To Top or not to Top?

Are these photoperiods? If so, I think you could top them with ease! And I would encourage you to try!! Your plants are at the perfect time to do some topping so read up about it and go for it!! If they're autoflowers, do not consider it... it will stunt them and may completely destroy their schedule... Good luck!

nah, can be a good time, depending on what you want to accomplish.... try to work backward from what you want at the end to dictate what you do now... how many vertically growing colas do you need/want? i like to top after some axiliary growth begins in earnest... as opposed to a little nub. i see you are outside, so you may not need to use these methods. topping is an effort to make the canopy even for artificial lighting. just 20" deep into canopy is significant loss of light intensity (inverse square law, plus physical obstruction). This doesn't happen outdoors. your lower colas should be beefy, too. not saying spreading it out won't help... or that maybe topping can increase yield, but the percent increase is almost certainly lower than what you reap inside while doing these things. you got 2000ppfd all over that plant, outside, unless it is overly shaded or obstructed in some way. (Check DLI for your region, adjust for any loss of hours of sun and you'll know the amount of photons it is getting per day, roughly. when does your region have longer nights? that's when it'll flip and youll only have 3-4-5 weeks of vege growth after that point, because it's transitioning to flower phase. this is useful to know when it will occur... don't want to be topping anything near end of vege growth, as it won't grow back enough to merit the damage. anything near 10hours of darkness is a potential point where it'll flip to bloom phase. (dark enoug you cannot read or distinguish letters, so deduct 1-1.5hours for twilight from any sunset/sunrise length.)

You can top at any node and as much as you want as long as the plant is still in the veg stage. It also varies of how much room you have when flowering or time you want to wait. The cannabis plant is basically customizable to your grow room and needs. Hope this helps. BTW when flowering begins the plant will stretch roughly double of its size so keep that in mind. Hope this helps