It's really hard for a first time grower to grow without the input of others, particularly if you aren't a science type person. Grow diaries and the users who've commented have really helped me make decisions about how to handle the girls. What I've learnt is there's never a right or wrong way of doing something and a lot of your success is based on intuition! This my very first grow. I can't normally keep herbs alive and I had my fair share of disasters with this plant, from stem breakages (fixed with a tape and a ruler) and calculating nutes incorrectly. I LSTd and topped (accidentally initially) and left 2 alone. The ones left alone had the biggest yeild. I harvested at different stages, but within days. The trics were probably at 1% amber, 80% cloudy and the rest clear. A test smoke of a dry bud in a pipe which had been cured for a few days gave me a fun, giggly high that lasted a long time with rolling body effects that left me feeling reallllly good. I made butter out of the fresh wet trim of one plant (2oz of trim) and made 113g of knock out butter. Just a teaspoon had my flying for 24 hours.
I was growing these 4 ladies, along with 4 non-auto skunk 1# which have been in veg mode for the whole time. They are beasts right now and I will start a diary for them to document the progress.