As always, time is of the essence, so avoid stressing your autoflowering plants so they don’t slow down. Therefore, don’t trim or train them, and leave them alone as much as possible. If you really need to train them, use only mild low-impact methods, such as LST (Low Stress Training); and only with varieties that tend to grow in excess, such as the sativa-leaning autos.
If you want an autoflower that grows considerably so that you can try some of these training techniques, our classic Jack Herer Auto could be the right choice for you. This large plant grows vigorously both sideways and upwards. This is because the most branchy specimens have been given preference in its stabilisation, resulting in an ideal auto for the implementation of optimised cultivation techniques, providing you have a little bit of skill.
Following this ‘not pruning’ principle, growing techniques such as SCROG are not recommended for automatics. However, the SOG (Sea of Green) method may be suitable and can help maximise the yielding potential of these strains.
With this method, cuttings are left to vegetate for a very short period of time before prompting them to flower, something that can be perfectly achieved by replacing the cuttings with autoflowering strains. In addition to having a short vegetative period (often as short as two weeks), intermediate nodes that would normally produce lateral branching are also removed from the plants in order to promote the development of only one central cola. With this, what you achieve is that the plants don’t take up as much space.