LST looking for advice compliments and suggestions +rep for helpful information

Here are some new pictures from today.

Any advice on cutting/trimming? Should I just continue to wire the big leaves out of the way, or should I cut 2-4 of a certain size to make room for new growth? Would that promote or stunt the new growth?

firsttimegrower1993 said:

So what would you suggest? I have a 24 hour light cycle, should I change it to 18/6? and Should I put a layer of sand over the dirt or what would you suggest for that?

Click to expand...

Plants in veg do better with 4-6 hours of darkness. Also, if heat is an issue that 6 hours can mitigate that. By Silica I mean a product like Pro-Tekt. Light pollution can trigger hermaphrodism so keep it black.

firsttimegrower1993 said:

Here are some new pictures from today.View attachment 2773640View attachment 2773641View attachment 2773642

Click to expand...

Do not cut any leaves they are the source of all the plant growth....you need them. Do you have a magnifying glass at least 40x?

I've just started using LST myself. Had great results using it on some Sugar Punch in my last flower run, got some Shackzilla and Sannies Jack flowering nicely now that I employed the technique on.

Can I ask please, what age were yours when you started tying them down? My first thought was that it looks like you started earlier than me. I waited till they were at about 5 nodes, which was probably about week 3 or 4. Not saying either way is right, or wrong, just be interested possibly to investigate differences.

When I did my first attempt I knew I was going to have to veg them for at least 9 weeks (it ended up being 13 weeks), so had loads of time to try different things. It took me two tie downs to get the original top lower than the rest of the plant. Once this happened there was an increase in the growth of other sites. it was just a case then of seeing which of the new tops started dominating, and tying it down when it did. It really is an intuitive process. Just think about the plant, and how it will react to placing a tie down in a certain position. If you have a lot of time to play with, then try and think ahead to the next tie down, try and work things towards what you want the plant to do. You can add small stakes or sticks in order to keep tie downs growing in a particular direction, blocking the path back for a bent stem.

Just experiment. And take anything anyone advises as things to be considered when you're working out what to do with your training, rather than any concrete way that it has to be done.

the plant needs much more light to thrive and yield going into flower, buy a cheap light meter and see how much ur plant is getting, in six weeks one of the clone onlys I am vegging would be a one meter high bush with many tops...I veg under 600w MH, remember this one thing.....the only food the plant gets is light...all the nutrients merely support the synthesis of ptoteins sugars etc, so don't worry about all the techs for veg unless u have a strong light its all a bit pointless, same for non npk nutes, more light ime

Bigby said:

Just experiment. And take anything anyone advises as things to be considered when you're working out what to do with your training, rather than any concrete way that it has to be done.

Click to expand...

Great advice, for growing in general too, but especially for LST.

The idea is basically to keep 'm down and grow wide using low stress methods such as binding them down instead of relatively high stress methods that involve damaging the plant. How and what exactly you use to keep 'm down is up to you. I use thick binding wire with a rubber coating, in which I create a loop that I can twist to make the wire shorter.

firsttimegrower1993 said:

Here are some new pictures from today.View attachment 2773640View attachment 2773641View attachment 2773642

Click to expand...

Looking much better glad to help.. i agree with whoevrr said they need darkness , in my search on hoe to get a higher female percentage from bagseed one thing mentioned alot was 24 hrs of light tended to have a higher male ratio than plants on 18/6 schedules...
Besides that im a firm believer in doing things as natural as theyd occur outside and idk anywhere that has 24 hrs of light for long periods of time (i could be wrong about this)
Trimming seems to be amongst the biggest debates for growers im kinda split in the middle they need there leaves to absorb light but sometimes its necissary and benificiel at the right times .. i only trim mine when a stray leaf is getting to close to my lights and to try to keep it unifotm i NEVER trim the fan leafs though i use twist ties to tie them back to give the undergrowth more light for a few days and then untie for a few days bc the big fan leaf is still absorbing light but outa the way to help new growth get light

Keep it updated i think ill put a few more updates on mine since we both are trying to learn lst for the first time ide like to follow along expecially since im doing 12/12 from seed but am debating vegging some next grow

I am concerned you may have bugs from the close up shot.

I used to remember this old pro who would pick one leaf a day in flowering, he was a weird dude and I just thought it was funny. He said that he got the job done without any shock. I must say he was pretty talented. Not my deal but a idea nonetheless.

Defolitation isn't a bad method, just very misunderstood by most growers. I take hundreds of leafs off my plant over time. But my plants are also 6ft high x5 ft wide. If I didn't defoliate them the entire inside of the plant would be fluff. Not because I don't have enough light but they get so dense with foliage.

I have that same light and I have it 2 inches from the top of my plants. I have it almost like vert hung in the middle of some plants. So you can get them fairly close to the plants.

Bigby said:

Can I ask please, what age were yours when you started tying them down? My first thought was that it looks like you started earlier than me. I waited till they were at about 5 nodes, which was probably about week 3 or 4.

Click to expand...

