Lst Q...

I'm planning on doing a lst job on my plant to increase total yield, I've read the FAQs but was wondering what height I should start at. And I'm pretty sure I need to top the plant once it starts to grow back skyward....or as it grows up do I just keep hooking the new growth down? any advice on lst is more than welcome. THanKs. oh yeah and whats scrog???

scrog = Screen of Green

Hmm, isn't SOG sea of green. Yea I thinks so. Scrog is another type of grow. I don't think LST increases yield. You do that when you don't have much grow space and it allows the buds to grow upwards. Bending your plants actually stresses them to.

**update**

read your post over wikid - my bad!

actually LST brings more light to the botom buds and they get fat too

assrabbi said:

I'm planning on doing a lst job on my plant to increase total yield, I've read the FAQs but was wondering what height I should start at. And I'm pretty sure I need to top the plant once it starts to grow back skyward....or as it grows up do I just keep hooking the new growth down? any advice on lst is more than welcome. THanKs. oh yeah and whats scrog???

Click to expand...

dont top them after they bud,to much stress slows plant and all that tying down would be a waste.

I start LST after I top the plants for the first time. I top the plants when it reaches 5 nodes produced. When the plant has been topped, I gently start bending the plant over using string. It is easier to do when the plant is young and the main stem is still supple as opposed to when they get more woody.

id agree that you should top first, and around 4-5 nodes.

i cant give much lst advice as i havent got it down myself, i had my plant trained really nice, and it tipped over. ripped a nice tear on the top node, almost took a limb off. i was tying it down on a 2x2 pallet with nails around the edge, training each limb near vertical. keeping the whole top about level. im gonna try couple methods this next grow i think..

i really considered SCROG it looks like a really good method. you get large colas all around. only reason i dont is i cant just get a 4x6 section of fence, id have to get a full roll.

theres a full acount of my lst'n with the pallet the 4th page of my journal below if your interested, and the plant is still growing strong. still just a bit over a ft tall, and im guessing ill harvest in about 3 weeks. although i think its a hermi, dunno if the tear had anthing to do with that. i also for fun twisted the stem of this plant into a pretzel early in its life. probably pics of that somewhere on there too

Ery

GrnMan said:

...I don't think LST increases yield. You do that when you don't have much grow space and it allows the buds to grow upwards. Bending your plants actually stresses them to....

Click to expand...

I believe LST (low stress training) DOES increase yield.

There are hormones called auxins that are responsible for directing the growth of a plant. The top, dominant growth contains a concentration of auxins that tells the rest of the plant: I'm the top dog. Don't you dare try and compete with me by growing up to my level. When we TOP, FIM, LST, and even SCROG what we're doing is manipulating the distribution of auxins and allowing side shoots that would normally remain subordinate to take off and try and compete for the top dog position. With LST'ing, what you can wind up with is multiple shoots that all think they are the top dog. Instead of one large cola (main growth tip) at harvest with less significant bud sites elsewhere you can have many colas who each thinks it's the primary cola. None may be quite as large as if a single cola growth was pursued but the combination of them all can easily outweigh (literally) a single cola.

I'm no botanist but that's my understanding of what's going on.


You're right about grow space though--it keeps the plants shorter. Also, I believe LST'ing allows us to make the best use of lower wattage lights (say 400w or 250w and less) by counteracting their weaker canopy penetration abilities. With a 250w light it's better, yield-wise, to keep as much growth as possible at the same level.

And in my limited experience, LST doesn't stress the plants much if any at all. They seem to continue their vigorous growth without pause during LST.



$0.02

Yeah the growth is obviously spread out among the whole plant, rather than having a single large bud, all those lower buds will get a chance to grow nice and big. Im excited to start LST on her, I love the way a nice trained plant looks, and luckily with the space I have she will thrive lower down as compared to growing tall. Next monday I'll be puttin the first clip in to begin training her down. Standby for pictures, I have a feeling this is gonna be a good one!

Just a few footnotes, take for what its worth.

Topping does create a few or more main colas over a single of on topped plant. The multiple colas seem to produce smaller buds, but more of them. Net result, I'll leave to your experiences.

Lolli-popping might make all this work great. Focus the growth to the main buds.

A 'standard' (non topped) plants seems to produce lower and inner buds that struggle to develop compared to the main cola.


Peace
-bbb

Yeah with the light and space I have available it will be more practical for me to do LST (only 4 ft of heigt by about 5 by 5 or more). Im also using cfls so its gonna be a lot more practical to hang a ton of light above it to get all those lower growths to turn into big fat buds. Would do ScroG but I cant think of a way to hang that fencing.

assrabbi said:

Yeah with the light and space I have available it will be more practical for me to do LST (only 4 ft of heigt by about 5 by 5 or more). Im also using cfls so its gonna be a lot more practical to hang a ton of light above it to get all those lower growths to turn into big fat buds. Would do ScroG but I cant think of a way to hang that fencing.

Click to expand...

all you gotta do to get close to a scrog style is make a frame around your rubbermaid (below it, like at every mid point and corner), so then you can tie down the growth... Doing it this way will let you come close to scrog but without messy chicken wire Use those plastic twisties to LST and some thin plant wire to then "ground" bud sites to the frame. It *can* still be a lot of work doing all that LST... but if you give some TLC now you'll get some sweet THC later!

I made this frame using cheap bamboo sticks and zip ties. The photo is a couple weeks before harvest. Two plants, 20+ cola sites. They were topped 2x and LST'ed from the beginning. There is some work to train them constantly. The whole experience was rewarding in the end.

Tommy i like that screen a lot, its simple and effective. i may try something similar.

Ery

Tommy, when did you start training them? How did they stay so short!? I need your genius. Those plants look GREAT.