On my third grow and I have never topped or fimmed my girls. Been reading within the forum that you get a better harvest if you do.
Frankly I’m nervous cutting my girls. Don’t want anything bad to happen as a result if I do it incorrectly.
I currently have the following.
Green Crack photo in early flower
Northern Lights photo just switched to 12-12
White Widow photo just switched as well
Black Cream Auto in full flower
Sweet Nurse CBD Auto in early flower.
My lighting is now up to spec thanks to @dbrn32 and others.
When is the best time to start topping or fimming?
Which is Better?
Do you top/fim autos?
@HJL im not 100% sure if you should do it now as they are in flower. Usually topping and/or fimming gets done once the plant has 4 or 5 nodes i believe. Ill tag some others for their .02! @dbrn32@Covertgrower@Countryboyjvd1971
@HJL its an addicting hobby! I am 2 weeks away from first harvest of my Bluberry. Then 3 weeks after Sour D will be ready, then 3 weeks after that, bubblegum and ak47. I gave my buddy a pineapple haze and strawberry kush to finish for me, so those will be done about a month or so after the bubblegum and ak! So excited!
Heres a pic of my girls:
Blueberry
Successfully topping autos is difficult and generally not recommended. As far as doing the photos, you want to do that in veg. Most will agree you can start around 5-6 nodes.
Like @VelcroThumb said, it’s to late for this girls so maybe for the next grows this will help you!
I personally love to fimm my plants (even the autoflowering strain- don’t do this from start ) and I do this when them have 3-4 sets of true leaves .
Don’t forget to tag me when you start a journal
Happy New Year!
There are people who do top autos. They usually do it a little sooner - 3rd of 4th node and only after they have the plant rooted in its final pot/bucket. First time growing them I wouldn’t do it myself.
@M4ur do you run your plants under a scrog? This is my first grow and i topped once, and then fimmed a lot! I have my plants under a scrog, and i am a few weeks into flower. My question is this: is fimming a better technique for growing straight up? I feel that all the fimming i did has made my scrog very bushy and i think i created too much growth that will go unused (its under the screen and will get trimmed anyways)
You can go whit scrog very nicely but the each top is not going to be half foot long… I get 75g from my ak47 auto after I fimm her a lot… Seems a lot then but after I saw some auto around her I’m disappointed… I need to get at least 100g from one to get the things non stop
@HJL everyone talked about topping or fimming, but everyone forgot about super cropping. It’s where you pinch the main, roll it around in your fingers until it’s damaged. Now that it’s damaged, it’ll take some time to recover and other parts will strive to catch up. I personally prefer this method because it preserves the main cola, and still gets great side growth. I wouldn’t try this to autos, and I would try this in flower unless you’re in danger of running out of room and have done it before. When in flowering the stems tend to harden off, and don’t bend anymore only break. Hope this helps and happy growing. Thanks for the tag @VelcroThumb
@M4ur I did this successfully on my first grow. I got 109 grams wet from the one I super cropped, and 90 grams wet from the one I didn’t. Same strain. 20 extra grams? Yes please… I bet I’ll do better this round. Only 1 out 3 super cropping worked as it was my first time.
That is to low for me… I need at least 100g dry product at the end of the cure process! So I will go whit fimming far the entire veg stage and super cropping for first part of the flowering stage.
I only dream of getting to those yields. This is my third grow and I’m getting 10 to 15 grams dry. Now I know my light situation had to do with a lot of it. I’ve remedied that thanks to @dbrn32. Hopefully much better crop this time around. But I want to get as much as possible so next grow will be cropping and maybe I’ll build a scrog. How high above the girls do you place a scrog? When do you add it? 4-5 nodes tall?
) and I do this when them have 3-4 sets of true leaves 
.
. Every new growth is fimmed againe and againe… But is just I do.