LST my autos??

[Dr.Drow]

Ok guys, I need some feedback once again. I've grown autos before and never LST'd cause it slows growth and I wanted meds fast, but this grow I said **** it and did it anyway. 2 strains were tested Low Girl(advanced seeds)SAD S1(sweet seeds). I didn't want to stress these guys more than I had to, so a week after sprouting they were not tied down, but just bent back and fourth kinda like a massage. I did this every morning for about 5 minutes for a week or so. As expected it took an extra week to start flowering. Low girl looks normal so far, but Hmm the SAD looks like it was topped and has 2 tops of flowers forming, wth happened? Did I accidentally stumble upon a new technique to max yeild of autoflowering plants or is my plant just a mutant?Anyone have this happen before? I'll get some pics up soon. I'm using 18/6 schedule in DWC, 180w LED light.
DD

 

[JustAnotherAntMarching]

Lemme get this right.... You think that bending them back and forth kept them from flowering for an extra week??????? Not a chance...

What day from seed did you first see pistils???

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I would say that during the bending of the tops that you probably damaged the upper node (you basically topped it). I doubt that this is going to increase yield. Anything at all that stresses the plant is going to slow growth and affect yield on autos. However, I am with JAAM--the "massage" of the plants probably had no effect, especially only for 5 minutes for a week. It was probably like a small breeze if your plants had been outside.

Why are you running your autos 18/6?

 

[Locked]

Yeah why 18/6? Especially when you say you are using LEDs....it is not like heat shld be a problem. I wld run them 24/0...

The best way to increase auto yields wld be lots of lumens and no stress of any kind. You can't extend the veg so if they are small when they start flowering they usually don't get a lot bigger. I hve pics in one of my journals of two autos that got stressed and stayed small. Smoke was potent but yield was pathetic. Jmo

 

[Dr.Drow]

It took 26 days from sprout to pre flower, originally they were 20/4 but when i seen no signs of flowering after 3 weeks! I did some research. I've found some cases where peoples autos needed more dark to get the signal to flower and decided to change to 18/6 then to my surprise pistils appeared. They are indoors as it is DWC but they do have a fan on them on low. I probably did damage the upper node, but now there are twice as many bud sites as the other autos im running so I hope I didn't decrease yeild. Anyways, if bending didn't cause this delay, was it genetics? Was it the fan? Should I put them back on 20/4? I am straying away from 24/7 light cause there is a JH mother under this light as well, and shes already to big. Any feedback is much appreciated.

 

[Dr.Drow]

Got ridda the fan and upped it to 20/4 imma prob up it to 24/0

 

[Dr.Drow]

Still running 20/4. The (topped) one looks like 2 plants in one! 3 weeks left and I can pretty much garentee I'll get more than the average yield from this experiment. I'll be doing another grow using this massage technique. I'll include much more details on my next run. Sorry it won't be an auto guys but it will be a JH clone takes 10 weeks to flower so it should be fun, I'll be using 180w led in DWC bubbleponics.

 

[Dr.Drow]

Well they have been chopped and dried and the yeild was acctually 5g lower in the auto that was topped! and buds were no were near as dense and sticky as the ones not topped, so the experiment was fail, dont top those autos guys!

 

[Jericho]

You should never top an auto. You can tie it down a little to allow light to penetrate the lower branches that helps with yield. Just need to make sure no damage is done while doing this. If you check out my gj you will see pics of my autos being tied down.

 

[SunWolf]

Thanks to reading endlessly on MarPa I have learned the following: LST = Low Stress Training = tying them over. Tying them over as they grow is not stressful, and opens more nodes to the light to develop even more bud sites.

There are many threads that explain how to do it, and that is about the only way to increase your yield as much as you can when dealing with autos. 24 hours of light, lots of air movement (fans), good air exchange and NO stress will net you your best yield.

 

[JustAnotherAntMarching]

The hands down biggest factor in high yielding autos is: POT SIZE unless your runnin hydro.... 24/7 light is a waste of $ and most breeders state that... IME 20/4 out produced 18/6...