What is your biggest question about growing cannabis?

[3Berries]

Just the tip. Then it ill start double branching and force growth on what is left. Either one is just the tip. No sense throwing away a node unless you really need to keep it short. Then your better off bending it over. And you can cut the tips off other branches too near the top.

[Vaibag]

Ah so just cut off the stalk one centimetre above the 8th node and that way keep the pistils??

[3Berries]

Yes, and the closer you can get to the node the better when you cut. It will double branch out and force new branching out all over.

[Vaibag]

So the 8th node isn’t symmetrical, would I cut it at the red line??

[Puglover1]

Do you have a picture of the entire plant? Was it started from seed? You're saying that a 6 week old plant in 14.5 hours of daylight went into flowering stage? Have you read on the GWE main site about plant training? There are several options. What is your final height limit?

[3Berries]

So the 8th node isn’t symmetrical, would I cut it at the red line??

If you are not going to cut the very tippipy tip off them it doesn't really matter where you cut it. Anywhere you cut will force more branching. Cutting down low like you want to will work but not as well as at the very tip of the plant stems. If height is the issue then the only thing else is to bend them over and let them grow more horizontally. This too will sprout out more stems and flowers.

[Vaibag]

No it’s 9 and a half weeks, in its 6th week of vegging.
yeah done a lot of reading and looked at a lot of the
info here on GWE.
It’s 50cm tall now, can get to 160cm, I probably wouldn’t want it higher than 80cm.

[Puglover1]

What was it doing the other few weeks if not vegging? I had to chop the tops off of three big plants on my first grow or I would have been harvesting buds in my attic - closet grow. I did pinch a few tips when they were young, before I had the closet set up. With mentoring from a generous, helpful member on here I still have a few jars of bud left, a year later. HST, LST, and a lot of twisty ties and yoyos were used. It'll delay your harvest but you'd yield a lot more if you ... chop off a good bit of the plant. Growers have their own methods, topping after nodes 4, 5 or 6 or just LST to spread out the plant. You can hard stress a plant, train a stem to grow at a 90 degree angle for a foot, sideways, the growing tip end will seek the light, sun above. You want an even canopy. Where you live is the amount of hours of daylight on the downswing? If so will you have enough daylight hours to complete the harvest?

[Vaibag]

I’m a first timer and I absolutely f$&&ed up the seedling stage, I began indoors and the light was too weak and
I had the light too far away, it grew to like 15cm looking like a thin root so I had to educate myself on a few things, fixed them up and it took me 3 weeks to get it to veg stage lol, I’m new to this stuff 😀

I would chop off at the 6th node but the pistils are present on the 8th node.

I live in the Southern Hemisphere so I have about 4 weeks until the sun goes to 12/12.
If I run out of time I’ll hit it with a light for 3-4 hrs before sunset to make it think it’s still veg time, being my first plant and the fact that it’s female I definitely wanna get to the harvest stage.

Just waiting on some supplies and I’ll be tying stuff down on the plant.

One thing about topping I’m unsure of is if you can do it while the plant is in direct sunlight or if you do it in the shade or take the plans inside to do it??

[Vaibag]

If you are not going to cut the very tippipy tip off them it doesn't really matter where you cut it. Anywhere you cut will force more branching. Cutting down low like you want to will work but not as well as at the very tip of the plant stems. If height is the issue then the only thing else is to bend them over and let them grow more horizontally. This too will sprout out more stems and flowers.

That is pretty much the tip in that pic. There’s one more node above but it has only just developed leaves.
There’s about 3cm of plant above that red line in the pic.

[3Berries]

That is pretty much the tip in that pic. There’s one more node above but it has only just developed leaves.
There’s about 3cm of plant above that red line in the pic.

No the tip is the brand new leaf coming out at the extreme end of the stem. You barely pinch anything off if you do it at the right time. What you want to do I would call hedge trimming.

[Vaibag]

No the tip is the brand new leaf coming out at the extreme end of the stem. You barely pinch anything off if you do it at the right time. What you want to do I would call hedge trimming.

