Topping Vs. Fimming: High-Stress Training For Maximum Yield | Growlink (2024)

Topping andFimming:Using High-Stress Training to MaximizeCropQuality and Yield

There are numerous advantages to growing cannabis indoors under artificial lights. It allows complete control over the growing environment, better crop safety, and formicro-growers with only a couple of plants, the convenience of growing right at home. But there are somedefinitedrawbacksas well, one of which is that marijuana plants grown indoors can fail to reach their full potential because of how they’re naturally designed to grow. Maximizing yield isobviouslya top priority for every grower, no matter how large or small their crop may be, so anything that helps maximize plant growth and health should be embraced. Topping andfimming– two types of high-stress training – do exactly that, making them fantastic tools for indoor and outdoor growers alike.Both are simple to perform and, done with care, have the potential to turn even a solitary plant into a monster producer.

High-Stress Trainingfor Better, Healthier Yields

Cannabis plants naturally grow in a Christmastreeshape, with one main cola – the tight cluster of buds that grow atop the central stem – and multiplesets ofside branches growing from bottom to top. Thatcone-likeconfiguration works fine out in nature, where the sun moves across the sky,andall parts of the plant get a healthy doseof sunlightas the day goes on. But indoor plants grow under fixed overhead lighting, and as with all plants, cannabis grows towards the light. That means indoor plants, if left to their own devices, tend to want to focus all their growthverticallyon that single, central stem and cola.

That causesa number ofproblems. First and foremost, the lower areas and side branches don’t get the light they need, resulting inlarfy, immature buds.Secondly, as the center stem grows, the lightsabovehave to be raised to accommodate it.That causesspaceissuesas the plant gets taller andfurtherdistancesthe lower areas of the plant from their light source.In the end, the overall result is suboptimal yields, far below what the plantcouldproducewith a little help.

The solution is high-stress training. HST is designed to coax the plant to grow a wider, denser canopy, essentially inverting the Christmas tree shape. It’s accomplished by strategically chopping off part of the top of the plant, turningthe mainstem intomultiple stalks, and sending a shock of growth hormone through theplant as a whole. As the name suggests, it does cause stress, but done properlyitcan supersize yields while posing no real risk to the plant.With repetition, thewider, fuller canopyproduced by HSTmaximizes the plant’s light exposure, resulting ina larger number ofhealthier,moremature flowers.

Topping vs.Fimming

High-stress training comes in two primary varieties–topping and fimming. Eachutilizes strategic cutting during the vegetative stage to promote the growth of new stalks near the top of the plant, but they differ in where the cutsare madeand how the plant responds. Both canbe doneon indoor plants, and both can be done multiple times to create beautiful, wide canopies and greatly improved yields.Whilethe differences in technique are minimal, some growers may prefer one over the other,and trying both will give a clear picture of how individual plants respond to each.

Topping:Toppingis the act of cutting off the newest growth – or terminal bud – at the tip of the main stem. If done correctly, it results in the pruned single stem growing into two new stalks with two colas. Since growth hormoneis normally focusedon the central bud – also known as the apical bud – its removal also allows the resulting rush of growth hormone to be spread around the entire plant, promoting healthy growth from bottom to top.

Timing and placement of the cut are keytosuccessfultopping.Itshould always be done in the vegetative state, ideally after a plant has reached arounda footin height. It can be tempting to cut earlier, but patience is paid off with healthierbudsand better yields. The placement of the cut should be directly on the main stem, just below the newest growth. A clean cut is best, and the scissors or blade used should always be sterilized. Since topping is a high-stress training method, it’s important to let the plant recover for a couple of weeks before doing any further cutting or pruning. But once the plant has stabilized and the new stalksare established, the topping process can be repeated over and over,potentiallyproducingenormous yields.

Fimming:Moving a topping cut up slightly so that it cuts above the main stem is calledfimming. The termfimmingcomes from the acronym FIM, which stands for “f*ck, I missed.” The idea is to remove about 75% of the growth above the main stem, rather than cutting the stem itself. Instead of turning the main stem into two new offshoots,fimmingwill result in four or more shoots emerging from the site of the cut. Logic might suggest thatfimmingis the obvious choice since four is more than two, but plants trained using the FIM method generally still growfairly talland don’t develop the wide, dense canopies that multiple rounds of topping can produce.

Fimmingrequires less precision than topping, and it can evenbe doneby ripping the top growth off with the fingernails – although a clean tool is still ideal. As with topping, the removal of the central growth will cause a rush of hormones to be distributed more evenly around the entire plant, benefiting the buds at the sides in addition to the new growth at the top. And just liketopping, a couple of weeks of recovery should be observed to ensure the plant has time to shake the shock off before any further trainingis done.

Larger yields and higher quality are the goals for all cannabis crops, from the largest industrial farms to the smallest home gardens. While growing indoors provides a great deal of control, it also takes the plants out of the environment that nature designed them to flourish in, and that inevitably leads to some limitations. The primary one is that the stationary overhead lighting used in indoor growing can’t provide the even coverage that cannabis plants need to reach their maximum potential. By embracing high-stress training like topping andfimming, plants that want to grow vertically can instead be naturally trained to grow wider, fuller canopies. That means easier indoor space management, better light coverage, and, most importantly, bigger yields of higher quality buds – all thanks to a few quick snips!