Do I top a Lowryder?

[DakiniKush]

I've got 11 successful grows mostly autos and couple photos. First time with a Lowryder. A friend gifted me a couple beans so there growing great and everything just wondering if I top these guys. I always top my plants but with a 70 day life cycle is it good idea. The blue bucket is a Purple Panty Dropper (photo by Humbolt) and the 2 in white buckets are Lowryder by Dr. Seeds

 

[multiVortex]

Are they growing outside?

If so, unless you are working towards some type of camouflage by changing the shape, I wouldn't bother. Topping in general is an indoor kinda thing to help light get where it needs to be. Outside that isn't a problem.

Now, that being said, I top all my autos, just like my photos. (I grow indoors, just sayin.)

There are caveats to doing so, and typically not recommended for new growers. Since you seem to have some grows under your belt, I'll continue.

First, conditionals for topping: Goal: to top above the 4th node (between nodes 4 & 5)

a) plant must be healthy, and growing strong.

b) plant must be no older than 21 days from sprouting up above "ground". (earlier is fine, just can't be older than 21 days.)


Once topped, also strip off nodes 1 & 2. From there, train all growth in the horizontal plane with LST.

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That's a good thread on topping, and same thing I do to photos and autos.

Now, once you do this, you'll need to keep messing with it every other day. For what? Well training is obvious, but you need to defol/prune a little bit every day or every other day.

Not a ton, but maybe a handful of leaves and the occasional bottom node. (As you spread branches out horizontally, every other node will have one growth tip growing from the top side of the branch, and another growing from the bottom side of the branch. (Then the next will have the growth tips growing out the side, rinse, repeat, etc.)

What the "constant" pruning/defol aims to do (big picture, in a nutshell) is cause the plant to produce more veg hormone and keep it vegging a little longer before enough flower hormone builds up and it moves forward. By pruning and defoling a little bit each day, this triggers the desired response by simulating the plant being grazed on. Therefore it tries to build more leaves, branches, etc to have enough size and try to reproduce.

You can't keep one from flowering indefinitely, but you can add a few weeks to the veg stage by doing so. At some point though, no matter what, it's going to flower. With the above manipulation, if done just enough and often enough, can keep an auto in the veg state for up to about 7 or 8 weeks at best. Sometimes it can be 5 weeks. Just depends on how much and how often you lightly hack on them.

Which really, that's the downside to it. You're giving it more of a change to veg and recover, but you're also defeating the main benefit of autos: speed from seed to chop.

 

[DakiniKush]

Thanks a ton.

 

[GL5033]

LST for lowryder.