What is topping?
Topping of cannabis plants is a method used by growers to increase the amount of "tops" on a cannabis plant. It's normally used alongside other training methods to maximise a growers yield from their grow area. Each top will form into bud during the flowering cycle of your grow. More tops will generally mean more buds/cannabis flowers.
Topping a plant will promote 2 new tops to grow where 1 would have been. Topping can be repeated many times in a grow and is not limited to only the top of the plant. I will top every part of my plants during the veg stage. If I top a plant 4 times I will have 8 a new tops, if i top them 8 new tops i will have 16 new tops etc.
When to top a cannabis plant
It's important to remember that when topping a plant it will need time to recover. For this reason topping, as with most heavy training methods, is done during the vegetative part of your grow.
It is generally accepted that the best time to top your plants for the first time is after the first node. Nodes are sets of leaves and branches that grow from the main stem of the plant. Once your plant has produced 4 of these it's time to top for the first time.
As I mentioned above a plant may be topped repeatedly through out the veg stage of your grow. If you plan to top several times it's good to allow 2 nodes between each round of topping.
How many times you top a plant depends greatly on your growing style and the time you wish to finish your grow in. A topped plant needs time to recover before flower kicks in, a topped plant you wish to top again is best allowed to grow some between rounds of topping.
How to top a cannabis plant
First you want to locate the area/areas of the plant you wish to top. Some growers will only want to do this once so they will top the main stem only.some growers will want to top repeatedly and all over.
The only tool needed to top a plant is a sharp set of scissors. I prefer to use thin nose scissors. Thin nose bud trimming scissors work great.
My choice of scissors, these are widely available and cheap. Very good for harvesting to.
Here you can see a top of a cannabis plant. The 2 smaller sets of leaves will become 2 tops.
Cut along here.
Be very careful not to damage the growth either side of the stem you are cutting.
You have finished topping your cannabis plant. You can see the 2 new tops here, they will now grow towards your light.
The cut off top of the plant.
As I've mentioned above, topping a cannabis plant works great with other training methods, LST in particular. Click here to visit my LST training guide.