Best Cannabis Training Your Plants The main training method for plants is topping. It allows gardeners to compel plants to grow horizontally rather than vertically, utilizing the available illumination as efficiently as possible. By eliminating the tip of the plant growth’s top, topping is an easy approach to boost yields since it enables the plant to distribute important energy to lower nodes, promoting growth outwards rather than up.
Cannabis plants often develop into tall, slender trees rather than bushes. By directing resources away from higher nodes and toward lower ones, topping successfully promotes horizontal development by giving lower branches access to available light. Cannabis plants may be topped whether they are being grown indoors or outdoors.
The “traumatic” training method of topping your cannabis plants is unfortunate.
What do plant nodes do?
A node is a location on a stem where buds are placed (figure 6). It is a location of intense cellular development and activity. Here, tiny buds transform into leaves, stalks, or flowers. It is vital to find a plant’s nodes prior to trimming. Typically, a pruning cut should be made immediately above, but not too near to, a node.
- This method of pruning stimulates the buds at that node to develop.
- Eventually, it will develop new stems or leaves.
- The region between two nodes is known as an internode.
- Its length is determined by several variables, including genetics.
- Several more variables might potentially affect internode length: Reduced soil fertility results in shorter internodes.
In contrast, a high-nitrogen fertilizer application can significantly improve yield. A lack of light promotes longer internodes and a spindly stem. This condition is referred to as stretch or etiolation. It frequently affects seedlings started inside and houseplants with little sunshine.
The length of internodes also fluctuates with the seasons. Internodes of early-season development are lengthy. In contrast, late-season growth often possesses significantly shorter internodes. The energy of a stem can be sent to three or four side stems, or it can be redirected to fruit development. In this situation, the length of the internode is shortened.
Plant growth regulators and herbicides can also have an effect on internode length.
By Nebula Haze Trimming Cannabis To Improve Its Structure: “Topping” Topping is a cannabis plant training procedure involving the removal of the stem’s apex. The strategy is intended to provide you with a cost-free option to produce additional colas and to spread out the plant so that it may take advantage of all available light.
- As a consequence, topping can help you attain greater marijuana harvests! The majority of plants have a single primary stem.
- To “top” is to chop off the top of a primary stem in order to divide it in half.
- The two remaining growth points will each develop into a separate stem.
- In the flowering stage, each stem can develop into a bud/cola.
By topping the plant once or several times, you increase the total number of bud sites under the grow light and maintain the plant flat and broad. If you let a cannabis plant to grow organically, it will often have one main stem. However, if you prune the plant while it is young, it will produce numerous colas in about the same length of time! This allows you to typically cultivate more bud in the same amount of area with the same grow light.
- This plant occupies the same amount of vertical area as this one.
- All plant training strategies are intended to assist cultivators achieve a more attractive plant form and larger yields without altering any other part of the grow.
- For instance, cannabis plants do not naturally develop in a manner that maximizes the use of indoor grow lights; without training, cannabis plants waste a great deal of light.
As a result, cannabis plant training techniques such as topping are particularly successful for improving yields in indoor grow environments by producing bushier plants with more colas. Due to plant training practices such as topping, these plants grow several colas as opposed to a single cola.
- Learn about FIMing, a similar plant training strategy that results in numerous colas despite removing “less off the top.” The plant on the left in the illustration above was allowed to develop organically, resulting in a “Christmas tree” form that is inefficient under indoor grow lights.
- As a seedling, the plant on the right was topped.
This weakened the dominance of the dominant cola, and the plant began to produce several colas. The growth points that will produce new colas are already apparent after topping. Because topping disrupts the symmetry of the plant and exposes these growth points to light and air, they simply grow larger and develop into colas.
Instead of concentrating on a single cola, the plant begins to develop many growth points into colas. Topping Involves Removing or Damaging Top Growth – This Reveals Hidden Growth Tips and Signals Plants to Begin Investing Energy in Them. By causing damage to the main stem, topping encourages the plant to focus its efforts on producing several colas rather than just one.
Lower growth nodes that are exposed to light and air will develop into additional colas, but their development is accelerated when the main cola is topped. Observe how these growth tips have begun sprouting and climbing after the plant has been trimmed (the fan leaves have been removed so you can see the new colas more easily) Here is an example of a plant that was pruned at a late age, when it had already developed eight nodes. Remove plant’s apical meristem between nodes Creates two primary colas at the top of the plant; LST can be used to develop additional colas. New colas are distributed equitably (attached to the stem in the same place) Can be utilized to lower plant height in vegetative page Can retard development for one or two days. This time-lapse movie depicts the entire cannabis topping process. Lower growth tips begin to emerge, and each of them can create more primary colas. This video depicts the appearance of a plant after it has been topped (time-lapse of about 2 weeks) You will end up with a broader, bushier plant that does not develop a single, Christmas-tree-shaped cola.
Some cultivators employ many topping phases to generate cannabis plants with hundreds of colas. Some techniques carry this to an extreme, such as manifolding (also known as “main-lining”), which involves topping cannabis many times to create a “manifold.” Important: Don’t Top Out Too Soon With both topping techniques, you remove a portion of the growth at the end of a young marijuana plant’s cola, causing the plant to cease concentrating on a single cola (like a Christmas tree) and instead produce several colas filled with buds (grow more bushy).
