ok so iv been reading up a lot on pruning and topping plants and all of the sights that i have read make it sound as though when u cut the stem 2 new shoots will grow out from the cut area. from my limited experience when i cut a branch its just the two nodes below the cut, that already exist, take over as the growing tips. i have never seen any new growth coming from the cut area it just dries up. sorry if this is a stupid question im just a little confused about the way it was worded in the discription.
You got it right. As you have seen there is one growing shoot in an untopped plant. When it is pruned the nodes is where the plant will focus its energy. The only new growth I have ever seen from a stem, were roots from air layering (basically a different way to clone).
I dont know some plants are naturally bushy without topping n grow branches plus heads, good trick is side light t encourage. But there is another way of topping called fim where ya just remove half the growing head.
The MJ Growing Bible isn't too clear on this or has much detail, though talks it up so much. States its ok not too, and ok to do so... bit on the fence.
Basically its up to the grower. The weight tends to even out in the end. For example, you can grow 3-4 "bushes", pinched, topped etc.. where they take up the space that 6-8 "christmas tress" would. Weight per watt is going to even out.
