Autoflower training

[Catfish22]

Canuck147 , do you continue the N at the same dosage as veg or do you back them off. Most nute schedules I have seen back it off for autos at about week 4 or 5. I have cut mine a little but it seems they could use the N in the stretch.

[Canuck147]

I follow manufacturers guidelines and nitrogen is backed down when I've seen the end of the stretch

[SleepyTibbs]

Wow I must have been way too stoned the first time I came and checked this thread. lol Canuck147 when you first told me to check it out my phone only showed me the first page and I was really confused on what I was supposed to get out of it. Just skimmed through the whole thread and realized this is all extremely useful info. This is definitely a forehead slapping moment. Reading all of this could have helped mine bush a little more over the past few days. Im guessing I should go in and tie down some of the branches at this point to help her spread out? They are both on day 18, the one on the left has been a little behind her sister so she was just pruned and bent this morning, where as the other was 2 days ago. Apologies for completely missing what you were trying to show me before. Your girls are beautiful and look very happy. How old are they? I'll be following closely now though. Will benefit my next grow big time. 😁

[Canuck147]

Which nodes are your plants up to?

[SleepyTibbs]

Canuck147 The bigger one has a 6th node developed and the 7th node is coming up, the other one has a 5th node with a 6th popping up. I trained the bigger one in the same way a couple of days ago when it was at the same stage. I just went in and tied the 4th node branches slightly closer to the stem on the bigger plant so that they will grow in the opposite direction of the others and then I tied the new growth coming from above the 4th node down so that it will grow out from the main stem a bit more. Does this look like it will put her under too much stress? Shes been pretty tough so far when it comes to adding nutes or the previous training. Leaves are a little heavy, hopefully just from when I watered this morning when I pruned them. Canopy on the smaller one seems to be reorienting properly I'll start training branches tomorrow though. I dont want to stress her too much.

[Canuck147]

I asked cuz just wondering why not topping?

[SleepyTibbs]

Canuck147 I am completely new to growing any type of plant lol So I am really just going off of what I have read and I kept seeing "never top an auto" but then I see people like you doing it well. Im hoping the 2 seeds I have left for Gorilla Glue both germinate for my next grow so that I can grow two using topping and compare the differences to this grow where I am using just LST with some pruning. I also have 5 Critical purple auto seeds left over but those were boasting averages of 27%THC so I wanted a couple of grows under my belt before growing those. Back to the training though, I was wondering when I can remove the wire. For example, the 1 I have holding the stem in place as it bends and the one bending it can be removed when the main stem stiffens up and applies that bark like skin right? Threw in some pictures of what I did this morning. Tied down the 6th node now that it has developed enough to make room for and let light to the 5th nodes future flowering sites, and I took a tie down off of one of the future flowering sites coming up from the 4th node because I wouldn't mind it growing vertically from where it is at. The whole point of LST is to space out the flowering sites in an attempt to get them equal light right? Was looking at the smaller one this morning and felt like its smaller branches could mature just a little more before I start tying down, so maybe later today or tomorrow I'll start on her

[Canuck147]

Tuff question SleepyTibbs - had to think about it - just my opinion but topping is definitely different and more absolute and final - instead of having one atypical dominant cola - you get two that generally reduce the e height the plant will grow. Then it's a bit easier to bend them both down.
Your plant is hard to see what you're doing - I imagine you're trying to bend the whole plant over ? LST is difficult for experienced growers - let alone the first time growing .

[SleepyTibbs]

Canuck147 I bent the whole plant over just to cut down on height. I'm letting it grow up from this point on though. With the bend, plus the small amount of horizontal growth it did before continuing to grow vertically, I saved about 3-4 inches of vertical space in the tent. That was the idea anyway. So, I still have just the one apical dominant cola growing and now my goal is to just help the future flowering sites branching from that spread out a bit so they can receive equal light. Maybe I should just let her grow as she wants to from this point lol On my next grow I am definitely going to be topping after the 5th node and attempting to grow 2 colas and spread it out from there on at least one of the plants.

