# How to get more main colas?



## Blair (Feb 22, 2009)

I have been browsing through some pictures and I have noticed that many plants have more than one big cola.  My plant has only one main cola and the other stems are not putting out as near as much as the main stem.  Is there a way to shorten my plant to let the other stems develop more before I have to flower?  I know its to late now but for future grows.

I am using a 400 watt hps light about 15 inches away from the top of the plant.  Right now since I am flowering the nutrients are 10-15-10 and I started flowering when it was 14" tall.


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## bluealein56 (Feb 22, 2009)

topping, lst, fim.  hold on ill even give ya the link

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9396


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## bluealein56 (Feb 22, 2009)

oh and well i guess you might should just wait till the next grow. you should not do any type of trainning durring the flowering session. to much stress. for now your just stuck with one, unless your ballsy, and in which case you might find yourself with balls all over. wait till next grow bro


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## DirtySouthernAfficionado (Feb 22, 2009)

The main cola gets all big and bad because it is the closest spot to the light. That idea is to get the other growth shoots to the same area your main is. You can top your plants, FIM (which is a form of topping), or tie the top down. The idea of halting the growth on top allows more energy to the lower growth making them take off, thus bringing them closer to the light.


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## NewbieG (Feb 22, 2009)

Hey Blair. Sounds like you have a pretty decent set up. If I was you I would suggest the FIM method. This will give you between 2 to 8 large main colas as suppose to one large cola and several tiny ones. If you really want to concentrate growth simply continue to cut side shoots away from the main 2-8 colas that have formed from your FIMing. This will also make your plant shorter. I assume you don't know how to do this since you ask. All you have to do is just cut about 90% of the top bud off. This removes the "grow tall" hormones and allows the "grow wide" hormones to take over.

If you want a lower number of colas but larger colas:
You simply want to remove the entire top bud, instead of leaving 10% of it like you did with the FIM method. This will give you 2 large tops instead 2-8.

If you  further want to maximize growth concentration, simply remove offshoots and instead of growing bud on those off shoots it will grow bud at the big cola sites at the top. Even if your main cola branches have lower buds that aren't really getting a lot of light cut them off carefully so you leave the fan leaves and the growth will concentrate further up in the main colas. The more lower flower sites you remove down low the more concentrated you get up top. THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD REMOVE HALF OF YOUR PLANTS GROWTH!! You can over do it so please read up on correct procedure of how to do these things. My post was just a little ground work to get you some ground work on terminology and whats going on with the plant. Hope it helps. GL with your grow.

PS. 14 inch tall is way too tall for veg if you have a 400 lol. Remember that thing will between double to tripple in size in flower  haha hope you got 50+ inches of space just in case. Don't worry the same thing happened to me on my first grow with a 400 I ended up with a small 4 foot tree but MG didn't really do so well as a flowering nute... I've learned a little since then... again gl



 If you want a lower number of colas but you want


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## Blair (Feb 22, 2009)

Thanks for all the great help.     I have 8' of verticle space.


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