Topping an automatic outdoor

No, it does not have enough time to recover and you will only decrease the yield.

Dont do it man..

Also at week 3, you're probably a bit late to consider it. You'll be hitting flower soon and might have missed your recovery window. Remove a minimal amount if you do.

We'll top autos in the greenhouses at work but they're also under drip irrigation and supplemental lighting at night, so they perform a bit better than your typical outdoor homegrown auto. Even then though we still get runty ones that it was probably a mistake to top. What I'm getting at is the idea of topping autos isn't totally out of bounds, but if you're not set up for aggressive growth it's probably gonna bite you in the ass.

There is less reason for such stuff outside. The reason it is more important inside is doe to an artificial light source that highly benefits from a nice even canopy. outside, the plant is swimming in 2000ppfd from all angles and it doesn't matter if it's 10' tall or 2' tall. What is important is to spread it out. Focus training on making the plant spread out. don't worry about an even canopy, just worry about as much light penetration as you can create and as healthy air flow through the plant as possible to avoid rot and mold.

I would aim for LST more so then topping or fiming. I have topped autos before and they where bad. and once I topped one and it was great, they are sensitive and no telling what way they will go. Fast buds recommends not topping unless you know what you are doing. but do recommend LST. Good Luck!

I’m doing my first round of autos and they’re indoors though. I’m topping one of them and doing LST. Most growers will say not to especially outside because it has all the space to sort itself out. That and we all know autos are on a time clock and keeping them as happy as possible with minimal stress is preferable. If you’re confident in your ability to top a plant and do LST, then do it. If not just let it be. It’s your grow. Like I said though, most growers are against topping for autos.