Topping and pruning are sometimes difficult to distinguish. To force a weed plant to develop bushier, it is necessary to cut off the main stem of a weed plant. Pruning is the process of removing dead or unlighted marijuana leaves and branches from a weed plant in order for it to concentrate its efforts on producing buds in other areas. You can buy this products in our boutique.
Because many growers do both at the same time, the line between them is blurred. The distinctions between the two are listed below.
Why is Topping Marijuana Necessary?
Topping is necessary to maintain your cannabis plants healthy and produce good crops, despite the fact that it may appear odd to chop off and discard a portion of them.
When left to grow on its own, a marijuana plant will develop vertically and concentrate its energy on one main stem. The final result will be a single massive cola at the top with smaller colas on the primary stem. These additional buds will be tiny and limp, and their quality won’t be good. The plant’s size and yield will be reduced.
When to Top Marijuana Plants
Topping is a technique of topping during the vegetative stage to assist distribute growth hormones from the main stalk to side branches—cutting off the main stem forces the plant to redirect its efforts toward side branches, forcing them to develop out rather than up. Topping promotes weed vegetation.
Wait until the plant has produced six or seven branches before topping it, usually done above the 5th node. It’s critical to wait till the plant has this many nodes so that it may withstand the trauma of being topped.
When you wait to top a weed plant after it has developed more than seven nodes, the plant will have spent energy into upward growth that you will cut off, rather than lateral growth that you will keep.
Equipment For Topping Cannabis
Topping cannabis demands accuracy, precision, and neatness. Using a blunt instrument to snip your plant might cause the stem to fracture and create a bigger wound than intended.
Use the sharpest blades you can find. Office and kitchen scissors are fine, but they aren’t as efficient as dedicated tools, so consider using pruning shears. Razor blades are another good choice.
Try out these curved trimming scissors for taming and topping cannabis plants. Their sharp blades and sturdy handle make them ideal for your needs. They’re ideal for pruning deep within canopies and removing sugar leaves during harvest thanks to their curving form. This handy tool may also be used to create clean cuttingtendrils for cloning.
What Is Fimming Cannabis?
Fimming is another HST method for boosting yield that resembles topping, but isn’t quite the same. The aim is still to boost the total number of main colas. Instead of doubling down, though, fimming may produce 4+ additional top colas. This technique is especially beneficial for micro farmers who have fewer than 10 plants.
Secondary branches are juiced with the growth hormone that would have been used to grow the main stem. However, most growers find that fimming is less successful at curbing stretching than topping. A fimmed cannabis plant can still develop tall, although with more top colas.
When to Fim Cannabis?
Wait until your plant has three to five nodes before FIMing it. Topping, like fertilization, is best done at the end of the vegetative stage since doing so too soon will shock the plant and cause your seedling’s growth to be slowed. Only perform FIMs on plants in the vegetative stage because allowing them to concentrate all their energy on bud development during the flowering stage is more beneficial for them. Try gentle approaches such as low-stress training (LST) if you wish to train your plant while this period lasts.
Why Top Your Plants:
Cannabis plants grow tall and slender, much like a Christmas tree. They display apical dominance, which is the key element that determines plant growth habits. Different sorts of apical dominance lead to different plants generating their designs of both vertical and horizontal development in response to their natural growing conditions. This plant programming is an evolutionary adaptation to their normal growing circumstances.
Cannabis landrace strains are generally tall, fast-growing annuals that compete for canopy space with other plants. As a result, they develop in the form that is most beneficial to the situation. We are not, however, cultivating them in those conditions!
Other plants that are adapted to light-poor situations grow flat and wide. These plants serve as a better example for us to consider while attempting to make the greatest use of overhead illumination. We want low broad plants that capture every photon of visible light energy available to them in order to achieve our goal.
Apical Dominance and Auxins in Cannabis
Cannabis naturally grows like a Christmas Tree owing to its apical dominance, which is determined for tall thin development. With only low-stress training (LST), it’s feasible to achieve some degree of lateral growth dominance, but topping the plant is the most effective technique to break apical dominance in cannabis.
Auxins are one of the hormones that control apical dominance, and the top or end shoot, which is the main growing point in plants, contains them. Auxins are a hormone that appears to play an important part. Auxins are produced at the apical growth tip and sent down through the phloem toward the base of the plant, where they prevent lateral development tips from growing downward. The auxins slow down the growth-tips below the apex from growing longer, yet they do not travel very far throughout the plant. As a result, as the plant grows taller, the lowest branches are released from the auxin’s inhibiting influence and begin to grow. This results in a type of Christmas tree form.