Should i LST?

So i am growing in a swamp which has some ptos and cons for my plants. While they are able to soak up water from the ground and remain stealth they also get attacked by bugs and don't get a whole lot of sunlight. 2 of my plants are 4ft tall not counting the bucket and the other 2 are about 2ft tall. The 2 short ones are fairly bushy but the tall ones are kind of lanky. They are just tall enough now to be higher than the swamp grass and cat tails so they should stretch a little less now. But since they don't get too much light i wanted to know if it would be a good idea to clear some swamp grass around them and tie down some branches spreading them out to hopefully get more sun? Or should i just let them grow as high as they can get? The 2tall ones will probablly reach 6-7ft around harvest. I just want to know how to maximize yield, P.S. They are in 5gal buckets

Anyone know if i should? Since i have 4 plants and 2 will probablly turn out to be male i figure i will wait until flowerings starts in the next few weeks, and cut the males and maybe make hash out of the leaves or smoke them straight up with my low tolerance. Then i will just spread out the remaining females, cut a circle of swamp grass and cat tails down that are around them, then drive stakes into the ground and spread out and tie down the branches. Does that sound like a good plan?

Anybody? Please

if you can do it while letting them get proper sunlight then go for it. By like you said cutting a area for it to get hit by more sunlight. If you can't cut the surrounding area out then i wouldn't do it

yea man clear it out i little bit. not too much, just enough to give them more light but still look stealthy. you could tie them down a little(not too low) if you're worried about visibility.

i grew in a swamp my first time and will never do it again haha. it was waayyyyyyy too wet and humid out there.

good luck

RockstarEnergy said:

yea man clear it out i little bit. not too much, just enough to give them more light but still look stealthy. you could tie them down a little(not too low) if you're worried about visibility.

i grew in a swamp my first time and will never do it again haha. it was waayyyyyyy too wet and humid out there.

good luck

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Well i would comfortably be able to cut a 2ft radius around each plant so each plant will end up gettingl ike a 5 x 5 area. I will describe my location a little better. Its in a marshy area and most of which has a lot of ~15ft trees in it along with patches of cat tails and tall grass. My little plot is around a 25 x 12 foot oval of cat tails and grass surrounded by the 15ft trees. So i placed the plants in a line going down the oval of grass. So the reason they don't get a whole lot of sun is not because of the grass but the trees around my oval block out the morning and afternoon sun. So assuming i get 2 females i could LST them if i cut down more of the grass and cat tails. The only reason i feel LST may not help a whole lot is that the trees around my plot might just shadow the branches if they are tied and spread out anyways. Otherwise i would of easily done it already. If it helps at all my plants naturally lolipoped themselves, because the lower leaves would be shadowed by the grass and cat tails and die, so my taller plants have like 2ft of mostly stem then 2ft of a bushy top.

RockstarEnergy this is my first grow and i would say if i can my next grow will not be in a swamp. It is not terrible for my first grow i mean atleast my plants are growing, and they do not seem to mind the wetness. But i did notice there are more bugs which really hurt them for a while, but i have been taking care of that so they are recovering. Also the obvious they do not recieve the best light. But i am hoping for atleast an ounce from my 4plants, but it might be lower because if they don't get a lot of light they will be thin and airy buds.

Go for it. It'll hopefully thicken up those spacey bottom branches some. I'm experimenting with some LST'ing this time around myself, I did it to about 3/4 of my crop and I'm not disappointed.

ICantBelieveItsNotBud said:

Well i would comfortably be able to cut a 2ft radius around each plant so each plant will end up gettingl ike a 5 x 5 area. I will describe my location a little better. Its in a marshy area and most of which has a lot of ~15ft trees in it along with patches of cat tails and tall grass. My little plot is around a 25 x 12 foot oval of cat tails and grass surrounded by the 15ft trees. So i placed the plants in a line going down the oval of grass. So the reason they don't get a whole lot of sun is not because of the grass but the trees around my oval block out the morning and afternoon sun. So assuming i get 2 females i could LST them if i cut down more of the grass and cat tails. The only reason i feel LST may not help a whole lot is that the trees around my plot might just shadow the branches if they are tied and spread out anyways. Otherwise i would of easily done it already. If it helps at all my plants naturally lolipoped themselves, because the lower leaves would be shadowed by the grass and cat tails and die, so my taller plants have like 2ft of mostly stem then 2ft of a bushy top.

RockstarEnergy this is my first grow and i would say if i can my next grow will not be in a swamp. It is not terrible for my first grow i mean atleast my plants are growing, and they do not seem to mind the wetness. But i did notice there are more bugs which really hurt them for a while, but i have been taking care of that so they are recovering. Also the obvious they do not recieve the best light. But i am hoping for atleast an ounce from my 4plants, but it might be lower because if they don't get a lot of light they will be thin and airy buds.

