Ok, I've got 4 white widows that i've taken one cutting from each. It was my intention to give the original plants a couple of days to recover and put them into flowering and grow the clones and use them as a mother.

...........But i've just been reading that if you top a plant you should give it 2 weeks to recover before you start flowering as flowering sooner can affect yeild. Now I'm not sure what to do. I'm not sure if topping a plant and cutting an entire branch off will have the same effect on yield if I flower after only a couple of days? I'm thinking it may be coz when you top a plant you are cutting the main cola and it needs time to grow the two new colas where buds will grow, whereas cutting the whole branch off for a clone you're not worried about new growth coming that bud will grow on so you don't have to wait?

Or is it a more general health issue that you've got to wait till the plant recovers and gets back to full strength before you start flowering?

It is more to do with yield than health.

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So a couple days and I can put it into flowering then and all will be ok?

waiting until the cutting is firmly rooted might be a good idea, if it dies, you'd have to take another cutting and the plant might not be showing flowers yet but, internally, i believe it would have started to change, chemically, hormonally. i am no expert but, it would seem to me to be safer to take at least 2 cuttings before you flower so if one dies, you have another.
also, how old are your plants? you don't mention that in your original post so, maybe, the plants aren't ready for flowering anyway.
shoot us some pics so we can help you more.
anyway, toke amongst yourselves

bozo,
peace, love, dope

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bozo,
peace, love, dope

'it's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice'

'man made alcohol, God made weed, who do you trust?'

my imaginary garden

it's better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you're an asshole, rather than opening your mouth and removing all doubt

be advised, these are the meanderings of a mad man, completely imaginary and should in no way be taken seriously, especially Leo

So you've done some research on the matter, and read that a short recovery time is advisable, but you just don't know how advisable? Is this the question...?

Here's are two takes on the situation. I use method one.

1) Your lady is about ready for flowering. She's been on veg nutes since birth. You perform surgery on her. (you take clones) You leave her in her comfort zone for a couple of weeks, until her wounds are healed, and new growth is vigorous. Once healed, you put her into flower, changing her nutes, light spectrum and light schedule, forcing her to start the final stretch twords the finish line, without stressing the hormone changes (PMS) going on during this phase.

2) Your lady is about ready for flowering. She's been on veg nutes since birth. You perform surgery on her. (you take clones) You put her into flower with fresh wounds, changing her nutes, light spectrum and light schedule, forcing her to start the final stretch and bud formation, while simultaneously trying to heal herself and adjust her hormone balance. (to start the flowering phase)

To be honest, I don't really know if it is the hormones that change, (semi-educated guess) but putting her into flower starts a form of, what I like to call PMS. (pre motherhood stretch)
PMS is triggered within the plant, which starts the stretch and increases it's density. I'd rather not risk the 'extra' stress, which can affect health and yeild, not to mention the possible nanners as a result of impatience. Have you ever pissed-off your wife while she suffers from PMS...? Mine grows the biggest cajones' you've ever seen, when in a PMS delerium, lol)

Hopefully someone with more experience in plant biology could help with the biologicals involved in the transformation between veg and flower...

Nice try Bozo, but perhaps you should re-read the original post.

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"If you are comfortable with your facts, you should assume I'll be comfortable challenging those facts." (Neil Cavuto)

Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence. (Murphy's law)

Taking a whole branch off is totally fine right before flower but there is one important thing: It should NOT be one of the 'tops'. So if you have a plant that was pinched, and there are 4 vigorous leads and then a few others lower, take the low ones. If you take a top one, give 2-3 weeks for the hormones to redistribute. The bummer is the high branches take off faster after rooting- again, because of hormone distribution.

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Contacting Her Dankness: stinkyattic at hushm4il-please use the same discretion you do on the boards, thanks.
I don't claim to know the first thing about growing anything; hell, I can't make a Chia pet sprout.

Thanks for all the help guys and girls. I've lst'd and got 5 or 6 tops on each plant (oh and they're 5 weeks old and have alternating nodes btw) and it was one of those that I cut off for cloning (i didn't think the bottom branches were big enough to clone) I'm gonna have to have a long think about this coz i've only got a small grow area and I reckon if I wait another 2-3 weeks they're gonna need potting up before i find out what males i can remove and my space won't fit all my plants in if they're in 11 litre pots. (I've got 5 plants in total, one of them i didn't take a clone from as it's not big enough yet and I can only fit 4 11l pots in my space) Also i'm going away in just over 3 weeks for a couple of days so I don't wanna flower in two weeks as they'll be showing sex around the time i'm away. The way I see it i'll either have to kill one before i know the sex so they can fit in the grow room in bigger pots and let them have 3 more weeks veg (which i obviousley don't wanna do incase i get a low % of females), or flower now and have a reduced yield. Any other ideas?

