Low Stress Training (LST) Guide

madcatter

Active Member
Here is a shot of one of my ladies a few days ago.... that is a 7 gallon pot... you can see the little bamboo skewers in the container beside the pot.... I use these in a teepee on the first four shoots after topping... when they get bigger we get serious with the zip ties and the bamboo....
 

Attachments

DirtPoor

Well-Known Member
Question: my plant has stayed pretty short (under a foot going on to 1 1/2 months) but really bushy, I was worried about bending the plant over with it being so short and bushy...but I have wired down some of the new growth underneath the canopy toward the outside for more light; is this LST?
 

DirtPoor

Well-Known Member
Yep... basically LST is training the plant to go some where other than where it intended....
Ok cool, I was hoping I was doing it right...I guess there really isn't a "right way" to do it :) I decided to go ahead and do the Full Monty to one of my other plants and just wired the entire plant down at about a 90 degree angle...in a few hours I'll go back and check on her;)
 

DirtPoor

Well-Known Member
I thought that the main purpose for LST was to bend the top of the plants down farther then the rest of the growth in order for the younger smaller growth to take the lead and start growing up and replacing the bent over top? I did this and the top just started growing back up and bottom growth hasn't really increased.
 

lochem

Well-Known Member
I thought that the main purpose for LST was to bend the top of the plants down farther then the rest of the growth in order for the younger smaller growth to take the lead and start growing up and replacing the bent over top? I did this and the top just started growing back up and bottom growth hasn't really increased.
You are correct and yet what you are seeing is normal. The way it works is not black and white; it's not like you're telling the plant "hey you can forget about the main top and just make the side growths grow vertically"
The main top ofthe plant is still there! So what happens is, the plant still tries to grow vertically, with any top it can, and since the main top is still there it will continue to try and grow vertically. Which is great because the more the main head grows the more nodes appear and viola you've gt more side growths that can be potential new tops (if you tie down the head again)
It only appears as though The side growths aren't doing anything but trust that they will start to shoot up soon
 

madcatter

Active Member
You get much bigger bushy plants and a canopy height that is more even in the long run.... my 7 gallon pots have stalks sticking out everywhere....

And God saw that it was good,,,, ( I personally think great)....
 

DirtPoor

Well-Known Member
You are correct and yet what you are seeing is normal. The way it works is not black and white; it's not like you're telling the plant "hey you can forget about the main top and just make the side growths grow vertically"
The main top ofthe plant is still there! So what happens is, the plant still tries to grow vertically, with any top it can, and since the main top is still there it will continue to try and grow vertically. Which is great because the more the main head grows the more nodes appear and viola you've gt more side growths that can be potential new tops (if you tie down the head again)
It only appears as though The side growths aren't doing anything but trust that they will start to shoot up soon
Ok I understand, should I keep the top down to encourage shoots to take over? And thanks for the help...
 

madcatter

Active Member
I have found that some heavier bamboo shish kabob skewrs make great little LST devices... After FIM ming the ladies after those next shoots get about 2 inches I start the process... I keep em down low till they get near the edges of the 7 gallon buckets and then switch to bamboo stakes and tie wraps.... by the time they start heading skyward I got real bushy ass plants with a fairly uniform canopy.... yeah...
 

madcatter

Active Member
Yup you can get a hundred skewers and a hundred tiny zip ties for a couple of bucks, 2 zip ties 2 skewers, a minute and you got an lst teepee.... and they are reuseable,,,,
 

bigchili18

Member
this is one of my plants that is 3 week old from seed blue dream medical grow. to hold my plants down i use and pen tube that i have removed the tips and ink and bent a paper clip and tied it to the pen and use them as anchors to hold the string that it tied to the plant to the ground.the plant in the picture has to bends in the stem, the bent shown in picture 3 was done when the plant was about a week after sprout, i just wanted to add characteristics to the plant. i bent the top over today so ill have to show updates within the next few days. stay medicated:leaf:
 

Attachments

marijuana.john.doe

Well-Known Member
Your not the first person to say i might have OCD when it comes to my plants. First pot is a gallon and a half or something like that. final pots are 5 gallon buckets.

these pics just show three diff grows and how i changed the number of heads on the plants and what not.
Man I've been looking at these images all day. I can't fucking believe it. Listen HappyGrowing, you have inspired me. I will do whatever it takes to get my plants looking like this. I too am OCD about my garden but this. My god, I didn't even know such perfection was possible. Thanks for the info and to all you other fuckers and especially Rollbluntz for starting such a good thread.
 

red fury

Active Member
After reading this thread last night, and after many bongs doing so, I decided to try this mith my (hopeful) girls. they are unknown for the most part, the 2 lst are white widow i think, and the one not is one i nicknamed the mars weed, bagseed of course.
 

Attachments

letitgrow77

Well-Known Member
what up guys, here is my latest harvest of PurpleKush.
The two in veg are WW fem from Nirvana.
Got 4.2oz's of trim and popcorn buds, making ice hash tomorrow:peace::blsmoke:



 

Attachments

Top