Special Queen #1

Leafes lookin good :) Thats totaly normal when they grow. Check the Light with Phototone App and a Piece of Paper, must be about 200-300 ppfd

Also ich Toppe sie genau an der Stelle wo du sie markiert hast, zwischen Tag 14 und 17. wenn der Stamm unten so 4mm breit ist. sieht bei dir soweit gut aus und ich persönlich würde sie jetzt toppen. und in ein paar tagen mit dem LST beginnen. Kannst ja meine Indoor Tagebücher mal ansehen dort siehst du wie ich das mache.

What is the goal for the canopy? You should work backward from whatt you want at the end. Forming a plan with no defined goals doesn't do you any good. If you need to fill a larger space with ech plant, then you may want to top it a bit higher than someone who needs smaller plants to fill their space. 2-4-8-16? 6-12-24? Each time you top, it doubles the number of colas. if you start with 2 or 4 or 6+ should be a matter of reaching your goal with the greatest efficiency. There's more 'stratification' when you start with more branches... more apical dominance to mitigate and even out for lack of an eloquent way to communicate this idea. I prefer my results that started with 4 branches after first topping, but i only top once more for 8 colas. ~3 colas per sq ft is about all you need to maximize yield and not overcrowd canopy. some genetics may need more if it's the type that produces smaller than average buds.

No, in the end, there is only the underlying mechanism that performs gas exchange and photosynthesis, opinions or personal touch are irrelevant as it doesn't change the mechanics of it, gas exchange happens prior to photosynthesis, taking off top two biggest leaves doing the most work on a plant that only has 4 leaves of any good size, is not of a benefit in anyway shape or form, lateral branching is encouraged by removing the apex and the hormone auxin with it, taking off fan leaves because its what you wanna do is one thing, the very purpose of fan leaves are to collect energy, taking off 50% of a plants photosynthetic mass does not "put more energy into lateral growth", it simply takes away almost 50% of the plants ability to perform gas exchange, thus reducing its DLI capacity, Primary growth metric is set by the plants ability to capture carbon from the air, it might put more growth into the lateral growth, after it recovers from the loss. But loss is still a loss.