Hi
@JoeAnalysis! Well, LST is - in my opinion - too often misinterpreted. With autoflowering strains, LST should be renamed ELST for "extremely low stress training". I see too many growers bending their stems the hardcore way, which is great for photosynthesis strains when you want to build a nice shape, but it should be prohibited with autos. Indeed, autos are very sensitive to everything, and even bending a stem horizontally (or in a violent angle) will stunt the plant and slow down the growth (which is the opposite of the initial goal). So if you want do some LST on your autos, do it very slightly, with the help of strings or gardening wire. Open up the plant gently, a little more everyday. This requires hours of work to refine the strings everyday, but if done properly it will increase light penetration and lead to a better yield. Regarding the TOPping surgery, I won't recommend this to new growers, and I rather like to FIM my autos but once again it's a risky method. I usually do it by the end of week ~3, with a sterilized scissor, I cut right above the 3rd node after the 4th or 5th node has developed. Waiting for the 4th/5th node before topping at 3rd node will speed up the recovery process and the development of the new nodes. Hope this will help, keep us up-to-date and happy growing! 👊