Hi @Brazyy, how are you? This morning I had one of my Strawberry Banana autoflowers up for a training and topping session, so I went ahead and put together a training demo photographic series for you. My hope is that this will better explain what I was attempting to convey yesterday. I hope you don't mind, but when I saw you tying leaves down yesterday I realized I had not explained myself very well and if I wanted to assist you I better do a better job. Lol. So here we go, along with some real basic info that may help.
The idea is this: if you do nothing to the plant but let it grow, it will always make the same plant. One big cola up the middle and whatever side branching you happen to get. All well and good, but we want more yield than that. How do we get more yield? By creating more buds!! And this is WAY easier than people realize.
I am using a training method for my autos that I have been developing over the course of my four grows (my third and fourth grow are my current two journals not counting the used soil picture only journal). There are MANY ways to skin this cat, so understand I am by no means saying my way is the best or the only way. But it is a good way to do it because it is painfully easy, relatively non-work-intensive, dependable, and is guaranteed to increase your bud sites.
The thing with training autos, no matter what you do, is that the timing is very important if you want your training to be effective. The training window opens and closes very quickly. You figure you can't begin to top or train until the plant gives you enough plant to actually do something to. That's means it has to have grown at least three nodes of leaves or so before you can start. Ok, you're already up to like day 14-18 or so, depending on the strain, and hopefully earlier. The plants will begin to bud somewhere around Day 28-35 or so, again depending on the strain. So do the math. The training window is between 2 and 3 weeks long, 4 if you're real lucky, and that's because once the plants show you buds you are done training other than maybe spreading out your branches to get separation.
So you need to start your training as early as possible, and stay on top of it strongly for the duration of the training window.
My basic concept is the same one everyone uses in one form or another - by pulling that which is vertical down to make it horizontal, the growth on that now horizontal stem becomes new stems that grow up vertically. In other words, that growth becomes new buds. So the very first thing I do is top the plant and get it to be as horizontal as possible. That means I have to tie the top over and down and attempt a 90 degree bend of the main stem. This is tricky. The plant is young when you do this, and it's roots are not yet very well developed. Therefore it is not as firmly anchored by it's roots as it will be in a few weeks. So to pull the cola top over 90 degrees could and likely would pull the stem right out of the ground. Obviously you can't have that. So what do we do? We anchor the stem first. Then we pull down the cola top in the direction exactly opposite our stem anchor, so that when we bend it over the anchor bolt holds the stem in place from coming out of the ground.
That's what I am attempting to display in this photo series. So here's the pictures, and they go in order, step by step:
- Step One: top the plant. I topped between nodes 3 and 4 on this one, as I did it as soon as the emerging 4th node was out enough to give me enough to cut it off. That creates two tops at the cut point instead of the one cola. So by topping you just made 1 bud into 2.
- Step Two: place your anchor bolt in the ground firmly, before you hook it to the stem. This is just a piece of cut bamboo with a twist tie wrapped around the end and duct taped firmly to the bamboo so it won't come off. The tie is in position to meet the plant.
- Step Three: wrap the end of the twist tie firmly around the stem of the plant where you are attempting the bend. Push your anchor into the dirt until the twist tie is tight and there you go, you created back support to work against the pressure of the direction you will bend the cola down. It's very important to make sure the end is FIRMLY wrapped as this is your main support.
- Step Four: make your anchor for the pull down of the cola. This is a small wooden thing I found in the BBQ section of the grocery store. You simply wrap a twist tie around these and since they have a head there's no need for tape. They are little though, so you only use them in the beginning.
- Step Five: make a little, tight hook on the end where you will grab the top of the plant to pull it over.
- Step Six: Attach this hooked end to the stem as close to the top as there is a firm stem to attach it to and secure it by wrapping it around the stem or having a longish loop so it stays and pull the plant over as you push it into the ground. You must do this exactly opposite the direction of the first anchor bolt. You are pulling it down against that support. If you get it early, the stem should be flexible enough to bend 90 degrees, but BE CAREFUL and don't snap your branch. If you can't quite get to flat horizontal, do the best the plant will allow you to go.
- That leaves you this. A stem growing up that is supported well at a bend point of close to 90 degrees.
- Here you see a closeup of the new growth you have now allowed to begin to grow up into a stem with a bud on the end. You have already made SIX main buds now. You can count them in this picture: the main cola bent over is one, then there are five new growth points that will all grow up and become their own bud!!!
As these new growth spots grow out and begin to have length of their own, all I do is repeat the process of then training each of them as flat as possible, and as evenly spread out as possible, so that any new nodal growth that develops on those stems will ALSO grow up and become new buds.
