Green gelato & northern lights autos

You can do whatever you want, but topping autos is not recommended by the breeders themselves, and they are in the business of trying to make their customers happy. If it were ok, then the breeders would suggest it as an option. The problem with autos is their limited time in veg, before flowering commences. Topping cannabis plants usually results in the plants going through a sort of metabolic trauma (wouldn't you if your head was cut off?!) and this metabolic trauma lasts for between 7-14 days, during which time, very little actual growth takes place, as the plant tries to figure out what has just happened to it. So, with a limited growth/veg period of approximately four weeks with auto flowering plants, any topping done will result in the plant not advancing much for 1-2 weeks, meaning the opportunity to grow before flowering is severely limited. One to two weeks of no growth when the whole growth cycle is only four weeks is not a lot of time to grow before flowering commences automatically. If you are interested in enhanced growing techniques, your best option is to grow photo period plants, whereby veg and flowering times are controlled by day length and you are not constrained by plants that will do their own thing, regardless of what you do or what you would like them to do for you. Hope this helps,..... Organoman.

Each and every healthy green leaf you remove, will reduce your plants capacity to produce the energy that it needs to grow her biggest and best flowers. Defoliation and the associated loss of energy production will slow growth, possibly stalling maturation and possibly reducing yields too. Your plant will grow her best with every healthy green leaf left in place to produce the energy she needs for every plant function, just as nature intended. In over 35 years of growing cannabis, I am yet to see any plant that gets rid of its own healthy green leaves for no apparent benefit. Just remember - maximum amount of healthy green leaves = maximum energy production = maximum growth and maximum health. Also, the older leaves provide a ready "store" of vital growth elements, such as carbs, sugars, amino acids etc that your plant will draw upon during flowering, as it is more efficient to do so, than it is to grow flowers AND make these elements (carbs, sugars, amino acids etc) from new, during flowering. This is why the older leaves will go yellow (the "fade") during flowering, despite the plant being otherwise healthy and well fed. Defoliation during flowering would be the second worst time to do it, if doing it - the first worst time being during the seedling stage. So, not only does defoliation reduce your plants capacity to produce energy, it also robs her of a vital "stash" of pre-made elements for use during flowering. These two basic principles of plant biology are something advocates of defoliation fail to understand and are fundamental basics of plant health and vitality. The only leaves that should ever be removed are the yellow ones, for by the time they are yellow, they have served their purpose. The idea that leaves which are "shading potential bud sites" should be removed is also a flawed principle, those big leaves doing the "shading" are actually making the energy for those "potential bud sites" to grow, and removing the big shade leaves will actually slow those "potential bud sites" from growing due to the reduction in energy production. Besides, in 1-4 days those branches which are the "potential bud sites" will have grown out from underneath those big fan leaves anyhow, making their removal pointless and detrimental to overall plant health, due to the reduction of energy production. Also, the fanciful notion that by removing leaves, this will somehow cause energy to be "channelled" into bud growth again shows their lack of knowledge about basic plant biology, for those who believe in this theory. Firstly, to be able to "channel" energy would suggest a plant is capable of making a conscious decision about energy distribution, which is absurd!! All energy produced gets used by the entire plant, wherever growth is occurring and there are no energy networks with switchable and selectable destinations for energy usage, i.e. - energy "channelling". Secondly, even if a plant were able to "channel" energy, leaf removal will reduce energy availability, so there would be a reduced amount of energy to "channel", if it was a possibility to do so, meaning by encouraging "energy channelling" by leaf removal would result in less energy available for "channelling", a self defeating principle, even if it were possible to "channel " energy. So yeah, in my opinion, do not defoliate, it is pointless and detrimental to over all plant health and plant vitality. Hope this helps, ....... Organoman. (and strident anti-defoliation campaigner!) P.S. - Congratulations(?) too, on being todays "winner" of Organomans' "Rant Against Defoliation" prize or "RAD" award!!