I told a friend of mine (about stalk piercing) who has a lot more experience growing than I do and all he did was laugh and said "ya go ahead cut your your stalks and stress the shit out of your plants..let me know how it goes..bwuahahaha" made me feel like a fool for even suggesting something like that. The only time I deprive it of water is the last few days before they get cut, that's just so there isn't an abundance of water available because then it will take longer to dry..really though, at the end..(last 2 weeks), they don't use as much water anyway.!
As far as super-cropping..that is one of least stressful ways to get a plant bushy without slowing down growth, by moving the top out of the way, its allows so much more light penetration to the lower side braches and main stem shoots..those shots along the main stem actually stand straight up and you get a nice row of fat buds along the main stem. ..the bulge on the stem is the plant repairing itself and making that branch stronger, it's really not that stressed, it send energy to that spot, but it continues to grow..once u hack to top of the plant off...it STOPS growth entirely for up to 2 weeks. I use super-cropping exclusively now, no more topping for me thx!