This plant has had all verticle growth stopped at around the seventh node, and I didnt have to top it to do it.

At about 4 weeks into veg growth, I tie tip to base for one week and then release. During the week, the plant becomes convinced that its top is gone and begins to grow almost exclusivly form the lower nodes. After its let go, the cola resumes growth, but at a rate no greater than the branching below it. Tieing the larger branches to the outside creates and even canopy of colas allowing the grower to move his flowering light closer to the tops

The former cola is the top furthest on the right

The plant in this pic has just started flowering and the strain is Rosetta Stone



[Edited by smokinrav on 29-01-2002 at 12:10 AM]

There are lots of ways to achieve this result.

Heres how I did mine

First, snap the hurd at roughly the midpoint of the plant, so it is weak and rubbery and leans like this

That weakening will ease the tie of the tip to the base and prevent snaps and bends in the mainstem. Simply loop your tie over one of the nodes on top, making sure you use one big enough to keep the top of the plant from popping free and the other end around the very base of the plant

With a gentle downward pressure on the top of the bend in the stem, pull the tie tight, so the tip is down to the base. The pressure will also help prevent snapping or folding in the stem

The reason I do this is to promote the same axial growth in the plant that you get when you top and still keep the main cola intact. These plants you see here, after release, will not grow vertically at all, the stem from top to bottom will thicken as if the entire plant had been twisted andhad the hurd snapped



[Edited by smokinrav on 30-01-2002 at 07:08 PM]

You can see the plant has almost resumed its verticle stance. This plant will suffer almost no slowdown in growth when you consider the growth in the nodes below where the stem was tied. Normally you would prune that out for the sake of the growtips closer to the light. With this method, the upper nodes will resume growth, but only at an equal pace, allowing the presence of many fullly mature colas on a very small plant



[Edited by smokinrav on 30-01-2002 at 07:15 PM]

This pic was taken halfway through harvest, there were some 20 colas in less than 30 square cm. Flowered under a 400 HPS for 11 weeks

7 plants, supercropped and topped in 1.3 meters under a 400 HPS. They are three weeks into flower

About two weeks left till harvest

my favorite plant

...

I like the tied plants better

Seven females, from seed