Advice needed now

[JBVT]

Hi Everyone... I am hoping for some expertise from someone with growing experience. This is my second grow - Amnesia Haze. They are on day 45 of vegging and seem to be doing great. I topped them a week ago and now have doubles on the top. I ALSO have a couple of plants that are forming buds where the new double leaves are in that area. My question is... do I top the budded plants again or leave them alone? And should I top the others that have not started budding. Do I need to switch to 12/12 now or wait? My first grow went fine, and I'd like the second one to be successful as well. Ideas, suggestions, and advice is appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Bigjake8]

The only thing I can answer is don't top a budding plant why is it budding is it a auto

 

[JBVT]

Yes, it’s an auto flower.

 

[nickeluring]

Yes, top the others that haven't started to flower yet.
Plants usually doubles and sometimes triples or more in height after the switch to 12/12. You need to decide when to switch so the plants don't outgrow their space. But are they all autos? If so, why switch?

 

[JBVT]

Yes, they are all autos. I’d like to switch to 12/12 just to save some electricity costs. I did that with my first grow, which were also autos. But I don’t want to sacrifice yield.

 

[Cape Of Good Dope]

If you are flowering your autos under a 12/12 light schedule it will without a doubt sacrifice yield.

 

[JBVT]

Thanks. I have a LOT to learn. I also noticed a few small white flies in my tent. Got the Trifecta out and am going to get those girls treated.

 

[Carcass]

Don't let the whiteflies get away from you in there-those miserable little bastards
can be hard to get rid of if they really get going.
I've used a dustbuster to suck up a lot of them,then you've only got about half as many to deal with...

 

[RETRIX]

I have had some success with topping an AutoFlower once, but more times than not it had an adverse effect. If you top it twice, it will stunt the growth and you will lose yield. Autoflowers should always be planted in their final pots and should not be topped. They are racing towards flowering from the start. Most Auto flowers are already starting to flower by the third week. If you top them when they have started flowering, they will slow down and you can't get that time back. You can top photos multiple times because they will continue to veg until you change the light cycle to 12/12. I hope that helps JBVT.

 

[Hdinkleman]

i topped this girl

i trimmed a bunch of fan leaves and lollipopped her too.
first auto i have grown, and its only in a two gallon normal pot lol

oh yeah and i grew it until the last two weeks under only a 75 watt 5000k cob and a fs+uv 20 watt t5

i actually just trimmed off two flowers off yesterday because they were clogging up the middle, i am still learning how much to lollipop i guess lol.

this has been my first start to
finish no problems grow too. i did a bunch of stuff i probably wouldnt of done when i first started, just used common sense lol

so i guess its ok to
top an auto, i topped and cleaned off the bottom couple
nodes too.

oh yeah and i decreased the light cycle to 13/11
i just calculated what i need for ppfd to get a dli close to 40

 

[Cape Of Good Dope]

Nice plant @Hdinkleman

 

[Hdinkleman]

The seed was a crap king free seed from anpurchase i made from them.
i dont think they are a super good seed vendor either, so im thinking if i did all that to one of their plants, it should be fine to top if you got decent seeds.

btw, i topped and cleaned the bottom couple nodes when the plant had 5 nodes. i wanted to top asap so the plant could recover from the stress

 

[Cape Of Good Dope]

i wanted to top asap so the plant could recover from the stress

so if i am to top an auto, best is to do it early as possible?

 

[Hdinkleman]

so if i am to top an auto, best is to do it early as possible?

probably yeah. i did it at 5 nodes when it was still a young buck.
honestly if the plants are older and about to flower i wouldnt really bother. but thats just me.
you want to give the plant more than enough time to recover from the stress. if you top it right before it flowers it will probably stunt its growth due to the plant wasting wnergy to repair itself and change its stem structure from the topping instead of using the energy to prepare for flower.

dont know if what i said is 100% true, but it “makes sense” from a logical perspective to me.
think about this, you wouldnt want to break your arm and then run a marathon a week later after getting out of the hospital

 

[Cape Of Good Dope]

That does make sense thanks man appreciated.

 

[Bud]

With autos u want to transplant at 3-4 nodes and grow to the 5 and top to the 4 node, as soon as U can get the snips in there.

 

[Cheesekop]

I definitely agree with @Cape Of Good Dope swithcing to 12/12 will definitely affect the yield. I believe the more light autos get the more they should produce. Correct me if i am wrong.

 

[Cheesekop]

With autos u want to transplant at 3-4 nodes and grow to the 5 and top to the 4 node, as soon as U can get the snips in there.

Thanks for that advice bro

 

[Hdinkleman]

I definitely agree with @Cape Of Good Dope swithcing to 12/12 will definitely affect the yield. I believe the more light autos get the more they should produce. Correct me if i am wrong.

12/12 with 800ppfd is greater than 18/6 with 100ppfd lol.

the plant absorbs energy from light during the day, it can only absorb a certain amount though. whether you have more light during a shorter time or less light during a longer light cycle it wont make that much of a difference if you can calculate the light amount.

tell me the wattage, distance and hours of lights on and i will post back a rough estimate of ppfd and dli.

anything over 800ish ppfd needs co2 supplementation to not light stress the plant. same thing as 40+ DLI.

its basically just a math problem, all the numbers can be converted to ppfd, dli and par if you know the wattage and distance from the canopy

oh sorry so point was that anything over 40 DLI needs co2 supplementation. whether you get to 40 dli in 12 hours or 18 hours its the same thing.
now this is assuming you dont have co2 though, i could be wrong.
but this is where a good light comes into play.
you cant have the same level of control as a good light with a dimmer as opposed to a blurple. problem with cheap blurples is the lower you go the less the spread, only jave enough power for a single 1x1 or 2x2, and as i have learned from the experienced growers here, which at first i ignored like all noobs, i didnt realize the relationship between space and yield.

 

[JBVT]

I have had some success with topping an AutoFlower once, but more times than not it had an adverse effect. If you top it twice, it will stunt the growth and you will lose yield. Autoflowers should always be planted in their final pots and should not be topped. They are racing towards flowering from the start. Most Auto flowers are already starting to flower by the third week. If you top them when they have started flowering, they will slow down and you can't get that time back. You can top photos multiple times because they will continue to veg until you change the light cycle to 12/12. I hope that helps JBVT.

Thanks for the information Retrix. Yes, it helps!!!