[SleepyTibbs]

Decided to take the tie downs off of the branches for now and just let her show me the way she wants to grow, other than the bend in the main stem. I'm still going to be following this thread closely though for future grows lol

[Catfish22]

00 Kush, Northern Lights x 2. First two are Kush topped, second two are NL bent over, third is the runt that insisted on growing at a 45° angle.

[Canuck147]

Watered and fed ghe girls they're favorite tea blend - all having a good flowering stretch - what LST i have done is pretty much set in now - just have to allow for the stretch.
They've all lost a few leaves over the seed past few days - opening up bud sites.

[SleepyTibbs]

The girls look beautiful!

[Catfish22]

Nice Canuck147 mine are just starting to stretch, about 4" in last 36 hrs. Really starting to see the cola branches going vertical on NL1 that is played down.

[Canuck147]

No top dressing

[Puglover1]

Any advice when they're growing fast, close nodes Canuck147 ? I'm not afraid to FIM/cut them. Node count is growing fast on the first two, they popped on 4/11 transplanted to pots 4/17. Twin seed cracked and was dropped in the pot on 4/20, above ground on 4/23, separated yesterday morning (Monday). Thanks!

[Canuck147]

I'm all in for topping - something I always do now - thenyou find out if you have a finicky Felix or a plant that just carries on. Tight node spacing makes LST difficult .

[Puglover1]

It sure does Canuck147 Full transparency: I folded down the edges of 3 gal fabric pots, thought it might give more strength to clips for training. Filled to an inch from the tops, I was waiting on more perlite to add. It really sunk a lot after wetting them, that's why my pots aren't filled.

[Dannyboy58]

New grower here and new forum member so this is my first post after lurking a bit. Lots of great info and my first plants are afghan and northern lights autos so this thread is very interesting to me. Puglover1 's plants are just a few days older than mine so we're on about the same track. My biggest plant is about the size of the one in picture 6 above. I wasn't planning on doing any LST this first grow but this thread is motivating me to.

I'll read back through the thread a few times for more info and I don't want to hijack the thread, but if anyone has advice on when to start LST and with which specific branches I'd appreciate any advice or direction to another thread or more info for a NOOB.

[Canuck147]

Post some pics - and welcome Dannyboy58 to this forum.

[Puglover1]

Hi Dannyboy58 If you read this whole thread Canuck shows the node count and when he does what. Or look at his other threads? He's a great auto grower, my first grow was a photo. I'm learning with you, even though I spent more hours reading than sleeping last year. Show us your plants, and I hope your nodes aren't as tight as mine are right now. I had dud seeds, I was supposed to be growing 3 gelato.OG autos, go figure.

[Dannyboy58]

Puglover1 Thanks! I'm sure I'll read this thread through at least couple more times before it begins to make sense to me! Still struggling with the lingo of plant anatomy but I'll get there.

[Dannyboy58]

Thanks for the welcome @canuck147

Still learning the forum and how to upload photos so this is not terribly well organized but here's what I have so far. Growing in an AeroGarden Farm 12xl. I've seen folks grow autos in smaller ones so I figured since I have it i'd give it a shot for my first grow. The afghani on the right rear in the group photo is the oldest by a few days, then the Northern Lights left front is a few days younger and the other two are a week younger. A

The older two were sprouted in a counter top AG which was much simpler and easier than the cup of water and paper towel method the seed supplier recommends, then they were moved to this AG a little over a week ago.. These photos are a couple of days old so they've actually grown a bit more. I'm using the general hydroponics flora series nutrients for this grow. Started the seeds with nutes at about 500ppm TDS, then the first water change after 7 days I increased the nutrient a little over the starting level to around 800ppm TDS. The General Hydroponics website says shoot for 1100-1500ppm during veg stage so I'll likely raise it a bit more with the next water change in a few days.

Quite a jumble of growth, for lack of a better or more correct phrase, under the big fan leaves on the Afghan. I'm assuming those will make branches tthat could be tethered down to help the plant spread and open up? I snipped off one of the first leaves (seed leaves? Cotyledon leaves?) from the afghan to get a better view for the photo. I figured it would fall off at some point anyway. I have questions about the coloring of my leaves but don't want to hijack the thread so I'll create another post unless someone wants to comment in a PM.

