Yes I’m a newbie grower and want to know if topping Autoflowers is recommended and if so, when is the best time you recommend doing it and where on the plant? Thank you, I appreciate your suggestions
It’s a personal preference, I find that 80% of autos grow naturally wide so no point in cutting into my flower time by forcing it to split
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I just LST but there’re others on here that have good luck with topping
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Did lst on my first plant and topping on my second. So far I like the topping. It’s seeming so far, topping keeps the plant shorter and more bushy. And lst allows you to spread things out but the height can be a struggle. Check out my grows for more context which have pictures to view
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I just finished growing autos(Gelato, Wedding Cake and Zkittles) from ILGM. I did not top mine nor did I clone any. From my research I decided that with the limited time for Autos I would just do some light training with trellis to spread my plants. I use hydroponic (water and clay balls) along with General Hydroponics nutrients expert feeding schedule.
From my experience using this setup the side branching really takes off and I only need to cut my plants to collect cloning material. Since I decided cloning wasn’t an option I did not top any of my autos.
Yield so far(still harvesting plants) has been for these three plants…
GELATO 120 grams.
ZKITTLES. 119 grams
WEDDING CAKE. 216 grams
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If you’re absolutely insistent on topping, do it sometime between the 3rd and 4th node. Do it when the node is fresh. This is a gamble that might not pay off.
LST works extremely well with Autos. More of a sure thing, here.
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If you are planning on topping autos, I’d do it sooner than later. Gives the plant time to adjust.
This is from earlier this year. The plants had just grown past their fourth node. I topped them at their second node.
The runt on the left never grew much (maybe 1 oz), but I got 4 nice colas from the other (just shy of 4 oz).
These are also my last autos. Never got a nice plant. Even the ones I did nothing to never grew more than a couple of feet.
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Thank you… yes i totally agree. Autoflowers grow much shorter… I like them basically cause of the turn around time but I also grew some photo gems… holy crap they are about 6 feet tall. But I kinda like the Autoflowers. I think I will grow both.
Good Question, Do you old heads ever notice how so many here talk about autoflowers as if its a strain of weed?
Topping any plant is dependent on the strain! White widow auto for example responds well to a single topping around day 21, strains that grow one central main cola are usually not topped, strains that are naturally short are usually not topped.
Research the strain is always good advice. The only bad topping I’ve seen on autos is multiple topping. A single topping is the preferred method.
I top White Widow auto and any that may reach above 4 feet due to height restrictions. Choice is yours but height is one example of a reason to top. Yield is another as my topped widows beat the untopped ones in weight
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Your absolutely right. My bad, each Autoflower strain acts completely different. I’m I definitely a new grower and am growing about 5 different Autoflower strains and each is completely different even 2 plants of the same strain. I have not topped any of my Autos and after reading probably will not plan on it…
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