Is there any downside to not topping/pruning/or lsting your plant an just letting it grow naturally with good nutes an light an etc?
toppin causes some stress for plant because is cut and recovery tiime and lst is the way i do it no stress on ur plant because not cutting involved...there for no recovery time..good luck hope this helps
I just wanted to let it grow WITHOUT topping/pruning/lst an was wondering if there is any sort of downfall to this? For example...will my yeild be significantly reduced if I dont use these growing techniques?
Yes, your yield will be reduced, especially for an indoor grow. Light intensity changes with the inverse square of the distance. What this means is that for an indoor plant the bottom is getting much less light than the top is. For example, take a 4-foot plant and the light is 1 foot above the top. That means that the bottom of the plant is getting only 1/25th, or 4%, of the light intensity as the top is. That's not the way to maximize yield. LST flattens out your grow, putting much more of the plant closer to the light. Light = energy = bud production. LST can still be very beneficial for an outdoor grow, but the inverse square law doesn't make any difference (the top of the plant is 93 million miles from the sun and the bottom is 93 million miles and four feet away, not a meaningful difference). Topping gives you more tops, and while each top will be smaller they will add up to more bud than without topping.
This is my second grow my advice is prune alot of the bottom so the light can concentrate on your colas you will definately get a bigger yield also pruning definately keeps away mite and other bug problems. Someone also taught me to take alot of fan leaves off the top and try too keep the middle of your crop opened so light can get through to your buds. I did it twice in the flower stages and ive seen a huge difference from my first grow. I have not had any mite problems also my buds are much bigger and look better than my first grow.
Another benefit of LST is you can get light to the interior of the plant without having to trim fan leaves. Trimming harms the plant and directs energy to healing. Fan leaves are like the plant's solar panels, creating most of the energy, as well as the plant's storehouses, where it stores nutrients and such, so I prefer not to trim leaves at all.