[Dannyboy58]

Are the lighter spots due to calcium deficiency? my water has 37ppm calcium and i believe I read it should be 50ppm or greater, so I ordered a bottle of CaliMagic

[Canuck147]

Can't see your pics

[Dannyboy58]

no? hmmm...they show for me...wonder what I did wrong?

[HobbitGDF]

here is the sour diesel auto. i took off the little nodes growing on the 2nd set. just popped them right off

i dont know if this pic is before or after i did it. i think i see them on there still in the pic. well the 2 little ones that would be pointing up and one on other side pointing to the ground. them are the 2 that i removed. i am trying to create nebulas manifold. i think its correct so far.

[Canuck147]

Scares me sometimes seeing them bent over and not breaking - but it looks fabulous.

[Dannyboy58]

Canuck147 Can you see them now?

First three are my biggest afghan baby about 12 days old now, its the one right rear in the group, left front is NL a few days younger, smaller two are about a week younger afghan and NL.

[Canuck147]

They look great- don't do anything to them yet - and go easy on the nutes - never done hydroponics before so can't help you with questions on that but if you still a red your own thread - others on here would help you.

[Puglover1]

Dannyboy58 I started my seeds in my A-G, it's just a 6 hole Harvest model. I had the OG A-G pre-LED that I used to grow legal herbs almost 15 years ago. Great for cloning, have you looked at your roots? I used spring water and a drop of AG nutes to start mine, instead of a capful. I've never grown hydro per se, just use this to start seeds. I will use it to clone in the future (cat stole 3 nice clones out of a glass, from my photo grow). Are your starter inserts coco coir in the cages? I had the 3 gelato duds so I was dropping whatever auto freebie seeds I had left. I tried to flick a seed shell off of the Lemon, it pulled right out of the starter, white root end looked like I cut it with scissors. I stuffed it back in, broke off some pieces of cc to try to make it sturdy. I kept moving it with the light in hopes it would stand back up. I dropped NL & lemon seeds on 4/10, they popped up the next day. Five days later they both had nice roots and side roots so I transplanted to fabric pots on 4/17. My smallest NL: I dropped the seed into the pot on 4/20, put on an upside-down pyrex dish for a humidity dome on 4/22, twins popped the next morning. I culled a twin a few days ago. I'll attach a few pics of the AG and how that Lemon survived. My AG model doesn't offer an extension arm for the light or I was going to try to grow one auto in it. I read the A-G cannabis blog last year.

[Dannyboy58]

@pulover1 Very cool! I'm using the AG starter sponges which I believe are sphagnum peat but not sure. The roots look healthy and white on all the plants so far. I'm going to start a thread on this to stop sidetracking this one but thanks for responding!

[Canuck147]

Picture day - evaluation day

Overall im very pleased with how they are - best to have a plan before one undertakes LST.

[Canuck147]

Cookies here - stretching and more stretching - she's the tallest - wasn't expecting such a stretch - but oh well just deal with whatcha got

Did the LST work? Sure the lower branches are definitely growing away from the main stalk so this is so far a success.

[DreamofGreen]

love brick/ block weed..lol
p.s. I got some of mine up on kitty litter containers..giddy cat in fact

[Canuck147]

Just for posing

[Canuck147]

Bruce is next - watering day soon so I'll wait until then to take off leaves - opposite to cookies Bruce is bushy. Preflowers are looking plentiful.

Looks like tge LST worked well here too- branches growing away from the main stalk.

[SleepyTibbs]

Dang Bruce really exploded with some growth! Your plants all look beautiful. Meanwhile, I accidentally went stooge mode just now while readjusting a tie down and the wire went right through a finger of one of the fan leaves, cut the finger in half. I feel like a child abuser lol I have now deformed 3 leaves in a similar way due to fat fingers. I really need to pick up some thicker gauge wire with a softer coating like you were using.

TLDR: Your plants are beautiful and one day I hope to be half the plant dad you are lol

[Canuck147]

Thanks SleepyTibbs