Harvest Autos in stages - true or false?

[jamesphoto]

This is what I've noticed > my buds at the top of my autoflowering plant are ready for harvest. Buds at the bottom need a bit more time.
This is what I've read on one of the seed sellers website > harvest the buds that are ready and harvest the others once they are ready.

Is this true? Does this work? I'm a new grower and I would just cut the entire plant and say "oh well" about the lower buds. But if the trick is to only cut down those buds that are ready (and the plant remains growing) and cut the rest in another week or two then I will give that a try.

If I cut off the top 1/2 will my plants keep growing or will they die (or be stunted)? Help me figure this out! Thanks!

[Rwise]

Does a double harvest work, absolutely. Just take the buds that are ripe to the point you wish and leave the rest, but you may find they need more time than you laid out to recover and finish.
Some folks remove the lower larf so the upper buds swell more. I go both ways, depends on how much time is left in the grow season, and what I expect.
IF you take to much off the plant it can go into shock and die, or just be stunted and take weeks to recover. A tip would be to leave as many fan and sugar leaves as you can so they keep feeding the plant.
Good luck and have fun!

[jamesphoto]

Rwise excellent reply sir. So it is SAFE to cut off the ripe buds and the plant will remain growing??? But it may take a bit longer then a couple weeks (that was my wild, uneducated guess...) to recover and ripen the lower buds? I do trim some fan leaves and even some of the smaller buds per Nebula's article. A little at a time.
Thank you for your reply - you're always very helpful!

[Rwise]

Safe as long as you dont take to much at a time. If it goes into shock, it can take 2 weeks or longer to recover, if it does.
I just done 2 girls, 1 made it the other didn't (I took to much to fast)

[jamesphoto]

Exactly. Nebula says less is more. And it's an auto so the clock is still ticking. Thank you sir!

[george66]

Ive done this and it works great,IMO,because its finished growing and the buds are well into the ripening process its quite difficult to stress it enough to make any difference cos its ready for the chop anyway.I find some of the lower buds can almost double in size if you leave them for another week or 2.I just remove the large top colas on all the branches by cutting through the main stem with sharp clean cutter and leave everything below that.

[jamesphoto]

'double in size'? Sweet!!! That is awesome to hear. Thanks for your reply!