Topping Outdoor Cannabis

In this example we're gonna lop off this Bruce Banner strain above the fourth node. We let this one grow to about five nodes, with tiny sixth node leaves popping out at the top. And since she looks healthy enough we decided to finally pop her cherry.

Bruce Banner after three weeks outside 5-27-22

We usually top it off at the third node on indoor grows to train plants for a manifold, but right now we're still curious on what those growth tips are gonna do on nodes three and four.

So now that we've decided where to cut her, it's time for the chop..

And voila!

Bruce Banner 5-27-22

It may seem early to top the plant after growing five to six early nodes, but since we plopped these into the ground in mid to late spring from seed - the lack of veg time will definitely effect the size of the plant at harvest.

Last years crop was put in the ground early to middle of spring and germinated in January. But under 24 hour lights, they started to flower in May when placed outdoors - which was way too early. The extra veg time created huge seven foot tall plants, but the re-veg made for less potent buds.

So as a next time experiment, we'll have to try germinating in January - while vegging and training in an outdoor green house. We'll have to provide light in the morning and evening to keep up the (early to middle spring) light times. Because we want to keep them from flowering too early and still match the 13 to 14 hour light schedule when we put them into the ground in April.

That way we can test and see if larger plants can produce more potent bud with longer veg times, as opposed to this years smaller plants with less veg time. I would suspect that the longer veg times are going to produce more potent bud yield myself, but there's only one way to find out!