Indoor Topping an auto to extend indoor growtime which is limited by smell. Then transfer outside.

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Any & all recovery time would go against the yield.

I would have thought so but keep reading good results with the autos. A few had bad results but there were not really planned toppings, e.g. one guy said his goats escaped and ate the top off 2 plants! and they did poorly. Another guy had a plant fall over and break its top off, so you cannot really count these as systematic topping, done with minimal stress, cut in the right place and of course at the right time.

It could be more suited to CFLs with their low penetration, which I guess many autogrowers use, I have done CFL only grows in the past and topped the plants so I had a bunch of nice but small buds all close to the light, rather than just 1.

The reason most say not to top is they reckon the auto has a fixed lifespan and you should not waste it waiting for recovery, when vegging regular plants you can veg an extra week to compensate. But I still have yet to hear if the people who topped autos think it did delay the finishing date. In which case it can be compared to topping regular plants.

 

[Muddy]

I'm the guy who had the goats nip off the tops of two plants. This happened at 3 weeks, while they were still in veg. The cuts were clean, just like I had topped them myself, and right above a node, which is were I would have cut them. If I had planned to top them, I would have done it at the same time and in the same manner. While they did branch out, their growth was stunted for about a week. In the end they took about a week longer than the other plants and produced less than the plants that were not topped. Personally I see no benefit to topping autos and have never done so again since that unplanned experiment.

 

[ripster]

Very nice! do you think it delayed its finishing date? I read you also
topped/cloned off a automazar trying to stunt it but it kept going, do you think
it delayed its finishing date?

Like Muddy said, about a week or so. Nothing to bad though. I like the topping of auto's. But I suppose it's a matter of opinion whether it's worth it of not...
No, I don't think it slowed the AutoMazar down a bit. But I didn't top her either. Just cut clones. I wasn't really wanting clones but since I cut them, I figured what the heck...Glad I did. Auto clones are the bomb.

 

[SmashedbyHashish]

Like Muddy said, about a week or so. Nothing to bad though. I like the topping of auto's. But I suppose it's a matter of opinion whether it's worth it of not...
No, I don't think it slowed the AutoMazar down a bit. But I didn't top her either. Just cut clones. I wasn't really wanting clones but since I cut them, I figured what the heck...Glad I did. Auto clones are the bomb.

Your brakin all the "rules"...lol! Go on w/ your bad self then...hehehe

 

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The cuts were clean, just like I had topped them myself,...

In the end they took about a week longer than the other plants

Now this is interesting, thanks for the info. I am going to do more searching for side by side grows like this.