This baby is 20 days old and growing like a true weed, coco and perlite, 20 hours light cycle, OG kush auto. The fan leaves are huge and new growth with lots of branching.
Should I top it? Should I trim the fan leaves? I have read the fan leaves produce sugars and should leave then next thing says trim. Help!
This is my first grow.
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Personally id let her go. With autos you never know when they are going to start to flower. If you top now, she might not have to recover till preflower. I would just keep on keeping on since this is your first grow and once you get a few under your belt, youll be more comfortable with topping and lst.
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You could just do LST, keep trying down the main stem to get more light to your side branches, then tie down the side branches as they grow taller.
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Okay that’s easy! It’s a surprise every morning how much they grow, very short but sturdy
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LST? Don’t understand, sorry
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Low Stress Training.
LST= Low Stress Training. Here are a few examples of some I did in my garden last summer. You basically drape a string over the top portion of a branch and slightly pull it down. This will widen the overall plant and also allow more light to penetrate the inner workings.
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Fill the pot next time. With the soil so low, it makes training and pruning much more difficult. Plus, you are only using 1/2 of its capacity. If a plant wants to grow, this may limit it.
Fast growing means it likes its conditions. Temp, moisture and light.
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Thanks for the info and pics, I’ll give it a try. I have soil leftover, thought they would get leggy, like my first attempt so didn’ t fill all the way. Learning.
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What’s your space like? Headroom issues? Wait and see. She’s looking Indica so should be shorter. If she doesn’t stretch she’ll be fine. After preflower if you need to top it just depends on how much room you have and what you do to train it.
I’ve got a monster going now that wanted to be tall. I clipped 18" off and then used tomato clips to bend the upper branches to the lower branches.
It was just enough. Happy growing.
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Congrats on your first grow! 
It’s hard to tell from the pic, but water the entire pot/bag, if you haven’t yet, encourage the roots to grow.
I top my autos (above the 4th node/at the 5th node), I didn’t top my first few plants. Decent LST/training is also good, if not better, for autos, is the common wisdom. But whatever you are comfortable with! 
She looks healthy, great job!
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Go to YouTube and search on LST or Low Stress Training. Lots of great videos that will explain it and show you in detail how.
I highly suggest you learn this technique. You can do it!!
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Height is no issue, using a walk-in closet I have lined with mylar for reflection and have made a “tent” top that can be raised if needed. They really seem to benefit by closing it off , turning off fans and set off a co2 bomb, the leaves have gotten really big since I started. I leave it a couple of hours remove the front and start the fans again. Also lucky it stays a constant 78 degrees and humidity remains constant too.
My first grow was a disaster, couldn’t get past 5 leaf. Coco is so much easier and better lights made the difference. Thank you for your answers 'cause taking scissors to them is scary!
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I have trimmed bottom leaves almost daily and bent and tucked branches daily, seems like I have done nothing the next day. I’m at day 35, just started tiger bloom as per week 5 schedule, I see pistils forming mostly towards the bottom.
Should I do more aggressive trimming of lower branches so they can get more light?
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Trimming daily rather than all at once keeps the stress down on you and the plants. But yeah you trim for air circulation and lighting obstruction. You’ve got some bushy girls there. They do need some thinning.
Checking my nutrient schedule fox farms think i should used more big bloom, at 5 weeks i started with tiger bloom so maybe that’s why i’m not seeing more pistils. They seem to start then dry up.
Just arrived, better scissors! Going to start again on large fan leaves on the bottom, i have noticed what appear to be flowers starting where i trimmed.
I dropped the grow big the last couple of feeding, only tiger bloom, big bloom and cal-mag, maybe that will give them a kick.
What do you think?
Been trimming this every few day