Topping after 6th node

Hi all, my ladies shot up 3 nodes while I was busy working the last few days. I have 8 nodes with the 9th just showing up. Is it too late to top, if not should I still top at the 4th-6th nodes or just take the 9th off?

@Hellraiser @KeystoneCops @Skydiver

It depends a lot on your goals, with consideration of headroom, internode length, intended structure, and whether these are photos or autos.

Thanks for the reply!!

They are photos. Def prefer to keep them on the shorter side - 8ft tent. Nothing special planned for them, normal topped structure, just was unsure if I could top at the 9th node with the same results at the 6th, or if it is ok to top at the 6th node now that I have 9th showing, if it is better to top at the 6th. I topped kinda late on my first grow and ended up with a pine tree look, 2 really tall growths with several much shorter at the bottom.

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I prune the apical meristem just below a node, but above two lower nodes with healthy lateral meristems. That gives me 4 lateral stems perpendicular to the main. I train those out laterally, selectively pruning their axial limbs to fill out a level canopy with a cola about every 4-6”.

It can be nice to prune off the lowest growth on the main stem, so that you have space for air circulation, watering, and top dressing, depending on your medium.

8’ is a lot of headroom. I still don’t know what cultivar you’re growing, so I can’t say much more.

I’d like to all the lateral beaches to be near the same height as the main stem. I successfully fimmed one before, ended up pretty level at the top without any lst… just couldn’t remember if I fimmed before or after the 6th node…

Cultivar - Cali dream, blue dream, og skywalker, black eyed katy.

@KeystoneCops I think I understand what you’re saying now, you let it reach a growth of x nodes (be it 4,5, 6 etc), and then top above the bottom two heathy nodes. I was thinking if I topped anything but the upper most growth, I’d do it wrong. I can see how this would be much more manageable, 4 colas instead of 12. I ended up just topping the upper most part before realizing what you meant. Will likely trim the lowest branches as I’m not sure re-topping at a lower node is advisable…

Actually you’re missing my point. An illustration would be helpful.

Looking down on my plant from above, you see a cross shape formed by the 4 main stems. But those stems each have 4 or more lateral branches, with at least 16 cola sites. I train them so that they’re all at about the same level, using LST.

Really I was just curious if topping at node 9 wouldn’t work out as well as doing it at node 5 or 6. since you top above the second healthy node, I don’t think the total number of nodes matters outside of judging maturity/readiness to top by having more nodes.

I just wasn’t considering future side growth from the 4 main shoots in your description. The lowest shoots on the Cali and blue dream didn’t look that great from seedling stage, so topping higher may have made sense, had posted some pics of them in early stages with odd leaf discoloration that you offered some advice on.

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