"Traditional" LST vs Main-Lining: Plant vs. Plant Showdown!

wietefras said:

Heh, I know the feeling.

I often even put wet plant matter in my vaporizer. For instance the little tops left over after a pruning session. I dry it in the vaporizer at a lower temperature. When dry I grind it up and enjoy.

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I hear you. That's something I didn't know about growing until I got into it, you find all these little ways to use "left overs" from the plant. For instance, I picked up a set of "bubble bags" to make bubble hash from the trimmings. My wife doesn't smoke, but she'll make edibles with the hash. It's one of those cool little bonuses you get from growing you own meds.

Gr8Xcape98 said:

And here are some trichomes pics. Don't know which pics are from which plant, but they both are at about the same point in development.

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My guess is that in two or three more weeks they would be at peak ripeness. But, due other factors the girls are coming down next week. And yes, they are both coming down at the same time so we'll have the fresh yield results in a week with the dried and cured yield two weeks after that. The showdown continues, but the finish line is near...

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Are you going to chop them off at the same time? you could leave the indica longer than the sativa.

Used all the techniques ive learnt, on these 2 plants i currently have waiting to go into flower
(Instead of using 1 technique)

Not the best pics, but you get the idea!!

felipesgonzaleza said:

Are you going to chop them off at the same time? you could leave the indica longer than the sativa.

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Hey Felipes. Yeah, both ladies are getting the ax at about the same time. I may let the slimmer (main-line) lady hang around for a few extra days, but both will be drying and curing by the first week of Jan. Gotta do what I gotta do. Probably not perfect timing for the harvest, but I picked up a boatload of ideas for my next grow, so it's all good.

Here's a quick photo dump for gits & shiggles. In the side view pics you can see the 2 bulb PLL fixture that hangs behind the plants. In those photos you're looking "through" the mail-line plant. You can see how the colas form a ring with the middle of the plant fairly wide open. I'm already thinking of how to train my next main-line grow to take advantage of that space. You'll also see most of the main-line buds are now tied to the overhead light fixture. Fat, lazy bastards

Also, in all the pics you'll see a 25oz stainless steel water bottle. The bottle is 12 inches tall and 3¼ inches in diameter. This should give an idea of the size of some of these buds. In most of the pics the bottle is sitting on the plant support that the LST plant is growing through. Enjoy the pics. Feel free to comment.

hey, soo the ladies are topped at 4 nodes, one is a lst/top and one has 3 stalks and 8 tops its working on

Greetings Plant Lovers,

So the end is in sight! Or at least the beginning of the end. Drying and curing will take another three weeks or so.

Anywhoo, both ladies are getting the ax on Wednesday. Gonna chop them both on the same day just to make life easier. Between now and then I'll be plucking off fan leaves here and there to make the final trim at harvest go a little faster. That said, the harvest timing seems perfect for both plants. The Main-Lined lady has matured quite nicely. You'll see in the below pics that she has about 60% red/brownish hairs. The LST on the other hand just keeps getting fatter and fatter. It's still pushing out new white hairs, but under those are a boatload of "mature" redish/brown hairs. So despite all the white hairs in the pic, she's ready too. Also, the trichome pics suggest the ladies are ready. I admit that I'm not a master of "reading the T-leaves" quite yet. But, most the trichs are cloudy, with a few clear and a few starting to turn amber, so I think we're in the sweet spot.



Wet yield results will be in before the new year with dried/cured weight coming in mid-Jan, so stay tuned...

main-line looks amazing !!! LST isn't ready but if you got to chop it do it quick cause I don't want her to suffer.

felipesgonzaleza said:

main-line looks amazing !!! LST isn't ready but if you got to chop it do it quick cause I don't want her to suffer.

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Thanks Felipes! I'm real happy with how this grow turned out. Most of all I'm happy I gave main-lining a try. The LST might produce a bigger yield for this grow, but that's just cause I didn't really know what I was doing with the main-lining. With what I've learned from this grow I'm pretty sure my next main-liner is gonna be a monster...

