How late can you top an auto?

Seawood

Seawood

Well-Known Member
So I topped a couple of my autos 2 days ago. Seeds were cracked May 10th. From what I’ve read, I may have waited too long. I noticed they are starting to show signs of pre flower today. Will the plants I topped be ok? First go with autos and figured they’d go through a stretch prior to flower so I’d be ok...second guessing now. Lol
 

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Seawood said:
So I topped a couple of my autos 2 days ago. Seeds were cracked May 10th. From what I’ve read, I may have waited too long. I noticed they are starting to show signs of pre flower today. Will the plants I topped be ok? First go with autos and figured they’d go through a stretch prior to flower so I’d be ok...second guessing now. Lol
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So thats 37-38 days in and probably shouldn't have. Plants usually need 7-10 days to re over FULLY and you want that done before signs of flowers. When i top mine i like to do it at day 21 above the 5th node if the plant grew healthy enough. Most plants flower at 35 the latest. 21 days plus 7 to 10 to recover before flower starts.
 
I had read somewhere in an article that if you have an auto that is a robust grower and you have at least 4 sets of true leaves buy the 14th day from seed, as a rule of thumb, you can safely top it. If it isn’t showing these characteristics then don’t top it.
 
Obepawn said:
I had read somewhere in an article that if you have an auto that is a robust grower and you have at least 4 sets of true leaves buy the 14th day from seed, as a rule of thumb, you can safely top it. If it isn’t showing these characteristics then don’t top it.
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I top or fim mine between day 12 and day 19 at the 4th node. I also remove the first node at the same time. This will leave you 6 or 7 tops depending on if you top or fim. You can look at the links of my grow journal in the bottom of my posts to see if you like the structure. I have one thats a top, and one thats a fim posted. I would adjust strategy of the # of tops depending on my light.
 
Ok thanks for the replies. I just micro-topped them and didn’t remove much material so hopefully I didn’t mess them up too bad. You can see in the pic the two new top shoots growing out. None of the 5 autos were branching out at all so that’s why I decided to top a couple. All part of the learning process.
 

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Zogs said:
I top or fim mine between day 12 and day 19 at the 4th node. I also remove the first node at the same time. This will leave you 6 or 7 tops depending on if you top or fim. You can look at the links of my grow journal in the bottom of my posts to see if you like the structure. I have one thats a top, and one thats a fim posted. I would adjust strategy of the # of tops depending on my light.
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Impressive. Do you always top or fim your autos?
 
Seawood said:
Ok thanks for the replies. I just micro-topped them and didn’t remove much material so hopefully I didn’t mess them up too bad. You can see in the pic the two new top shoots growing out. None of the 5 autos were branching out at all so that’s why I decided to top a couple. All part of the learning process.
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Micro topped? Do you mean FIM?
 
Obepawn said:
Impressive. Do you always top or fim your autos?
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I started with LST, but realized that simply toping/fim got me the same result of an even canopy with much less effort. I noticed, especially with fim'ing it seems to put the lower branches into over drive.

Every ones situation is a little bit different, but for me growing with only 54watts per plant it seems like 6 or 7 tops with an open structure has so far has produced the best results. I am consistently hitting that 1.5 to 2 grams + per watt or 3-4 ounces per auto flower.
 
Zogs said:
I started with LST, but realized that simply toping/fim got me the same result of an even canopy with much less effort. I noticed, especially with fim'ing it seems to put the lower branches into over drive.

Every ones situation is a little bit different, but for me growing with only 54watts per plant it seems like 6 or 7 tops with an open structure has so far has produced the best results. I am consistently hitting that 1.5 to 2 grams + per watt or 3-4 ounces per auto flower.
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What size pot you grow in? Coco?
 
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