I believe it was at almost the same time, my plant was on 4-5 nodes with scruff on top and about a month in.

burgertime2010 said:

I am concerned you may have bugs from the close up shot.

Click to expand...

I'm assuming you're referring to the white spots. It was from my roommate watering the plant with a spray bottle and spraying the leaves which made drops that magnified and burnt a few spots into some leaves and the odd shaped white marks are from the same thing except it's evaporated water leaving nutrients/ferts behind. I have been rinsing them a few times to clean them off.

I'll post more pictures when I get home today.

So I saved this picture for last so people would see the one I'm assuming is showing signs of bugs. I did grab a small inch worm/cm worm off the plant while taking these pictures and idk what they really do if anything. But I ordered http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BQNBXQ/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 because of the good reviews and I'll have it just in case even if this turns out to be something else.

I snipped off the yellow leaf in the last picture. Hopefully that wasn't a stupid move, but I figure if it's bugs I could possibly remove at least a part of the problem before it spreads.

firsttimegrower1993 said:

OK so this plant is about 1.5 months in and has been doing great the whole time. I started it from a seed and still have no idea if it's male or female since it was a random bag seed. So for the most part this plant is just practice and if I'm lucky it will reward me!

Remember, +rep for anything really helpful!


View attachment 2769748View attachment 2769749View attachment 2769750View attachment 2769751

Click to expand...

Generally it looks like your doing a good job. I used the expert advice from another member of rollitup to LST my babies and it worked very well.

STEP 1: Grow your plant from a potent marijuana seeds strain of choice to 3 or 4 leaf sets, some use 5 but i always use 3 because after 3rd leaf set the main stem starts to harden and it will be harder to bend over your plant properly without breaking the main stem.


STEP 2: Using a metal hook (i cut small sections of cloths hanger and bend a U shape at the end as a hook) bend over your plant with metal hook at the last internode (space between the last set of fanleafs and the next to last) and stick the metal hook into your dirt to hold down the stem.


STEP 3: This is really not a step, just waiting time... Take note of how the top of the plant that was bent down will bend back upwards towards the light, this could take anywhere from 3 hours to 1 day. Under my 1000 Watt Metal Halide light it does it in under 3 hours.


STEP 4: Veg and dont tie down until you have a new leaf set. You will notice Side branching has started already because good light is getting to the main stem areas next to each fanleaf stem intersection with the main stem.


STEP 5: Depending on your starting pot size you may have to transplant. If you started out with a large pot, repeat step 2 over and over again holding the main stem down with hooks until you reach the end of the pot. In this illustration to save time and drawings, i started out with a small pot and it reached the end of the pot after the first tiedown. I repotted it into a 10 inch pot which will be my final pot size for this plant in order for me to continue the LST Bends around the inside edge of the pot.


STEP 6: Now that your new leaf set has formed you have enough length in growth since the first bend(s) to allow you to start bending the stem horizontally around the inside edge of the pot. Use metal hooks again to keep this bend in place. Side branches should be coming along very nicely. Sativa cannabis seeds strains grow faster and produce more stems, indica marijuana seeds varieties will grow half as much.


STEP 7: Continue repeating steps 4 and 6, allowing the plant to grow and then keep tieing it down along the inside edge of pot using metal hooks (or whatever your using) Side branches should be forming and growing up towards the light.


STEP 8: Continue to repeat step 7 until you are all the way around the pot... when you reach the point where your plant first met the edge of the plant Top the plant (cut off the very top of the plant) and hold it down horizontally with a metal hook... During all this time of repeating step 7 you should also be tieing down horizontally the new branches that have formed from the main stem as much as possible until you use up as much space as possible inside the pot as well , the outter branches growing over the outside edge of the pot you can hold down as well with string to keep those tops even with the inner branches.


STEP 9: After you have used up all possible space inside the pot (or your eggcrate) its time to just let it flower.. This is a side view of how it will and should look by that time with all the side branches growing upwards towards the light... these will all become Collas unlike a non LST plant will only have one colla.

Anyone able to tell me about the possible bugs/pests that may be on my plant? I noticed one of the small leaves had a cm x cm piece chewed off, it looked like it was by a caterpillar sorta?

So a couple of things...just my 2 cents.
1. I am an led grower for personal consumption. If you have a 90 watt light laying around turn that beech on son. Led are killer during veg. Good choice on dropping that light by the way. The closest you can have it without causing DMG is where it should remain.

2 when working with lights such as led or flouros (non hps or mh) it is advisable to have a lot of reflective surface ...top to bottom to maximize light.

3. I'm also a hydro grower but didn't notice much perlite etc in your soil for drainage. Might just be my old man eyes.

4. I can't see any pests in your pics but neem oil works great, just don't spray your nugs when they come in. Do you have any tiny crawlers on the underside of your leaves? If so, until your neem arrives try water and a light mixture of dish soap ( very light. A few drops goes a along way)


You likely know all of this already' but throwing it out there in case something helps.