Opinions/suggestions on progression and training

[NewbieGrower]

Howdy!

First ever grow so I'm playing it safe. I want to try out more plant training techniques, and next time I'll be playing around a lot more. However, this time I'm looking for advice on how to progress from here (pictures included). After those were taken I took a few of the bigger leaves off. I was going to heavily defoliate just before swapping over to Flowering, but apart from that I haven't really touched them.

Thanks guys!

[Campesino]

I'd probably recommend topping the plants at least once, but it depends on your goals and timeline.
How old are these plants and how much longer do you plan to Veg them?
Have you read through the various training tutorials?
I manifold my plants and it is too late for that in your case, but like I said, I'd probably still top them.

[NewbieGrower]

Hello!

The plants are current around 8-9 weeks old. I was going for a certain height rather than time, around 22 inches or so. But that's purely arbitrary. Number out of a hat kind of thing.

I've read every tutorial on GWE, but rote knowledge can only take you so far! I did want to try Manifolding, but in all honesty I was petrified of killing the bastard things...

[Campesino]

I agree with Canuck147 that you could flip at any time now. You should think more in terms of how big the plants are in terms of horizontal coverage and canopy rather than simply how tall they are. If you plan to flip them within a week, then I might not top, but you can top them even during the first week of 12/12 without problem. Topping will produce two terminal colas rather than one. They'll be smaller, than the one would have been, but you still gain total weight.
You will not kill your plants by topping them down a node or two - although I certainly understand how difficult it can be to cut off growth that you have been nurturing!

[Canuck147]

Have to disagree with Campesino - I wouldn't top them now, they are ready for the flip. Looks like to me anyway. Only training you could do is bend them over so the buds in the middle start to point up and then grow that way. You have to rub your finger and thumb together around the spot you want to bend, softens the area up - or you could snap it.
Nice looking plants, personally I wouldn't do anything other than flip the switch.

[NewbieGrower]

I was thinking more or less about turning them over to Flowering. I'll make that decision in the coming days/weeks. Until then I'm going to try my hand at bending them. Cheers!

[Chefbjy]

It's already been a long veg time for an indoor grow unless you have 10 foot clearance. They will double if not triple in size when switched to 12/12 which can cause some concerns if you don't have the right height. Vertical growth will be faster then you can control and would definitely flip the switch to 12/12 now. You have to think about how low your light will be to your canopy 44- 66 inches is a monster for most indoor grows and there will be a need to keep your light almost 2 feet away depending on what you're running. So add another foot and a half to that 44inches. Unless you have the height that is. But that's a long time to veg imo. You're going to want to do a lot of bending and maybe some light defoliation to expose bud sites to get a good yield or just prune everything below and grow one massive cola lol.