Hope that made sense, i'm just on my way out and typed it pretty quickly.

Thanks all

Sorry Stinky...I didn't even think to mention taking the lower branches for clones, but he did specifically mention topping.
My bad.

Hudson...you can put the unsexed adult under 12/12 light to determine sex, prior to taking clones. Takes a week or so to start seeing sex, depending on strain and maturity.
Once sex is determined, you can switch back to 18/6, or whatever your veg cycle is. Takes another week or so to revert back to full veg. A total of two or three extra weeks for this process, but you'll know which plant(s) to take clones from, and which are the males.

Do you have seperate veg and flower rooms? Just curious, because you can't veg and flower in the same closet without some serious lightproofing and ventilation handywork.

__________________
Your disappointments grow in direct proportion to your expectations.

Rusty's Re-Veg

Rusty's Bonsai Downsizing

StinkyAttic's Troubleshooting Form - Info that's necessary, to help us help you.

"If you are comfortable with your facts, you should assume I'll be comfortable challenging those facts." (Neil Cavuto)

Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence. (Murphy's law)

Yeah rusty that would of been a better way to do it or wait another week for the lower branches to grow a little, I was too hasty i know, should of done better research. Just wasn't something i'd thought was important. I'll know better next time.

I do have 2 grow areas, the one they're in now is actually the flower area but i'm using it to veg as it's a bigger than the veg area and has a 250 hps in it, the veg room is tiny, about 2'x1' and only about 2.5 feet high with 125 w enviro, I was thinking i could keep one in there and have two veg rooms and when i flower the four in the flower room as soon as i get a male replace it with the one still vegging, but 3 more weeks till i can start flowering then 1-2 weeks till i find out if i got a male, they're already 5 weeks old, i'm pretty sure my tiny veg room coulnd't handle a plant thats been vegged for 10 weeks lol

So the questions flower in a week or throw one and risk having one fewer females in the flower room.............................

Ok so lets look at is mathmatically, outta the 5 plants i have lets assume 3 will be females, 2 males, but the one i've thrown is a female so i've only got two females in the flower room. Right, so lets say assuming i have a successful grow I get 2 oz per plant, so 4 oz total from the 2 plants.

If I do things the other way and flower in a week instead of waiting for three i get to keep 3 females. So what would i lose in yield? I can afford a 30% decrease in each plants yield and still end up with more total nugs from the extra one plant.

Obviously if you change the assumptions that I'll get 4 females the loss of yield will be less than 30% for it to be profitable if you like. But 3 sounds like a reasonable average number to use. The only thing that i've no idea on is the % of yield lost. What do you think? What percentage of yield would you guesstimate i would lose if i only veg one week?

Oh and also i'd be gambling on if i throw a male or a female, so that would come into the equation also.

Thanks guys

Nobody willing to take a stab at the % of yield loss if I flower a week early?

Nope! How long is a piece of string? Some strains respond better to short veg time than others. I'd flower my favorite Afghani with a shorter veg time than, say, the sourbubble- you just have to know your stock and get used to how each strain reacts when flipped at n weeks after rooting.

__________________
"Careful what you carry- 'cause the Man is wise- you are still an outlaw in their eyes" -Steely Dan
"Multiple pieces of anecdotal evidence do not equal scientific fact." -Rhizome
"I'm a writer, a poet; a genius, I know it. I don't buy cheeba; I grow it." -Beasties
"If yer gonna be a bear, be a GRRRIZZLY!"-Rick Aviles, Cannonball Run
"If the Queen Bee ain't happy... the hive isn't happy!"-Dutch Pimp
http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-gro...e-harvest.html<-It's a grow guide! Enjoy!
Contacting Her Dankness: stinkyattic at hushm4il-please use the same discretion you do on the boards, thanks.
I don't claim to know the first thing about growing anything; hell, I can't make a Chia pet sprout.

Ok well in the absence of any guesstimates i'll have to use my best judgement and put a figure of 10-15% loss of yield for the week difference. So flowering early is a profitable move before i take into account the additional time saved which will probably get me near another Oz also or another 12.5%