If you have no issues keeping a plant healthy start to finish then I'd say yes you can top it. If you have to ask where and how then I wouldn't recommend trying it on an autoflower.
Topping is a lazy growers (me) LST.
Yea but it slows the plants progression which with a photo you dont have a concern of a internal clock ready to expire.
Well, since you know... FACTUALLY, how long does topping slow down the plant?
It's going to vary depending on multiple factors. Not all plants are the same.
Did I strike a nerve or some shit?
No, not really. I've had a Mephisto that didn't get topped and didn't show pre flowers till 42-43 days. I can have 4 full nodes and 5th coming in or decent size if all is right by 18-21 days. Even if it takes a week to "heal", that's 5 weeks of veg time before it does it's thing. Most people veg photos 4/6 or 8 weeks based on the people that post their grows. 5 weeks on a topped auto doesn't seem all that behind a photo grow. Also, what facts do you have that are standard for photos? How can you say that the point of an auto is to be fatser than photos when there are no set values for photo vegging? Some people only veg 2 weeks and flip their photos. Guess that means all autos must go to flower in 13 days or less by your logic. The fact that you topped and stunted your autos doesn't mean every auto slows down by topping. You just need to get better.
Dude. You're all over the place. Where did he say the point of autoflowers was to be faster than photos?
So what, that comment was from a different guy above. Fact still is that he believes every topped plant will be slowed down and it's not true. The auto section here is kiddy time compaired to real Auto community like AFN and auto topping is a VERY normal practice. The only people that get slowing from it are less than steller growers. That's not a fault with autos and topping, but the grower itself. Saying topping will cause slow growth is misleading.
Saying topping slows growth is fact. Topping is a high stress training technique. If it wasn't it'd be called LST. Any stress will redirect growth of the plant to fixing the stress it encounters.
That's rubbish. I have a bunch of the same strain autos that all germinated together and some started flowering 2 weeks back and others are only just starting.
Again. Photo period plants do not have a internal clock to swap them to flower. So topping a Photo period is not a big deal because you can elongate the veg time.
But he's got those elite Mephisto drops. They don't stress from topping.