yeah the LST / topping both reduce stretching, making the nodes denser... as well as opening them up to more light and air so that the bottoms develop better... getting all of the plant evenly under closer light helps a lot too, so they accomplish many of the same goals.
it also has to do a lot with i take a lot of nodes as theyre growing to try to keep my sucker branch / larf / lollipopping to a minimum, not waste all that energy. this plant grew a lot of nodes on each cola that i took because i thought it was just going to grow out into a spindly thing that mostly blocked sun and air while taking too much resources for the bud it was going to make.
my pruning technique is still evolving; these stretched in such a way i didn't have to take rear facing nodes for the top few inches, should help add a bit of bulk.
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