Check out the two autos in my current journal if you want to see the results of this type of training. There's a small but gorgeous Sour Apple almost done and a huge (40 inches tall!) Chunkadelic that has an insane amount of huge buds. Both of these will destroy the yield of doing nothing to the plant.
So here's the photos in order. I hope this helps!!!
The idea is this: if you do nothing to the plant but let it grow, it will always make the same plant. One big cola up the middle and whatever side branching you happen to get. All well and good, but we want more yield than that. How do we get more yield? By creating more buds!! And this is WAY easier than people realize.
I am using a training method for my autos that I have been developing over the course of my four grows (my third and fourth grow are my current two journals not counting the used soil picture only journal). There are MANY ways to skin this cat, so understand I am by no means saying my way is the best or the only way. But it is a good way to do it because it is painfully easy, relatively non-work-intensive, dependable, and is guaranteed to increase your bud sites.
The thing with training autos, no matter what you do, is that the timing is very important if you want your training to be effective. The training window opens and closes very quickly. You figure you can't begin to top or train until the plant gives you enough plant to actually do something to. That's means it has to have grown at least three nodes of leaves or so before you can start. Ok, you're already up to like day 14-18 or so, depending on the strain, and hopefully earlier. The plants will begin to bud somewhere around Day 28-35 or so, again depending on the strain. So do the math. The training window is between 2 and 3 weeks long, 4 if you're real lucky, and that's because once the plants show you buds you are done training other than maybe spreading out your branches to get separation.
So you need to start your training as early as possible, and stay on top of it strongly for the duration of the training window.
My basic concept is the same one everyone uses in one form or another - by pulling that which is vertical down to make it horizontal, the growth on that now horizontal stem becomes new stems that grow up vertically. In other words, that growth becomes new buds. So the very first thing I do is top the plant and get it to be as horizontal as possible. That means I have to tie the top over and down and attempt a 90 degree bend of the main stem. This is tricky. The plant is young when you do this, and it's roots are not yet very well developed. Therefore it is not as firmly anchored by it's roots as it will be in a few weeks. So to pull the cola top over 90 degrees could and likely would pull the stem right out of the ground. Obviously you can't have that. So what do we do? We anchor the stem first. Then we pull down the cola top in the direction exactly opposite our stem anchor, so that when we bend it over the anchor bolt holds the stem in place from coming out of the ground.
That's what I am attempting to display in this photo series. So here's the pictures, and they go in order, step by step:
- Step One: top the plant. I topped between nodes 3 and 4 on this one, as I did it as soon as the emerging 4th node was out enough to give me enough to cut it off. That creates two tops at the cut point instead of the one cola. So by topping you just made 1 bud into 2.
- Step Two: place your anchor bolt in the ground firmly, before you hook it to the stem. This is just a piece of cut bamboo with a twist tie wrapped around the end and duct taped firmly to the bamboo so it won't come off. The tie is in position to meet the plant.
- Step Three: wrap the end of the twist tie firmly around the stem of the plant where you are attempting the bend. Push your anchor into the dirt until the twist tie is tight and there you go, you created back support to work against the pressure of the direction you will bend the cola down. It's very important to make sure the end is FIRMLY wrapped as this is your main support.
- Step Four: make your anchor for the pull down of the cola. This is a small wooden thing I found in the BBQ section of the grocery store. You simply wrap a twist tie around these and since they have a head there's no need for tape. They are little though, so you only use them in the beginning.
- Step Five: make a little, tight hook on the end where you will grab the top of the plant to pull it over.
- Step Six: Attach this hooked end to the stem as close to the top as there is a firm stem to attach it to and secure it by wrapping it around the stem or having a longish loop so it stays and pull the plant over as you push it into the ground. You must do this exactly opposite the direction of the first anchor bolt. You are pulling it down against that support. If you get it early, the stem should be flexible enough to bend 90 degrees, but BE CAREFUL and don't snap your branch. If you can't quite get to flat horizontal, do the best the plant will allow you to go.
- That leaves you this. A stem growing up that is supported well at a bend point of close to 90 degrees.
- Here you see a closeup of the new growth you have now allowed to begin to grow up into a stem with a bud on the end. You have already made SIX main buds now. You can count them in this picture: the main cola bent over is one, then there are five new growth points that will all grow up and become their own bud!!!
As these new growth spots grow out and begin to have length of their own, all I do is repeat the process of then training each of them as flat as possible, and as evenly spread out as possible, so that any new nodal growth that develops on those stems will ALSO grow up and become new buds.
Check out the two autos in my current journal if you want to see the results of this type of training. There's a small but gorgeous Sour Apple almost done and a huge (40 inches tall!) Chunkadelic that has an insane amount of huge buds. Both of these will destroy the yield of doing nothing to the plant.
So here's the photos in order. I hope this helps!!!