If you prune the plant too soon, it will have difficulty recovering. It may seem like a smart idea, but the greatest results and fastest recovery will be obtained if you wait until the plant has four to five nodes. Wait Until Plant Has At Least 4-5+ Nodes – Topping a Too- A young seedling might inhibit growth.
Waiting a Few Extra Days Before Cutting May Result in a Much Quicker Recovery. Growers utilize the natural response of the plant to topping to generate short, bushy plants with several colas. After the plant has been converted to the blooming stage, the proliferation of colas enables it to utilise indoor grow lights efficiently to generate the most yields possible.
If you decide to employ one of these techniques, you will have the greatest results if you do it when the plant is young, often when it has between four and five nodes. These immature cannabis plants are nearly prepared for topping. By disrupting the plant’s predisposition to produce a single main cola while the plant is still small, you can arrange several colas as you see fit as the plant grows, rather than dealing with a Christmas tree-shaped plant.
- You may also top your plant later in the vegetative stage, but the main stem will be longer, limiting your ability to arrange the colas as desired.
- After being topped, your plant will need time to recuperate in the vegetative stage; however, this often leads the plant to ‘fill out’ rather than grow taller, which is commonly desired by indoor growers.
This plant was taught to produce 20 colas during the vegetative phase. Important: It’s Too Late to Top in the Flowering Stage! Only use toppings during the vegetative stage! In reality, you should only use training techniques that include cutting or injuring your cannabis plant during the vegetative stage, never during the flowering/budding period.
During the flowering phase, only light training techniques such as LST or bending should be employed to alter the plant’s form. A plant with several colas can only be attained by early training during the vegetative phase. In the blooming stage, cannabis plants are substantially less robust and no longer develop vegetatively (producing new stems or colas).
If you observe a flowering plant, you will see that it does not get higher or generate growth nodes. It exclusively “concentrates” on producing buds. At this time, stopping won’t be beneficial. Typically, if you harm your plant at the budding period, your eventual yields will be reduced.
By the time your plants have reached the flowering stage, most of the plant’s development structure has already been established, and if you don’t like the plant’s form, you will need to regulate it as best you can. What if my blooming plant is already too tall? If your plant is already too tall for your grow setup during the flowering period, you must take quick steps to avoid further growth.
My recommendation is to utilize bending (LST) to regulate the height of your plant’s future development. Once flowering is in full swing (after the initial stretch of flowering), the plant will not grow much higher, so you should only attempt to hold on until harvest.
- How can you tell whether your plant is diverting energy to produce new colas? Almost quickly after the tree is topped, the connections to each node at the base are extended.
- These thicker connections indicate that the cannabis plant is more equally distributing its energy across the entire plant.
- This indicates that the plant is strengthening the stem’s “internal system” to make it easier to transport nutrients and other building components.
This results in enhanced growth, larger colas, and higher yields for each damaged stem. The thickening that occurs at the base of stems is an indication that the plant is shifting energy to the development of new colas (where before it was putting the majority of its energy into just the one main cola).
- Over time, the most used stems can get so thick that they resemble tree trunks.
- How to Top Your Marijuana Plant When you top your cannabis, you immediately reduce the height of the plant by cutting off a developing node.
- This is especially useful if you’ve allowed your plant to grow too tall.
- Additionally, topping increases the quantity of colas, which might result in a larger yield.
While topping your marijuana plant, it is preferable to do it when the plant is young and has a total of 4-5 nodes (sets of leaves). Although you could apply it sooner, the younger the plant, the more probable it is that you may accidently stunt it. To “top” a cannabis plant is to chop off the newest node on the main cola in order to divide it in half.
However, topping can also refer to the removal of the stem’s tip. The optimal location to prune is right above the leaves of the following node. In other words, sever the stem just above the next set of leaves from the top of the plant. This will result in your plant transferring its energy to two new primary colas, as seen by the two yellow dots in the diagram.14-day Timelapse Recovery of a Cannabis Plant After Being Topped These two new colas can be simply twisted into a broad V shape.
A few weeks later, you may add these two additional colas to make a total of four colas. This may be multiplied by two to make eight colas from a single “manifold.” Learn more about cannabis multiplication. A further advantage of topping is that the plant becomes bushier and distributes its energy more equally over the entire plant.
Typically, lower branches ascend to create new primary colas. This is especially true if you combine Topping with LST to allow more light to reach the bottom branches. If you’ve grown a really tall plant, you may also lower its height by topping it down to the desired node, but keep in mind that all the time the plant spent growing tall will be wasted.
To obtain the most adaptable colas without sacrificing vegetative time, attempt to top early in the plant’s life. If you are still in the vegetative (non-blooming) stage and plants are growing excessively tall, you can immediately prune them to the desired height.
Where do leaf nodes exist?
Nodes on plant leaves are tiny lumps or swellings from which new leaves or stems arise. New growth happens at these places. Knowing how to recognize them will allow you to quickly Proliferate Your Plants and assist you with other techniques, such as assisting your plant to branch.
What is this vertices?
Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment and library used to execute web applications outside of the client’s browser. It was created by Ryan Dahl in 2009, and its most recent version, 15.14, was published in April 2021.