How many tops is too many?

[Corleone8]

I started this grow a while ago.
Black Indica feminized. 5 gallon cloth bags. 400 watt mh for veg, hps for flower. Decent nutrients, one major incident of not being watered while I was away for too long. (1 week).

Any way, my question is, how many tops is too many? Does it reduce yield? Does it overall reduce the average size of buds?

My cuts shaped the plants as follows: basically 4 branches off of the main stalk. And each of those four branches got topped once.

I'm starting week 3 of flower, so it's still stretching.

I feel like I should have not topped the 4 side branches as there are a LOT of God damn tops now.

Thoughts?

 

[Corleone8]

Also here is a pic of when they almost died lol.

 

[bluter]

there are never too many tops lol


you can strip some of the smaller "popcorn" bud from the lower part of the plant or interior if you want. it's mostly done to help in trimming, and to get the plant to use it's energy on the bigger stuff. a lot of people let it grow and use it along with the sugar leaf trim for lots of different fun projects.

it becomes kind of a personal choice. i keep some and strip other stuff lol.

btw good recovery on those.

 

[Nunyabiz]

That's like having too much money.
It appears you have about a dozen colas.

I usually strive to get about 35 colas per plant.
I believe the main limiting factor would be pot/root size.
As in you aren't going to get 35 colas in a 1 gallon plastic pot.
A nicely cared for plant in a 5 gal fabric pot you should be able to feed 20 colas no problem.
More roots = more fruits

 

[Corleone8]

That's like having too much money.
It appears you have about a dozen colas.

I usually strive to get about 35 colas per plant.
I believe the main limiting factor would be pot/root size.
As in you aren't going to get 35 colas in a 1 gallon plastic pot.
A nicely cared for plant in a 5 gal fabric pot you should be able to feed 20 colas no problem.
More roots = more fruits

Gotcha. Yeah it's about 22-26 per plant, with some of those having some smaller side branching ones I'm considering getting rid of.
I was thinking that I would end up with a bunch of tiny nugs, instead of say, 10 good ones if that's all the tops I had.

I'll stick with your suggestion and aim for 15-20 tops per 5 gallon.