Haha hedge trimming 😀 from all the topping vids I watched that seems to be the norm. Unless I fim like you just said.
There’s so many people that cut the plant in half - those vids scared the shit outta me 😀

[Vaibag]

No the tip is the brand new leaf coming out at the extreme end of the stem. You barely pinch anything off if you do it at the right time. What you want to do I would call hedge trimming.

can you top plant in direct sunlight or do you put it in the shade or do it inside??

[Puglover1]

I topped my autos in the kitchen in early June because there was more sunlight, to check out the nodes. My three giant photos were topped in the closet, I probably had the grow panels going to see what I was doing. Or they were in the bedroom in bright daylight. My last grow I did everything in the closet so the new, better grow lights were running. Before you said you were growing outdoors I wondered if you had lights that weren't strong enough or if the light was too far away, because of the plant's structure. Not being critical, trying to help, we're all noobs at some point, or always. When I asked about your location I wondered if after the natural light gets close to 12 hours/day and spurs flowering will you have enough hours of decent light daily to finish to harvest? Sounds like you're in a good area for this time of year growing outdoors. Good luck, enjoy the experience.

[Puglover1]

Growers accidentally break branches while in their tents with the lights on, or when growing outdoors, or it happens from a storm. It only affects the broken branch, which is often repairable. Doesn't hurt the rest of the plant. It only takes seconds to top, FIM, chop a plant, once you're confidence kicks in.

[Vaibag]

I topped it yesterday and it’s not dying...well not yet 😀
Did it in the shade outside.
All good constructive criticism is invaluable to me, seeing how green I am to this 😀
Yeah I should be all good for a mid-late Feb 2022 harvest.
The plant has taken off since putting it in a pot double the size of the previous pot, but you’re right that it’s a lot smaller to what it could have been, the plant has used most of its time getting taller (my bad for learning about topping 3 nodes late haha) and making its stem fatter when it could’ve been making its branches longer and having more leaf growth.
It’s not too bad of an area, the 32-36 degrees Celsius temp fluctuation daily is a pain in the arse but I put the pot in a ceramic pot and the ceramic pot has a container filled with pebbles inside that the weed pot sits on and the soil seems to go between 24-27 degrees by my gauges.
Definitely enjoying the experience and can’t wait to go through each stage. Hopefully I’ll get to the end and be able take pics to put up here.

I am already looking at all the 45 degree bud branches and will be giving them a top too!! Definitely not as scary as it seems 👍🏻

Thank you very much for your help and advice 👌🏻👍🏻

[3Berries]

You can top them anywhere but if you are removing a lot and they are outside then there may be some sunburn issues. I've killed more than one tree doing that.

[Vaibag]

You can top them anywhere but if you are removing a lot and they are outside then there may be some sunburn issues. I've killed more than one tree doing that.

The very top of the plant is actually slightly self shaded so it worked out all good, pistils been in the sun all day yesterday and today without being burnt or anything.....phew 😀

I read so many stories of people topping and killing the plant.....I thought I would be in the same boat haha.

[Vaibag]

You can top them anywhere but if you are removing a lot and they are outside then there may be some sunburn issues. I've killed more than one tree doing that.

Hi 3Berries, with those branches at the base of the fan leaves that go in a 45 degree angle up, do you have to wait until they have 5 nodes to give them a snip for more colas??

[3Berries]

Hi 3Berries, with those branches at the base of the fan leaves that go in a 45 degree angle up, do you have to wait until they have 5 nodes to give them a snip for more colas??

Here is a Granddaddy Purple I clipped the tippy tip on two days ago. I am starting some training too. This plant is 5 weeks old. A little slow as it's a bit cool running around 60-70F.

[Vaibag]

Here is a Granddaddy Purple I clipped the tippy tip on two days ago. I am starting some training too. This plant is 5 weeks old. A little slow as it's a bit cool running around 60-70F.

Nice man!!! 👍🏻 My plant looked like shit at 5 weeks compared to yours haha 😀
I hope to be able to get a plant and tip it right like this!
I actually help off tipping as I am pretty sure my plant got the “Claw”, been trying to rectify ever since...