I know this topic has been discussed by everyone and their mother. Some people say it’s ok if you do it right. Others say there isn’t enough time for the plant to recover and the yields will be affected negatively.
Well… I have 12 plants of three different strains growing so I have enough to experiment a little for science.
Both of these plants are the do-si-dos autoflowers. Both are in the same soil and directly under a Viparspectra 1,200w full spectrum LED light. I’m going to top the fastest growing plant as soon as I get 5 nodes on it. I’m going to top it as early as possible so it’s not wasting as much energy creating leaves that’ll be cut off.
I’ve seen studies that show UV light does help with germ rate, but slows the growth down after that. I’ve also seen studies that show that UV light reduces the germ rate. That’s another one of those topics that seems to need more input.
I haven’t had the balls to top an auto thus far. I’ve done a lot of LST. First grow I broke the main stem of one and it grew back together and grew another big stem beside it. Basically accidentally topped it but grew the top too. Best yielder of the bunch. Once I get enough bud stocked up I’ll be experimenting with some HST, including topping.
I’ll be very interested to see how it goes for you. Good luck with your grow.
The wife was looking for something that carried some grape flavors, she found them and I ordered them. When they got here I was like poop they’re autos, not sure if I wanna do them @ 12/12 in my flowering closet, and have no room to put them under the 18/6 lighting. I guess they’ll stay “novelty” seeds for now lmao
Not topping my autos, hoping a little tying will do. But advertised to reach only 30-something inches. That’s the plan, plans change. But if one was known to get >3’ I would consider topping. To me it’s about how much room I got to grow upwards, and how much I can waste before running out of smoke
Following along I have been growing both indoors autos and photo’s, from my understanding the autos don’t really care I have seen all kinds of light schedules posted but Im at 18/6 veg and 12/12 flower, this run I have 2 that didnt care
I top my autos but I was doing it when in solo cups and maybe 2-3 inches tall. This is a seedling auto that came from the bag, 11/20 seedling, moved to flower tent shes starting to flower
So I wanted to top one autoflower as early as I possibly could before it wasted too much energy. The third node was barely coming out and the fourth was already peaking.
I used a lighted magnifier to get as close as I could. I didn’t want to damage the third node leaves in the process so I’m hoping it’s fully topped and not fimmed. Either way, it should be interesting to see what happens
You probably can’t tell from the last picture, but that plant was either topped or fimmed on the fourth node as it was only about 1/4”. I’m hoping that doing it this early will give it the needed time to recover. I have another that I’m leaving alone, other than LST.
The picture with my finger in it is the Do Si Dos autoflower that I topped. It just recently started growing again after a little slowdown from the topping.
The second picture is the un-topped do si dos autoflower. It’s at almost the exact place the other one was topped at. They’re both almost exactly at the same spot in the grow cycle, but the topped one is about to be growing two main stems versus the other’s one stem.
