need opinions

hey guys so im growing blue sage, Jordan islands, is one of the strains. shes been in veg for almost 8 weeks from seed, white hairs showed over two week ago. 5.5x5.5 space, no height issues, 1000 watt mh, standard pro mix, added perlite and some hydroton especially to the bottom of the pot as these girls in the past were very successful with extremely dry feet. everything is going great, very vigorous lush green growth and nodes starting to pop up everywhere. originally it was going to be scroged but because of renovations it was easier not to. so to bush out the plant i tied the plant down flat 3 full days ago, i have always been interested in lst so i was playing around a bit, and kept doing really mild supercropping and training. surprisingly the 6 gal pot has really started to fill out, its amazing how fast and versatile these plants are, the bud sides are really spreading out all over the pot and looks like for the most part will be quite full by the time she flowers in a little over a week. now my questions are one 1) what would happen if i released the plant, would everything start growing uniform up to the light just more bushy even tho all the foliage is all on the one side of the plant, so i was wondering if she wouldn't grow very straight up. 2) i wanted to know what people thought which approach i should take. continue with filling out the pot with lst, or my original plan i was going to be tying her down and really spreading out the bud sites making almost like a free hand scrog, just nice big flat canopy which i have been successful at before. or should i do the same type of thing but keep the plant tied down filling up the pot first. i don't have any height restrictions and this seems to be one of the most common reasons people lst like that, but i have seen people get amazing results even with lots of head room allowed. my original plan was to flip in a little over week and half. so guys which one do you think will yield me more of some top shelf ganja. most of my grows have all been sog, so i am not a noobie, but defiantly a noobie to the land of trees lol. but i must say last few have been a lot more fun and less tedious than taking care of a bunch of little pots. thanks for all your input guys and helping me out.

1. More or less, yes. "releasing from LST" prior to flower, will produce a bush in the same manner of which it was trained (depending on how long the plant had to adjust to the training). Issues: creating density that light cannot penetrate through will diminish the potential harvest in "top growth" and spread potential out among smaller lower growth. The plant will not all mature at the same rate (ie. inner/lower buds less mature). If your light intensity is full at say 36 inches away from the bulb but diminishes around 40-45, the focus should remain within that space between your light and "fade" of intensity (if there were an imaginary line or scrog screen in place, your growth should be between the 40 inch mark and your bulb. (obviously why cool or cooled lighting is typical)

2. Opinion - Your lighting produces a foot print.. It also casts X amount of lumens X distance from the lamp.. Figure out your foot print and distance needed to stay within full intensity (or near about), and fill it. Then figure out how to manage the plant once it has. LST will position the plant and assist in the filling of the space designated, without support however, some extra effort may be needed at the most critical time, in order to support the weight of flowering colas. In some cases, its easy to lay a soft trellis over the plant, and place branches into the netting as needed. This somewhat keeps things in place, and lowers the risk of heavy colas bending over and breaking stems. In other cases, using a hard wire screen layed in place can be used in the same manner with a bit of versatility in that its ridgid. Getting it in early enough before its a pain in the A, or damage control risk, is the key.


These questions have been answered hundreds if not thousands of times here at RIU, and typically takes just a bit of looking or asking around (rather than an entire thread), but considering how many times similar questions come up, I thought it may simply be helpful to toss it in here too. GL! Do some research pal!

thanks for the respsonse and I have done lots of research I am familiar in the technique I just couldn't find information on if the plant would grow uniform if released, and some general opinions on which way to go. like I said all my experience is with sog. my question was more to everyone about there experience and whether tying the bud sites apart or a lst. there is tons of information on either or but as we all know experience is more valuable than anything in this hobby. so would you suggest to continue with the lst

Yeah, through veg in order to fill your space, then I would allow as much vertical height as I could provide light. LOL, my any un-scrogged plants I work, look allot like my scrogged ones.. LOL. Maybe I am not the best experience! Chime in folks.

Woodsmantoker~

haha i had to read that a couple times, that is exactly what i'm trying to do. i saw a very poor write up about doing that and i absolutely fell in love with the idea. to tell you the truth this is what im trying to do with this plant. but to tell you the truth i have no real clue on what im doing lol except for the constant hours of research on the internet day in day out. that is why i got almost offended with your original post because i do nothing but read. i just find everything is so cut and dry in the means of using one technique and that's it. when they talk about lst for example its just about tieing it right down and filling the pot in a circle. i know everyone and including me use a lot of techniques at the same time, however i cant find much on info to get the desired outcome i am looking for. with this plant i grew her out as big as i could, i did lots of really low stress training ( just trying to shape it), lots of supercropping, and topped her. but it just didn't seem like what i was trying to do even though i had this really nice healthy plant who i cant wait to flower , so i tied her down as i explained above. she is really taking well to it. im going to go through your old posts or w.e. (not new to the boards, but knew to posting not sure how to work everything) i have seen tons of your posts and always like what you had to say on topics (recognized your profile picture, unless lots of people use it lol), as i said i'm going to look through your grow logs of w.e. for info, but maybe you can give me a super a quick overview on your process. like i said i read like no tomorrow, have a full understanding on everything to do with health and nutrients and can produce really healthy plants but as i said all i have ever done is sog and i am sick of it. really tired of consuming lots of time watering lots of little pots. i love the idea of taking care of just a couple plants and putting all my energy into them. plus i want to spend less time on fiddly stuff and more on the plant especially when its just a small personal grow. thanks for your time

Well honestly I do Lst method all the way to harvest. Talking 4ft branches blunt size in width lol. Its kick ass to watch it stretch as well as adjust to the Lst the 1-3 weeks of flower. Talk about a shit ton of bud sites and colas.

that's actually my original plan, I hope it works lol