I did a lot of creative maintenance on my plants during the veg phase. They appear to be very healthy, but now I’m wondering if two dozen+ colas per plant might be an unsustainable load on the plants. Thoughts?
Should be ok ive grown them with over 30 or more tops had to feed more they will let you know
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I found that topping more than 2 or 3 times gave me more cola’s but not more yield, so now i will only top twice. I will have a better read on this come harvest time as i left some un topped & growing wild… so far they are the largest of all my plants…
I agree…more colas means more difficult to catch issues (like hermies, nanners) and less colas means bigger buds…a dozen is MORE than enough otherwise it is just a SOG
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As it turns out I did the same thing with early trimming. My plants are strong and healthy, to a point. When the buds fill out and get heavy, I’m ready with sturdy support for each outdoor plant. Four 8 foot stakes per bush, my GSC+JH is over 7 feet tall with 6 weeks to go. Only second year growing from seed so I’m learning volumes.
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something I have learned over the years… I understand why people like the giant buds they, have better bag appeal people like big nugs. Honestly I think that the topped medium sized flowers actually are a bit more potent. When I look at them under the jewelers loop I swear it seems sometimes that crystal on the medium nugs can be greater than on the giant ones. Maybe some of that is strain specific not too sure.
Giant cola’s really are a problem, that’s why if you notice, many of the advanced growers and breeders tend to try and approach things to mitigate that issue to one extent or another. I do lots and lots of training to try and overcome the issue. Once you get a little mold on a plant, I don’t care if the rest is clean, it’s somewhat marked. The ideal conditions were there from the beginning, and the whole plant was exposed to some degree or another, it’s just the infection started in one area. In most cases, the entire plants taste is going to be impacted to some degree.
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So, as time has gone by, I think I’ve answered my own question with the following analogy.
If you have a gallon of water, you can split it up many ways… but you’ll still only have a gallon of water to work with. You can divide it into 8 16oz glasses or 128 1oz glasses, or any other possible combination, but you will still have 128 ounces.
Same goes for plants. They don’t have limitless output potential. More, smaller flowers will result in [close to] the same yield as less, larger flowers.
My conclusion, and I’m sticking with it. 
The engine, the fan leaves and roots, produce a finite product. How you apportion it is key. If you can move more energy to bud in early flower through topping, yachtzee. If not, you’ve stressed a plant and set it back.