First time grower respectfully in need of assistance

i thought the same as well, until i saw tht myself. if that would be a human, cutting his head would be quite painful. this is a plant, you cut the top, roots are pushing elements to 'other' heads. sometimes plant stresses for 2-3 days, but when u sacrifice those days to get for evenly growing colas, id say its worth it. also since indoors ur not moving lamp around the plant, u achieve more if u have all the tops as close to the lamp, not like single cola case, where u have more like a christmas tree..

KangarooBunny said:

Growing nice, OP.

simisimis, isn't it painful to cut half your plant off? lol a little part of me would die.

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This might be me. I am already hesitant with the idea, lol.

i feel ya bro, this was my first top as well. but check psi-grow pics from my sig, how the plant reacted and how it looks now

I might have to give it a go next grow. I've been using a non-invasive method that achieves a similar result.

A little later than if I was topping, I just double over the new growth shoot on the main stem and tie it to itself using a pipe cleaner. If it ever breaks when I'm doing this then hey, I just topped. It hasn't yet but I expect it to one day. I don't know the scientific explanation of what it does, but it stops the main cola from growing and allows the side branches to develop and grow a little higher than the main. That's when I take off the tie, but by that time it's grown out two side shoots where it bent over that have usually caught up to the side branches.

Same thing really. We're just trying to obtain an even canopy.

Morning Update:

I'm not sure if the Pineapple Express Auto is alright, it seems like it's branching or something, only growing one side.

Pineapple Express Auto

Northern Lights

Unknown

it's cool man. Once my plant while growing topped itself lol. Sometimes happens some gene mutation.

it's good that this mutation happened when I had already two 1-leaflet fan leaves, so I got side branches.

if that would happen to you as well you would not need to top your plant and still get 4 main colas

simisimis said:

it's cool man. Once my plant while growing topped itself lol. Sometimes happens some gene mutation.
View attachment 2697436View attachment 2697435
it's good that this mutation happened when I had already two 1-leaflet fan leaves, so I got side branches.

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Your stuff looks amazing man. I think I will try your setup when I am more versed in growing, bending the branches and meticulously maneuvering it around a pot is so nerve racking to me!!!

The problem is that I had only like 2.5 feet of vertical space so I was forced to train plants, when I got HPS that even decreased to 2' and a bit. if I'd have like 3, id go with topping for 4 colas and lsting a bit sideways. Do not wait, I did two grows and on a third one it still looked so dangerous and difficult and after I finally did it I was like - that's it? It was like Immunizations - jab and pain was gone.. Training is also quite easy to achieve, but if you have vertical space I would not bother, cause sometimes when I wanted to LST plant and it did not let me do this, I was stressing her constantly out.. the easiest way is to top and spread side branches evenly a bit to the sides

simisimis said:

The problem is that I had only like 2.5 feet of vertical space so I was forced to train plants, when I got HPS that even decreased to 2' and a bit. if I'd have like 3, id go with topping for 4 colas and lsting a bit sideways. Do not wait, I did two grows and on a third one it still looked so dangerous and difficult and after I finally did it I was like - that's it? It was like Immunizations - jab and pain was gone.. Training is also quite easy to achieve, but if you have vertical space I would not bother, cause sometimes when I wanted to LST plant and it did not let me do this, I was stressing her constantly out.. the easiest way is to top and spread side branches evenly a bit to the sides

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Oooohhh, sounds awesome. I do have 5 feet of vertical space though... Should be fine right?

I tried the "around the pot" LST style with my first plant ever. Wasn't thinking at the time because it was an autoflower. lol...barely even got to the edge of the pot and she went into flower. I had a terrible time trying to get ventilation underneath there throughout the rest of the grow and had to leave a lot of underdeveloped buds near the base to continue growing after I harvested. Still got an oz off her though

waynebebay said:

Oooohhh, sounds awesome. I do have 5 feet of vertical space though... Should be fine right?

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5' vertical space is more than enough man. Im telling you, if I had your space, I'd top it for four colas and spread them a bit sideways, in that way you can make some very beautiful 4 colas, instead of one a bit bigger one and a lot undeveloped lower ones..

KangarooBunny said:

I tried the "around the pot" LST style with my first plant ever. Wasn't thinking at the time because it was an autoflower. lol...barely even got to the edge of the pot and she went into flower. I had a terrible time trying to get ventilation underneath there throughout the rest of the grow and had to leave a lot of underdeveloped buds near the base to continue growing after I harvested. Still got an oz off her though

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yeah I feel ya bro, on my first grow I topped the plant LOL. and LOL because
1. it was auto
2. it was 4 weeks into flower.
I just cut the there where I had to have main cola.. I ended up in yielding 1g... it's so funny when I think about mistakes I did back then lol..

I would not do anything with auto, those strains have their limited days and the only thing you have to do is keep them from stress. With normal strains, you do whatever maintenance you like, give them some time to recover and gain some weight and you just flip them to flower get a chair, some beer and chips and enjoy the beauty of growing and bud building procedure.. going round the pot I guess is possible only with tall and lanky sativas cause they stretch, indicas or hybrids usually have those fat stems and shorter nodes and the only thing you can do properly with them is top..

I agree about just leaving autos alone. That's my strategy now with them. I might pull some branches away from the main slightly if they're not getting enough light below, but other than that they just like to be left alone. Lesson learned!

lol... check her out though. Dinafem WW auto. It was like a recipe for mold:

pull you mean train or trim? I see a lot of people trimming lower branches to increase top colas, but I prefer training bottom part so they could get some light and do a double 2part harvest. I cut bigger colas and let lower buds to pack up for a week or two(if you have still managed to save lower fan leaves). Then lower buds gets all of the light and because top is harvested, auxins gets redistributed to those fluffy buds and they pack up.

Pull as in train, yeah. I use pipe cleaners and just lightly pull the branch away from the main. Helps with circulation as well.

I too have heard of people removing lower popcorn buds to increase larger buds with autos. I might try it this grow. I've got two La Diva (blueberry x el diavolo) that are autos going. I've grown it before so I have a comparison. Might leave one alone as usual and remove small buds on the other to see if it makes a considerable difference.

I can't wait to see my first top forming! Glad to know 5 feet is enough clearance.

So OP your plan is to stay 18/6 until you harvest the auto? Your photos will be monsters

What breeder is the auto, BTW? I've got three NL auto seeds from Royal Queen seeds. That'd be cool if I could watch one before I grow them.

KangarooBunny said:

So OP your plan is to stay 18/6 until you harvest the auto? Your photos will be monsters

What breeder is the auto, BTW? I've got three NL auto seeds from Royal Queen seeds. That'd be cool if I could watch one before I grow them.

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Right now, I am on a full 24/0 schedule. I will have to move the northern lights when the pineapple and unknown start their light schedules of 12/12 because the northern lights will be behind at that point. The Pineapple is catching up quick.

The northern lights came for free when I purchased the pineapple express auto seeds from attitude.

Morning Update:

To my surprise I got a whiff of bud when I opened the grow tent today. I thought it was from when my girl and I smoke around the tent last night but it's the Unknown plant. She is pushing out these bud fumes in a 3 inch radius of her. It's nice!

Unknown

Pineapple Express Auto

Northern Lights

beauties man, pretty soon theyll start shooting new growth out of everywhere and ull be running around them like crazy. so what u decided about topping? also note that since plant have a decent root system, to grow back what u cut down it should take less than a week