Is it too late to top?

[jokerlola]

I was only going to grow autos this year outside but one of my autos has turned out to be a photo period plant. It’s likely that the seed company accidentally put the wrong seeds in the package.

The plant (00 Kush from 00 Seeds Bank) popped out of the soil around June 1st and is on its 8th node. I just recently realized it’s likely a photo period. Is it too late to top it and is it even worth topping an outdoor growing plant?

I’ve mostly grown from clones and have either not touched them because the clones I got already had multiple tops or I’ve topped 2 or 3 times to creat bushier plants. The few times I have grown photos from seeds, I have topped them at least once. I’ve never grown a Christmas tree shaped plant with the large cola on top. I’m trying to decide if I should just let this plant grow naturally with no training or topping or do some form of late stage training.

 

[Phytoplankton]

Yeah, you can top it, no problem.
Edit: I think it will help your yield and force some of the shoots out from the lower nodes. I’d do a little LST, maybe just bend it over a bit and then play with the side shoots as the develop. If you’re in the northern hemisphere flowering won’t start for about a month.

 

[jokerlola]

Yeah, you can top it, no problem.
Edit: I think it will help your yield and force some of the shoots out from the lower nodes. I’d do a little LST, maybe just bend it over a bit and then play with the side shoots as the develop. If you’re in the northern hemisphere flowering won’t start for about a month.

Ok thanks. I'm in the Golden Colorado area.

 

[Azimuth]

And the photo expression could simply be genetics. When they create the auto strain, they cross a photo with a ruderalis variety and a certain percentage of the seeds will carry different traits.

Is it one you'd like to keep growing with clones?

 

[jokerlola]

And the photo expression could simply be genetics. When they create the auto strain, they cross a photo with a ruderalis variety and a certain percentage of the seeds will carry different traits.

Is it one you'd like to keep growing with clones?

I thought about cloning the cutting from topping it to get a second plant going. But by topping it today, it would take approximately 2 weeks to have an established clone and then it would only have about 2 weeks veg time or less before it started to flower, wouldn’t it? So it would wind up being a pretty small plant. I’m trying to decide to either top it, LST it, super crop it or just let it grow wild.

I’m thinking of just letting it grow wild just to see how it will grow and produce since I’ve never let a plant just grow wild before. And since I never intended to grow any photo period plants this year, this might be the perfect plant to grow out untrained.

The seed that I grew from this strain sample vile last year also grew as a photo and the bud it produced wasn’t bad but it wasn’t my favorite. So it’s not like I really need to have a big yield with this strain. I thought last year’s plant was just a fluke doing what you describe and so this year I was curious if it would do it again. It obviously did but is it because the photo period genetics overriding the ruderalis or are they fem photo seeds that they miss marked as autos? That face that this seed did the same thing makes me lean towards a miss marked package.

I don’t grow indoors so any clones I take on photo plants is for starting another plant to grow outside for that season. I usually start my photo plants way earlier than I planted this seed so I always have time to grow out a photo cutting for that season. But I started this seed at the end of May because it was supposed to be an auto.

 

[Azimuth]

But by topping it today, it would take approximately 2 weeks to have an established clone and then it would only have about 2 weeks veg time or less before it started to flower, wouldn’t it?

Yeah, I didn't know if you had a small indoor space to keep mothers to prepare for next year.

It obviously did but is it because the photo period genetics overriding the ruderalis or are they fem photo seeds that they miss marked as autos? That face that this seed did the same thing makes me lean towards a miss marked package.

I wouldn't say overriding, but more expressing different genes. Like getting a brown eyed kid from two blue eyed parents. The brown eye genes come from further up the family tree. So, if your strain wasn't properly stabilized you could be getting different expressions than expected.

It would be unusual to have mis-marked seeds but certainly possible.

 

[Roy Growin]

I'd nip the tip out anyway to lessen pine tree shape

 

[jokerlola]

Yeah, I didn't know if you had a small indoor space to keep mothers to prepare for next year.


I wouldn't say overriding, but more expressing different genes. Like getting a brown eyed kid from two blue eyed parents. The brown eye genes come from further up the family tree. So, if your strain wasn't properly stabilized you could be getting different expressions than expected.

It would be unusual to have mis-marked seeds but certainly possible.

I got these sample auto seeds after a seminar by “Shaping Fire” about Autoflowers. Shaping Fire gave out Humboldt Seed Co Sole-Mate auto seed samples and there was reps from 00 Seeds Bank giving out auto samples of 3 different strains which this plant is one of them (00 Kush Auto). I noticed on their website that 00 Seeds Bank has 00 Kush photo seeds as well so I guess it could be possible they accidentally packaged photo seeds in the auto samples.

The other 2 (00 Seed Co) autos are both growing stunted like they did last year and someone here mentioned that 00 Seeds have unstable genetics. Plus these are 3 to 4 year old seeds so that could be a factor.

 

[jokerlola]

I'd nip the tip out anyway to lessen pine tree shape

Is pine tree shape necessarily a bad thing? Is it more pronounced on indoor plants with a fixed light above as opposed to an outdoor plant that gets sunlight from different angles as the sun moved across the sky? Or will it still produce the big cola on top both indoors and out?

 

[Azimuth]

Plus these are 3 to 4 year old seeds so that could be a factor.

Have they been stored properly? They germinated so that shouldn't be the issue.

 

[jokerlola]

Have they been stored properly? They germinated so that shouldn't be the issue.

I wasn’t meaning that the age of the seeds was an issue in regards to them being old or not stored right. I was meaning that the genetics of Autoflowers keep improving so the genetics of 3 to 4 year old seeds might not be as good as newer seeds are now.

 

[Roy Growin]

Is pine tree shape necessarily a bad thing? Is it more pronounced on indoor plants with a fixed light above as opposed to an outdoor plant that gets sunlight from different angles as the sun moved across the sky? Or will it still produce the big cola on top both indoors and out?

Not really a 'bad' thing but the larger area of a slightly more flat top would expose more bud sites to the sky as it wouldn't be shading itself so much on the north side

 

[jokerlola]

I’ve decided to top the plant because I have a friend who would like the topped cutting to clone. My plant 9 to 10 nodes. Is it ok to top at node 7 (Where the tip of my scissors are in the picture) so there is enough stem for a clone, or is it better to top at a higher node?

 

[Azimuth]

I like to do between nodes 4 and 5 so you'll be fine at 7. Or go at 6 and give him an extra node to work with.