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nice dude the problem i had with my swamp grow was high humidity. i was crazy humid out there and my soil was pretty much always wet. my plants ended up stunted and the buds were sooooo fluffy it was unbelievable. you didnt mention humidity so you might not have that problem but i would cut some grass just to get some airflow to them. thats just my opinion tho.

as for the light, apart from the lollipop affect you talked about, you're plants sound like they are thriving pretty well so i wouldnt worry too much about that. of course direct sunlight all day is ideal but the sun is so strong that a plant can thrive with less than say an indoor plant under 18/6 .

Well there is some humidity, not as bad as i had originally thought. I am just afraid of mold setting in when my plant starts producing buds. Can mold happen anytime or mostly when it is budding? Because if i have not had any mold yet i guess they shouldn't get any when they flower. My 5gallong pots have remained wet most of the time, to my surprise i have never had to water them at all this year which i guess is not bad since i was afraid of hauling gallons of water to my plants in a stealth manner. I still get a few damaged leaves now, since i only see my plants once a week and can only use insecticide once a week so it ends up washing off a little, but it is not nearly as bad as what it had been.

I am not sure if i understood you fully though Rockstar, did you say i shouldn't LST, but just cut the grass around them to increase some sun and airflow? So i shouldn't even LST them a little to make sure i hit as much of the bud sites as i can? Do you think my buds will end up being fluffy if they get around 4hours, maybe a little more, of direct sun light? I just want to make sure my buds are not crappy, i just want a decent yield with decent buds, i don't need anything super good for my first grow. So i think i might end up buying some bone meal and sprinkling it ontop of my soil so when it rains it can seep in and also get some molasses to help too. And if you don't mind could you share some info on your first swamp grow? Like how many female plants, how big, and what your yield/ smoke quality was? Thanks so much, and sorry for all the questions i am just anxious about my first grow

haha no problem man we're all like that for the first grow. i didnt say you shouldnt LST. you can go ahead if you want, its never really a bad idea to LST haha im doing it to mine right now. just dont bend them over tooo far.

my first grow was last summer with auto Ak-47 seeds. i planted in 2 gallon pots with Ocean Forest soil. started out with 5, and lost a bunch of them. planted some more, had more problems and one was male. i managed to keep 2 females alive.

the weather last summer was terrible. its rained the entire month of july and atleast 3 times a week in june and august. that and the humidity stunted the hell out of the plants. they only got about 10 inches tall. one plant had a little bit of a mold problem towards the end of flowering(thats usually when mold becomes an issue). my yield sucked, it was like less than an ounce off of those two plants and tasted like shit. the high didnt last very long either.

i harvested about 2 weeks too early because of impatiance and inexperience. i dont know if you have read up on harvesting but you really cant rush it. i relied only on trichome scoping and im not saying its not the best way...but there are other factors in determining when you're bud is ripe. the bud was ready according to my trichs but in reality it needed more time. i found this thread on harvesting and it really makes a lot of sense.
https://www.rollitup.org/harvesting-curing/210501-zeuss-take-harvesting.html

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Wow does not sound like your first grow went to well. But i guess thats whats first grows are for, learning. I think i might just doing a little LST to space those branches out a little so more sun hits the budding spots, but also to increase airflow through the plant. I was also thinking of buying like 10-15gallon containers once i determine sex so i can just put the known females into bigger containers right away in flowering so i can increase my yields by a little. And since your harvest story got me worried i am going to have to read more on it. This is my first actual grow akthough i have been reading on RIU for a year and a half so i do know some about flowering but decided i would worry more about that when it arrives.

Sorry to hear about your first grow though i hope this year is better for you, and i hope it turns out satisfying and worthwhile for me. If i can i will try to put up some photos of my plants so you can tell me what you think. If you can think of some useful tips for my situation please post them. Good luck

Yeah, I'd like to see a few pix before making suggestions.

ICantBelieveItsNotBud said:

Wow does not sound like your first grow went to well. But i guess thats whats first grows are for, learning. I think i might just doing a little LST to space those branches out a little so more sun hits the budding spots, but also to increase airflow through the plant. I was also thinking of buying like 10-15gallon containers once i determine sex so i can just put the known females into bigger containers right away in flowering so i can increase my yields by a little. And since your harvest story got me worried i am going to have to read more on it. This is my first actual grow akthough i have been reading on RIU for a year and a half so i do know some about flowering but decided i would worry more about that when it arrives.

Sorry to hear about your first grow though i hope this year is better for you, and i hope it turns out satisfying and worthwhile for me. If i can i will try to put up some photos of my plants so you can tell me what you think. If you can think of some useful tips for my situation please post them. Good luck

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yea it kinda sucked but im glad i did it. i made it to harvest which im proud of...just wish i was a little more patient! didnt do much research before starting so i was still fairly clueless haha. i did a few little indoor experimental grows this winter to workout my mistakes and get a better grasp on growing. it was well worth it because this years is going awesome!

i'd definitely love to see some pix of your plants tho. here is my thread if you wanna check it out. feel free to comment or ask questions there too.

https://www.rollitup.org/outdoor-growing/339270-better-late-than-never-2010-a.html

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ICantBelieveItsNotBud said:

will probablly reach 6-7ft around harvest...They are in 5gal buckets

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I see a problem.