how do you make em bush out?

[waveguide]

i decided to try an auto and picked a strain for squatness.

later i found out that the illustration for the strain was the same as (i think lowryder 2?) - they jacked the photo anyway. it's not a strain GN carries so i'm not gonna mention it. grow had several things go awry.

maybe you know the product pic i mean - plant has three or four colas and growing outwards not up, looks like it's abut 10 inches tall.

most of the auto grows show roughly the same thing - a 2 or 3 foot rocket. i read you shouldn't top them or train them because they grow so fast that doing so stunts the yield.

so how do you get an auto to spread out and still get more than a bowl on it?

 

[Pig Pen]

Bend the top of the plant over and tie it down.

 

[GP73LPC]

top her....

after 4 or 5 nodes cut the main stem off... the side branching will become the main grow stems...

 

[mitch_connor]

Topping/fimming is fine with AF's depending on strain.
Something that has a decent veg time before and after sexing.
Also the timing of the training is important, too late and it won't be worthwhile. But around sexing/just after is perfect.

Or LST from early on.

I topped this white citrus just at the right time, 3 weeks from sprout

I then tucked the fan leaves under the lower shoots as they rose up, to expose them to some high intensity light

day 32

day 38

mid flower

end

This was the best yielder from all, some of which were topped, fimmed and left to grow naturally. Not a scientific experiment but was just for fun and a last minute decision. however I'm going to top all of my larger AF's on my next run.

EDIT: not the best pictures or record keeping etc but it made the canopy of this plant very flat and even, I had no popcorn etc
Hope that helps?
STRAIN + TIMING = win OR fail, but still fun to find out either way.
cheers

 

[wildgrow]

Use cfls until it starts to flower? Allows you to keep the light close to the canopy. Top it earlier than you normally would/should? cheers

 

[P@ssw0rd]

Some auto strains are squatter and bushier, try Masterlow aka Lowmaster for plants that top out at 12" Of the 2 phenos i have seen they both stay short but 1 is far bushier.

 

[waveguide]

!@(#% guess i should have got the 2nd opinion on what i read... i know my way around training, but was convinced it was a no-no.

nice looking plants, mitch. good training and stunning production.

i'll try it next time. this grow was a farce.. cold temps (working with what i had), my plants were 4" tall after 4 weeks.. just sad. i hit em with GA3, and at 8 weeks they're 2'+ tall with sod all bud on them - seriously, green radio antennas, a toothpick joint in total. a few male flowers due to the GA3 so hopefully i'll get to try again with these strains (though those male flowers are taking foreeever to mature)

so next time.. train, _no_ GA3, thankfully warmer temps.. and some freebie auto kush beans to run

thanks for the straight answer, all.

 

[waveguide]

ftr, this is an 8 week old auto, hit with GA3 at 4 weeks..

not doing that again

 

[mitch_connor]

Crazy looking plant mate!

As with any AF's trained or not, give them the best start you can

Mine above were stunted/slow growing the first couple of weeks which affected the final size, but still turned out ok.

Good luck with the new run!

 

[Piel]

I´m using just about the same setup (soil) and I managed to scortch the seedlings while moving the lights down too early. Nothing really bad happened but I now have the lights at about 80cm from the plants that are just showing the third set of leaves. I´ve grown indoors before but it was awhile back so any info is welcome.

Sorry for hijacking your thread but maybe you can have some use of the same tips

 

[waveguide]

no worries about hijacking. lol, "good advice for burning the tips with lights = expect smaller yield"

sorry, my grow has been worse than humble. i am learning to be patient.. at 10 weeks these 60-65 day strains are supposed to be through.. but the cold temps they've been exposed to, the buds are only starting to fill out, they look like they've got ~4 weeks to go to me. really slooow.. but they look like they're not timing out (my first autos, so i don't know how that factors).

i've never been big on topping, i prefer to train.. but watching them grow (both have burned tops.. i'm doing just great..) i wonder if taking off the damaged tip might prevent it from wasting energy. it may depend on if the growing tip is truly done for.

i take my autos out of the cab and put them in sunlight when available, so i'm always taking them out of and putting them back in the cab. my tips got burned because i trusted the vertical plant to stay vertical.. when i came back it had grown towards the bulb (one of which was adjacent to the tips) - so my 2nd advice is if your tips grow up to the bulbs (if your space is as limited as mine) secure them so they can't lean over. prolly the type of thing you just have to observe and deal with firsthand

 

[Sunnyd]

topping, pinching, supercropping.... choose one

 

[guest3871]

I don't have much to offer, except have a look at mitch connors auto flower grows too see what can be achieved.

I think with auto's the main difference is that if you get them off to a slow start, or stress them, they don't have the time to recover.