Is fimming less stressful than topping?
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I would think so. But I have nothing to back this up.
Letās hear what others have to say.
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I would say any training method that prunes or cuts the apical growth would be considered high stress training.
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Cutting is cutting from my experience but doing a side x side with topping/fimān and super cropping I found super cropped plants finished earlier
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I donāt top but I do extreme bendingā¦youāll get the same results as topping without loosing the main bud.
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I top at 4-6 nodes; then veg a few more weeks and LST the plant so that I end up with many large colas (Plant 
) versus one really big one main and the rest as they come.
This being said, when I say LST iām bending the branches down horizontally to the pot; so every bud site is exposed and they all grow up like little trees on sticks.
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I have been trying to figure out what is best to I have done fimming and bending (thank you for showing me @PhilCuisine ) and I think itās about the same and I also agree that cutting/bending is all stress just about how much you do at a time and how resilient the plant or strain grows and itās just been a couple grows using training and I have been looking to try and top one of my 3 photo regs. Iām wondering how long I should wait to top & how many nodes I should have before attempting(is Supercropping basically bending branches)? Great topic @420noob and sorry for getting a tad of subject but Iām always unsure about training being a lot less experienced and the OG Community is the best place to be asking! I hope your White Crack is doing good and I have yet to do anything else but leaf tucking and removing āsuckersā(lower unessential growth )with Autoās since thereās a short veg time. Iāve stunted one a week just from transplanting but itās something that is going take hands on experience and some knowledge from you all looking forward to seeing what others think about the topic of fimming vs topping
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I am a super topper over here. Love to top. I think itās the best thing out there so to speak. I have tried both topping and fimming and overall results have been the same for me. My only preference to topping over fimming is that sometimes if you donāt do it 100% correctly the improper fimming will result in abnormal growth where the plant material was left behind and then you have to go back and top to fix it so it wastes more time. Topping when the new growth extends about a 1/4ā is my preferred approach. And then you gotta top your tops.
I know some out there are like oh not all plants like topping. That has not been my experience. I feel like it has always helped my harvests. I have over the years found that different strains want different amounts of topping but usually if it grows in large colas less topping is good but still want 4-6 stems imo, that gets you 4-6 colas. In plants that grow more satellite buds I top to my hearts content. More branches, more bud sites, more bud.
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Thatās one thing I have no experience at because Iāve never grown an auto, not on purposeā¦Recently I bent the hell outa my 2 Vietnam Blacks landrace because of height restrictions of my Phototrons not cause of super croppingā¦
Thereās has to be a lot of more experienced people here that do know when to top and bend autos for super cropping.
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Supercropping is technically what?
I did a searchā¦
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Supercropping is just a generic term for techniques that manipulate the plant to increase yield. Initially I saw this referred to mostly with stem bending and now with topping fimming or any pruning technique that āsuperā sizes the crop yield. Imo just another example of growers taking established gardening techniques and attaching a buzz word to it. Most of these practices are borrowed from commercial flower production like roses where growers have the same goal of creating large ornate flowers instead of several smaller piddly ones
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I saw you posted this pic in another thread. That is very extreme bending. That is supercropping right? Although I see In another post that supercropping is any manipulation to make it a āsuperā cropping. Anyways that doesnāt affect the main cola at all does it?
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I do not super crop, that Vietnam Black was bent because of my height restrictions in my Phototronsā¦the main cola will try to right it self and still get bigā¦give a try folks what do you have to loseā¦heres a picture of my Phototron when I picked it up last week at the Phototron shopā¦
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I thought super cropping was bending and rolling the stem to create a knuckle? Itās the only way to bend imo.
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I see the difference. Looked it up I thought super cropping was just bending tocreate a knucle and control canopy. It is so much more. Thanks for pointing that out gave me a chance to research and learn. I love learning about things ii like.
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Do you still run florescent in those photos or did you outfit them with any leds yet?
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IMO topping isnāt that stressful if timed right, i.e. in veg. I have no hard evidence of this but look at other plants that are browsed by animals. How about hedges and grass? They are trimmed all the time and still thrive. Topping doesnāt work on all plants, but it seems to work well with Cannabis.
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T5ās all the way, hereās my thoughtā¦If your shoes shine why buff themā¦T5ās has treated me well for over 20+yrs. and I donāt plan on using LEDs in my swc/trons. My bad, I did actually add some LEDs, I added this LEDs but everything is the same as the original Phototronsā¦sorry for the bad picture.
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I still think of it and use the word to mean stem bending and crushing, usually without tying things down for me. When Iām supercropping Iām going through twisting and bending things towards where I want them to fall eventually, once the buds get heavy I stake them but until then just supercropping bending and crushing with my fingers or some Bernard pliers if the hurd is already woody. I also find it confusing or frustrating when people say supercropping to mean something other than that.
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