Ok so we have all of these different types of training methods. Which one do you feel that you’ve had the best results for you? I personally prefer the Lower stress methods scrog, l.s.t ,and just recently started messing around w super cropping . Never really topped tried fim a few times but the thought of shocking and stunting for multiple days seemed like there was a better way. I want to hear everyone’s input am very interested…
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They all have their place. I top as a seedling. LST, sometimes as long as 1/3 into flower. Supercrop if necessary when thing are growing out of control and I have no choice.
If a top turns into a FIM, that’s a bonus.
Scrogs are good too, I just don’t use it personally.
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I’m a fan of topping usually after the 6th node then some LST followed by scrogging usually rite b4 flower to help spread the bud sites out and open up so light can penetrate down 2 the smaller bud sites being blocked by bigger fan leaves that way im not over stressing the plants I learned each plant responds differently to defoliation some love it others not so much I’m still learning and am always open to trying new things
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I have a small tent I do scrog every grow and I lst,super crop , bend a little plant bondage shows great results from
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I would agree that they all have there place and do/have used all of them.
Topping is great to get more colas out of a single plant.
Fimming is good to use when I am trying to keep height down during veg as well.
Super cropping is very useful when you have a stretchy sativa and limited vertical space. I have been surprised how resilient these plants are when I have no choice but to keep supercropping back and forth on a single plant.
LST is good at anytime to get better control on a plant.
Monster cropping works well but not all strains/cuts will come back, especially if taken later in flower. However, when they do they look very mutated and generally have been the bushiest ones. I had a GSC that would usually produce only 2-3 zips each but a monster cropped one gave me 8 zips but did take up a bit more space.
I would think it would also work very well for ones looking to scrog with a plant as well.
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Manifolding/Mainlining are a big deal to me and I plan on it for every plant I grow. Takes a couple extra weeks(1-2) to veg but it seems worth it to get all the yield possible on an even canopy with minimal work.
I personally think if you don’t top/mainline/manifold but you do scrog, you’re spending the same amount of time or more, with likely more work, to get roughly the same experience.You can still scrog a mainline/manifold and I think its easier to do so with the possibility of a better result since you have a bunch of main branches all at the same height, all getting the nutrients equally from the base, to start with. Rather than a main branch and a bunch of side branches that are all different heights all growing at different rates.
LST all the way. I use this to maintain an even canopy and/or spread out the plant for more light penetration. Think only time you wouldn’t use any lst is if you were doing a SoG… or just didn’t care 
Supercropping has its place too and I do that occasionally on every plant, especially during stretch if I need to keep a branch of two down to maintain that canopy.
I don’t really care for FIM at all and try to avoid causing it. I’ve literally cut off the two new branches just to keep my manifold correct.
Haven’t tried monstercropping, just haven’t had a need to fold them over like that yet but it has its place.
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Make them best fit the space with whatever methods are appropriate. One isn’t necessarily better than the others.
I top every plant at a certain size, train, crush, defoliate. Strip the lowers, cut off any unnecessary branches. I am aggressive about it, but I only have one light for flower and I need to maximize space while optimizing airflow.
Grow a larger plant than you need, then cut to fit the space. The hard part is correctly anticipating the space post-stretch i.e. how big is this plant going to be 4 weeks from now in flower? I have over and underestimated the space, but I also never monocrop and I’m always popping new seeds, so it comes with the territory.
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i like the old pinch and bend (and twist)
sometimes outright topping is called for though. tying down branches and/or the meristem is a good one for outdoors. one thing i dont do anymore is weaving through trellis, due to the extra tedium it adds to harvesting
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For the indoors we top when they are like a foot tall and when we flower and trellis about week 2 we start weaving plants and spreading em thru the trellis as best as possible and we also lollipop bottoms and follow the 1 node and flips technique
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