Overgrown mainlining side branch trimming?

[Usingthenoodle]

Hey guys hoping this is categorised right as it’s particular to the mainlining technique.

The idea of mainlining is to have a few number, of bigger more impressive colas, with few popcorn buds. Essentially due to spaced-out starting of my plants (in dwc) they’re all different sizes. Currently some of the smaller plants are quite small, while the larger ones already have the desired 8 or 16 divided branches. On the larger plants the main branches have started to gain more nodes, but I don’t want to top them again - I want them to stay as a single cola. So my question is, do I allow the apical node of each branch to grow and grow while trimming the side branches? This is until the smaller plants have caught up, and I’m ready to flip into flower

I’d love some advice on this, cheers guys

Pic of some of the more overgrown “future colas” with side branches circled

[Jellypowered]

Gonna tag @Takeshy as I believe he did some mainlining. He may be of assistance here

[Mr.Sparkle]

Those sites will become new bud sites especially once flipped, so if your wanting to limit energy only to the main buds, then yes trim them.

[Usingthenoodle]

Ahh that’s what I thought could be the case.
And with those smaller colas popping up would impact the benefit of mainlining with its airflow and light penetration advantages. Looks like I’ll be trimming those side branches and LSTing to reduce how much taller they’re getting.
Cheers for the help!

[shroomgod]

You could trim them or stretch them and set them off as side branches.

[anon84307778]

This picture is by NugBuckets and if you look closely you do see side branches left on. I’m not sure either tbh, I’ll probably leave mine if they aren’t too low down

I didn’t realize how old this post was