@IllinoisMedicalGrower… I’ve tried LST and had better luck without it. I usually use a long wooden stick and tie my plant to it and a net… I keep it simple because I only have 2 tents in a spare room and have little space now. I put one plant in the big tent so it can grow really big, needs space, don’t crowd your plants. I grow that one to harvest while the other tent grows the 2nd plant. I always have 3 plants and keep moving right into the big tent when they’re ready. After this plant is harvested, I’ll have 2 plants one in each tent. I fim my plants twice before they go into permanent 5 gal pots, I give nutes twice week, check ph frequently & don’t overwater. That’s all I do… and so far I’m growing great bud! This next plant has smaller buds (kush) the last one was amnesia haze and so big & fat, love! My next 2 girls are amnesia haze. I’m going to order more & something new, something purple. 
I sure did!
@IllinoisMedicalGrower if the goal is to breed/isolate the best phenotype of a strain, culling females is standard practice.
@dbrn32 I think I agree with your plan of action. But I did leave one small but important detail out. My 2x4 tent is very short as it is used for veg normally. I can always swap it for a taller one I have but I use a table under the tent and under the table I use for storage.
I am pretty close to you. I think I once read where you are and I believe I am about 45 min or so away. Sorry for the delayed response I ran out of posts for the day.
If all 9 make it with no trouble that is my plan. Put 6 in the 4x4 and 3 in the 2x4.
The purple colors you see in my profile picture are from my last grow. I believe that is an ILGM banana kush. I took the picture right before I left town for a business trip. I was only gone for 4 days but unfortunately it was synced up perfectly with central AC going out. My portable AC could not keep up with the high temps and it got up to 111 degrees in the tent which forced them to use all the water to quickly and eventually killed them all 
. I was planning to take some time off growing until Jan when the law that was passed making it finally legal. But with the poor quality and quantity I am forced to make another go at it to keep my wife in supply of her meds.
Sounds like a good plan. You will have a tent full . Good luck with your grow
That’s not really a problem. You can veg them in something like 1-2 gallon pots, 9 should fit. Then Transplant to something a little bigger when you move them to 4x4. I would maybe leave them on 18 hour light schedule for few days after transplant, then flip them.
For whatever reason, you seem to be caught up on training and topping. That’s fine if you really want to do that. I’m just offering up a way to run all of your plants should they remain healthy. A full canopy is a full canopy. By that I mean flowering your 4x4 with 4 trained or topped plants probably won’t yield anymore than 9 plants grown naturally. You’ll yield more per plant that way, but you’ll also have less plants. Plus you’ll have a longer overall grow time vegging less plants out to fill the space.
At the end of the day, I really don’t care what you decide to do. But since you decided to already drop 9 seeds, seems like it makes the most sense to at least try running them. If things get a little hairy later, you can always pull the plug on however many you need to. But you would also kinda have a cushion if you accidentally lost a plant or two. I’m kinda stingy when it comes to stuff like that lol.
@IllinoisMedicalGrower… wow, that’s too bad! I’ve never lost a plant, glad I’m not traveling right now. The only traveling I’m doing is driving to and from the hospital for my husband right now! 
I’m happy to stay home, where it’s safe, growing my weed! 
Continuing the discussion from Long time reader, First time poster:
After a 24 hour soak and 36 hours in a wet paper towel folded inside a open ziplock bag kept on top of my warm refrigerator. 8 of 9 seeds had a good sprout. The 9th had cracked but the tale had not come out yet. So it is time to get these auto flowers in their forever home.
.Since I have not really seen anyone on here do this exactly like me I figured I’d upload my process. First I fill my 3 gallon smart pot within a couple inches of the top. I amend my Nectar For The Gods #4 “soil” with One Shot.
And mix it in.
I then fill a solo cup with non amended “soil” and place it in a hole i dig out in the center of the amended “soil”
I then pull the cup out and fill the hole back in with the non amended “soil”
Plant my sprout with the tap root facing down, Lightly cover with “soil”, and add just a couple ounces of water.
And finally tuck them all into my cozy 4x4 tent.
Lucky you. I’d love to stay at home more. But then my wife has been hospital free lately so I guess I should not complain. This is actually twice now I have lost plants while out of town. The last time my water pump failed. It is very depressing.
Thank you for the advice. It is all really solid for photos but I think you may have missed that the 9 seeds are autoflowers? Or do you transplant to different pots and flip the lights on your autos? That is why I was somewhat fixated on training vs topping. It’s my first auto run. I guess I am a little nervous to be doing things a little different.
I missed that indeed. I’ve grown 1 autoflower plant and didn’t like it, gave the rest of the seeds away.
People here successfully transplant them, but does seem to be more susceptible to transplant shock stunting them and starting to flower small.
Well I sure hope I have better results than that lol. I was never excited to grow autos. But I watched a video of a guy talking about how great they are. 2 minutes later I decided to pick up the auto mixpack 2.0. I can be so gullible.
There are situations where running autos make sense, none of them apply to me lol.
@IllinoisMedicalGrower… that’s horrible! I have a very simple set up now with 2 tents in a spare room, windows, lots of fans, sometimes AC if real hot, and a water air cooler to keep it moist & cool. I have an 8 ft tent in garage but it’s very moist & too hard for me to maintain both areas, too much with everything else going on. Husband going in hospital on 17th for pacemaker & lots of tests that are scary, need my weed… plus brother in law has cancer & just went through a complete bone marrow transplant, amazing procedure. Anyway I keep it simple & hope I can keep growing great bud. Waiting for legalization in New York will be eternity! Haven’t had time to order seeds yet but gonna get more amnesia haze autos & something purple, critical purple is the name, I think.
@IllinoisMedicalGrower… here’s a pic I took today, Kush auto. My girl is almost ready. Hard to see all the amber but buds are looking good, not as big as my last amnesia haze auto but I’ll keep her! Here’s a pic…
@IllinoisMedicalGrower… just read what you’re procedure is above and it’s a lot more complicated than what I do. I drop my seeds in water & date them when I do. I then take a small seedling cardboard pot, make a hole size of pencil & plant my seed, water accordingly until sprouts, after seedling is big enough I transplant to red solo cup where they grow until I transplant into permanent 5 gal pots. I use Fox Farm ocean forest soil, & Fox Farm trio nutrients. Everyone has their own method, mine is very simple. My plants seem to thrive doing this so far… 
I think it is awesome that you are able to transplant your autos. Everything I have read advised against it. the reason I used my method is because I like to use a hot soil but I did not want to transplant them so I made a cold soil interior to cushion the seedling from the nutrients.
Sorry for the gap in posts but at this stage in their lives no news is really good news. I gave a friend in need 2 of my OG Kush plants . But otherwise I think they are doing pretty good. I see some tacoing in a couple seedlings so I am going to turn my HLG light back down some but I have otherwise got them under full strength lights.
My node spacing seems to be pretty tight thus far.
Please if you see something I do not feel free to let me know. I have a little experience, but I am still learning. Especially when it comes to AUTOS…