For me, in my years of growing various strains of cannabis including some stray seeds left lying around of who knows what strain, topping your plants as I have discovered works with some strains and not with others. I suggest waiting to top your plants until the third set of fan leaves develop or, if the second set looks healthy then go ahead. The theory is that the stalk will grow 2 new branches instead of the one you just topped and by that, you should have 2 buds instead of one. You can then top the two here and end up with four but I think that it’s too much for the majority of plants. But, this won’t work with all strains, so be careful what you read and try with your plants. Keep in mind also that the number of colas a plant will produce is genetically predetermined and what some people actually are witnessing, are the division of a single stalk into two separate pieces which are not two different ones at all. In fact with the majority of strains, you’ll just end up with the same amount of bud divided between the two or four stalks. The strain named Blueberry is an exception that does not produce it’s potential bud production when left alone. But if it is topped, it will! Go ahead and plant you a couple of extra experimental plants to play around with. My honest opinion of topping is that it places unnecessary trauma on the plant because the majority of plants regardless of the strain with an exception to just a handful, will only produce what it was “wired” by nature to produce in the first place.

About 11 years back I grew 6 plants in which 4 were topped. The weight at end cycle were only a few grams in difference and in the four that were topped the buds were smaller in diameter than the plants that were not topped. Growing conditions were identical for all of the plants as they were together in the same room.

I know that there are those out there who have grown plants that they will swear have more bud on them when topped and in certain cases that is true. But as a general rule of thumb it isn’t. The focus of growing has to be on the quality of growing conditions and that will produce the best result compared to any of the grow tweaks that you will read about concerning topping cannabis.

The F.I.M. technique is somewhat a hit & miss endeavor if you wish to try it but it does seem to work with the majority of strains I have tried it on. Take your plant and spread it open using the two main stalks, you’ll see a small bud (not a flower but a leaf type bud) then remove about 80% of it. I have seen up to 4 top colas from a single plant when I did this on a few occasions. And I have not had much luck on other occasions so once again, it all depends on the plant itself and what nature has “wired” it to do.

Tying plants is a neat trick to get better results and bud production and there has been not one plant I can remember that this didn’t work with. Most plants produce big beefy buds on the lower branches that if were left in an upright position would not produce any. I have found that while growing outdoors to comply with my security habits in regards to making a cannabis plant look like another type of plant or disguise it, I’ll tie a plant over towards the ground and allow it to grow parallel to the ground or, tie it to a trellis then “snake it” thru the openings in the trellis to train the plant to grow like a snake making it’s way around the trellis. I call that my “snake weed” growing technique. By doing this it allows the sun to shine on the parts of the plant would normally be shaded and therefore not productive. I have experienced tremendous multi-budded plants all the way up to the “top” of the plant! Many of the branches will start to grow towards the sun and then you’ll have a really big plant that has multiple shoots and branches. Best of all, you will also have lots of bud! I did this on an Afghan strain once and ended up with a monster bud almost the entire length of the whole plant itself! That my friends was good smoke.

If you are new to growing then don’t put a lot of effort into trying some of the things you read to tweak your plants. Just plant those beans and care for them to build you up a good stash then, try some of these techniques. Growing is rewarding and can produce a vast amount of knowledge that you can learn on your own very easily. Pay attention to your plants and follow the basic rules of growing:

• Good seed stock. Like BC Seeds sells.
• Good soil.
• Nutrients.
• Sun or synthetic light.
• Water.
• Care & patience.

Before too long you will have some very nice and proud looking cannabis that will taste sweeter than what you have bought from others because you grew it from the ground up! There is no better feeling as far as I’m concerned than growing your own. I hope that when you get growing your own, that your plants stay healthy and get all of the sunshine (or light) they need and you end up with a caliber of bud that surpasses your wildest expectations! Peace be with you always.