Backbuilding aka Bud Pinching.

i've accidentally done it when i had some infection to cut off. One time it had a fairly profound effect on teh bud sites below. I can't say for certain it grew more than it would have, but it certain came close to matching what would have grown basedon the other colas. Another time, it had little to no effect. Timing is definitely essential, whatever it may be, lol. However, i wouldn't be surprised if genetic variety seed-to-seed is an important factor too. if it's not comparing results to a control group and a large sample of plants in each group, then i wouldn't trust any evidence provided. Can't circumvent the plant's metabolism... If auxins draw more resources to that area, it really just means some other areas are sacrificing resources they would have gotten and used for growth. This most likely re-distributes some growth but doesn't cause more growth overall... inf act cutting some portion off may make it slightly less, too. the point is, if all you look at is the bud you pinched, it's very possible that the benefit is outweighed by what was lost elsewhere in the plant. Your limiting factors are light and carbon. pretty sure the plant already makes efficient use of that energy and 'molecule-building backbone' that is carbon. The plant is still bringing in same amount of carbon as before and same energy as before, it's unlikley it canproduce more... law of conservation of mass as well as the first law of thermodynamics. How can it develop more mass without more carbon and energy? Not saying it is impossible, but there's little research, little evidence, and extrapolating from existing knowledge makes it less than probable. That's why you form a hypothesis and test it against a control group while tightly controlling all other factors. If the scientific method isn't applied, it's trash research / evidence.