Topping or Fimming

Hi there GWJ Community, how is everybody? I’m in need of your collective wisdom. My Barney’s Farm Strawberry Lemonade Feminised plant is about two months old now. I’ll be planting her in the ground toward the end of the week as temps here in the S.W France are slowly warming up. In an attempt to increase yield, I’d like to try topping or fimming. I’ve been reading a bit online and as is often the case, opinions vary. I’m interested to hear your thoughts particularly if you’ve already tried both OR even one of these HST methods? Is my plant mature enough as is (photo taken this morning) or should I wait another week or two? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thx.

I top all my plants to encourage lateral growth, and to avoid a Christmas tree with only one Main Kola site.

Your plant is old enough, you can simply bend and pinch off the top node and your done.

I have tried FIM twice on two plants, and it failed both times, they kept growing a main stalk, so I topped them after they healed.

I top once or twice and also apply LST.

If you are growing her outside your yield will be massive anyway so no need to top for that reason alone.

Growing outdoors training is more for shaping the plant how you want it. If you do nothing it will grow one main cola in a kind of xmas tree shape. If you top the main cola it will grow more bush shaped.

The reason people top is to maximise efficiency in a grow room. This is where you can increase yields significantly and training is highly recommended. Lights are nowhere near as powerful as the sun and intensity drops rapidly the further away you are from it, so that’s why growers try to create a flat table shape in a tent so they all get max light intensity, this is also why we lollipop the lower growth as it will not grow well due to the reduced light available.

The sun does not have that issue so all buds will grow well outside.

Thanks @SJ1 for the explanation. Apart from wanting to try to maximize yield, there is another reason. Two years ago I grew a Dinafem Cheese CBD Feminised outdoors, in exactly same place I will put SL. It grew so tall, it would’ve easily grown 30-50cm higher than our 2m wall had I not tied her down twice. I don’t want the neighbors to see her. This year I’d like to avoid that and figured it would interesting to try one of these two techniques. Thanks again for your input.

Hi @Rasta_Free-Man thanks again for the advice. Greatly appreciated. I figure I’ll plant her in ground in two or three days time as there is a warm spell approaching. After that I’ll give her another week to settle in then top her. There will still be 9-10 weeks of veg time left before flowering should begin early August or thereabouts. Thx

Top and LST

Hello, I may add my 2c.
I grow outside for a few years now.
In my situation i have to put my plants to the wall because of space limitations. Never the less, what i do is topping as is far more easy and you hardly make an error (fimmiing must be done right and probably you will need a few tries before you got it, so for next year get another plant to teach yourself on it )
Topping is done when you have a plant just like yours. Consider to remove bottom branches, due to morning dew and moisture, in the future so you will leave 4-6 main branches. I personally leave only 3 due to wall and space limitations. Next I apply low stress training on top two branches and make them look like a double cordon vines (i also have support for them as i would have for vines).
In that way i keep my plants relatively small at max around 190. Just for a hint, i have my top branches clipped at a wire that is around the knee hight.

You can also apply only low stress training on main cola and grow a plant in single cordon as shown on hermana de la noche below.

Hope it helps

Fantastic @Mrk09 that is also really helpful information and @EMASF just confirms what all of you are saying. I can’t wait to get her in ground then top her. Will post some pics end of the month to show you guys how she is doing . Thanks again to everybody!

The plant I grew outside two years ago I just let it go wild. I removed sugar leaves occasionally once she began flowering to allow more sunlight to hit buds on lower branches. She got BIG and definitely looked like the prettiest Xmas tree I’d ever seen

Look up growing 10 lbs cannabis plants on YouTube. I’m trying how they do it.

I top mine now with a little lst to maximize my yield

I topped two of my plants one week and will also use LST to try and help maximise yield.