topping to make a small bush and let the 4 strongest make it. Once I have 4 solid branches I pull the others off

The really stretchy ones are the hardest because one branch always wants to be the boss.

 

[socaljoe]

That works great from seed but clones are a pain in the ass. I still have a hard time getting 4 perfect branches from clones. I try to top very early now. Like 4 or 5 days after planting them. Then I keep topping to make a small bush and let the 4 strongest make it. Once I have 4 solid branches I pull the others off

The really stretchy ones are the hardest because one branch always wants to be the boss.

Yeah, that's true...topping for 4 really only works when you have symmetrical nodes. I'm not a clone guy, I only just rooted my first clones in the past couple of months, and I've been growing since 2013.