Can i top an autoflower

Is it advisable to top, fim, supercrop, etc. Should I just expect them to flower after a set number of days? I just do not want to top or something if they are going to flower immediately after and ruin the top bud growth. Any advice appreciated on WW autoflowering plants. Lst could be a better option for training it for a better yeild.

Majiktoker, sent this to me I hope this helps in some way. Thus you can stimulate a 2 week old cutting to begin flowering by giving it 12 hours of darkness, yet a 4 month old plant grown outside will remain in vegetative growth until mid-summer has passed.

Autoflowers are a different breed altogether quite literally! This development has been obtained by crossing a ruderelis strain with a standard photo period plant.

Unfortunately ruderelis is fairly weak in the desired thc levels so the first autoflower strain developers had to stabilise two dominant traits: the high thc level provided by the photo-period parent and the all important auto gene from the ruderelis strain. As you can expect, early attempts were generally disappointing, and as little as four years ago autos were viewed as unreliable with poor yields and low thc levels.

Most sensible growers put them down as gimmicks for newbies. Today if you see an autoflower seed for sale you can be reasonably assured that its THC content will be as advertised, and its auto gene stabilised. Now this is the big question. Most breeders claim weeks, with some even boasting seed to harvest in less. The main central bloom is replaced by a fast growing, bushy canopy of side blooms. For growers with restricted vertical space, topping is a good way to control vertical growth.

This is especially relevant when growing e. However, for those less keen to use high stress techniques such as topping, use of a SCROG screen or low stress techniques such as tying down branches with cord could also work very well.

Topping is a high stress technique which can deliver good results especially when growing photo dependent feminised strains. Plants can be topped several times over a long vegetative growth period e.

The result can be seriously heavy yields. But autoflowers often simply lack a sufficiently long life cycle to be able to take full advantage of yield increases that may be presented by topping. The best autoflower strains for topping tend to be those with the longer average grow cycles. These strains often have sativa leaning phenotypes that may take 12 weeks, or perhaps longer, to complete their life cycle.

The extra couple of weeks beyond the average 75 day auto life cycle can allow the auto plants the chance to recover from topping and deliver a good harvest. Conversely, those autoflower strains with the faster life cycles would have the least available time to accommodate recovery from topping. Such fast flowering autoflowers would be least recommended for topping. That said, the following auto strains can take from weeks of indoor growth under 20 hours of daily light to grow from autoflower seed to harvest.

With a typical seed to harvest time of weeks, Auto Ultimate is a true XXL yielder that can fill a grow room on her own in optimised conditions.

These exceptional best-selling autoflower seeds are part of the Dutch Passion Classic cannabis seed collection , home to some of the best ever Dutch Passion strains! Auto Glueberry OG is a cannabis cup winning autoflower seed variety that can take 12 weeks or more to grow from seed to harvest.

This makes her better equipped to deal with the stress of topping than some autos. Watch out for the insane resin levels and outrageous XL yields! Auto Lemon Kix can take around 12 weeks to grow from autoflower seed to harvest. Part of the USA Special cannabis seed collection — expect heavy yields and loud flavours!

One of the difficulties is knowing when is the perfect moment to top autoflowers. Typically, growers would not want to remove the growing tip until nodes have already formed. That could take around a month of growth after germination. If the growing tip is removed too soon, the immature plant and root system is shocked and subsequent growth is permanently stunted. If the growing tip is removed too late the autoflower plant could already be in early bloom and subsequent plant development could be adversely disrupted.

One of the dangers of topping autoflower plants is that the grower misses out on the main central bloom. So any grower considering topping their autoflower plants needs to understand the genuine risks involved. When growing autoflowers in a SOG-style grow topping is never recommended either, since in a SOG grow the main bloom often accounts for a large part of harvest.

Topping an autoflower is a higher risk growth strategy which the majority of growers tend to avoid. Weeks 1 - 3. The first set of leaves to appear will usually single fingered, followed by a second set that may still be single fingered or perhaps 3 fingered. Once that second set appears growth will start to accelerate as the new leaves provide more photosynthesis. This process will continue, more new leaves, faster growth. Depending on the type of soil in use, mild vegetative nutes can be introduced at week 2.

By week 3 most plants will start to show their sex. Males will start to produce pollen sacks and females will display pistils. Weeks 4 - 6. The plants are now entering a pre flowering stage. During this time the plants should exhibit explosive growth, often as much as a new set of nodes and 1" vertical growth a day. This is the time when they will gain most of their vertical height.

Many people make the mistake of switching from vegetative to flowering nutrients at this point, assuming that since they see flowers it must be the proper time.

This is incorrect. If you need to keep your plants small, or want them to finish earlier, they by all means switch nutes at this point. But if you want to get the most out of your plants continue feeding vegetative nutes until you see the vertical growth slow and stop.

Depending on the strain that will usually be sometime during week 5 or 6. Weeks 7 - 9. By now vertical growth has stopped and the switch to flowering nutrients has been made. The buds will start to fill out and put on weight, becoming hard and tight.