As for harvest time, both ladies started to ripen really fast over the last few days. You'll see that in the pics. I think had I waited another week or two they might have actually gone past their prime.

Here's a quick photo update. This will be the last look at the ladies before they get the ax tomorrow. You'll see I already started removing lower buds from the main-line. I'm doing the same with the LST in a few minutes. I just have to do something first...



The Wet Yield Showdown results coming soon...

Purpsmagurps said:

hey, soo the ladies are topped at 4 nodes, one is a lst/top and one has 3 stalks and 8 tops its working on
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Hey Purps. Looks like you're gonna have a little forest on your hands... Looking good. Are those LEDs giving you that purple light? How you like'em?

Yeah the LED has a massive spectrum, its only on veg right now though, it gets really red with the bloom setting on.
and its doing great, I can't wait to get my 600W cool tube in there as well.

Gr8Xcape98 said:

Thanks Felipes! I'm real happy with how this grow turned out. Most of all I'm happy I gave main-lining a try. The LST might produce a bigger yield for this grow, but that's just cause I didn't really know what I was doing with the main-lining. With what I've learned from this grow I'm pretty sure my next main-liner is gonna be a monster...

As for harvest time, both ladies started to ripen really fast over the last few days. You'll see that in the pics. I think had I waited another week or two they might have actually gone past their prime.

Here's a quick photo update. This will be the last look at the ladies before they get the ax tomorrow. You'll see I already started removing lower buds from the main-line. I'm doing the same with the LST in a few minutes. I just have to do something first...

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The Wet Yield Showdown results coming soon...

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Oooooo! Sticky finger time!
They're really both beautiful - I'dve given the LST another few too, but hey!
Enjoy the harvest!

Happy New Year Plant Lovers!

The plants are down! Each plant was harvested in two rounds. Round 1 focused on the lower branches and smaller buds. These buds will be dried in paper bags. Round 2 was all about the big buds that would be hung to dry. Once dried, everything will be cured in mason jars. We're looking for two things, smokable bud and high quality trim (consisting of popcorn buds and sugar leaves). So with that, here goes...

Here are both ladies before the ax started swinging...


Here they are after the Main-Line finished Round 1...


Here's the bounty from ML's Round 1...


And here's the big score from the Main-Line...


And here's the Main-Line hanging out... LST, you're next...


A quick shot of that nice "V-8" plant structure...


Here's the LST after Round 1. It took a lot out of her...


Here's the Round 1 bounty from the LST...


And here's the main event for the LST...


And here they are, smelling sweet and looking fine Each plant has it's own "sock" hanger with one bag of loose buds and one bag of high quality trim below...


Now to what everyone wants to know - final wet yield, so here we go...

Main-Line: 17.9oz. main buds (hanging), 3.0oz loose buds (bag), 1.9oz trim (bag), 22.8oz total (including trim), 20.9oz smokable (excluding trim)

Low-Stress Trained: 15.1oz. main buds (hanging), 4.3oz loose buds (bag), 3.5oz trim (bag), 22.9oz total (including trim), 19.4oz smokable (excluding trim)

Let's assume the smokable bud looses 80% of it's weight during drying and curing. That would mean the Main-Line would yield about 4.2oz of smokable bud vs the LST producing roughly 3.9oz. Not a huge difference, but given the fact that during the entire grow the nutes were dialed in MUCH better for the LST plant than for the Main-Line, I must say the winner seems clear...

For smokable bud, Main-Lining wins the Plant vs. Plant Showdown!!!!

Feel free to shoot me comments or questions. I have detailed notes of every aspect of this grow.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Absolutely awesome job, Gr8Xcape98. Thanks so much for taking the time to document this grow, including the photos.

Happy New Year to all.

Seems like Main Lineing is the way to go Very nice, I hope you enjoy it as much as I envy you

Gr8Xcape98 said:

Happy New Year Plant Lovers!

The plants are down! Each plant was harvested in two rounds. Round 1 focused on the lower branches and smaller buds. These buds will be dried in paper bags. Round 2 was all about the big buds that would be hung to dry. Once dried, everything will be cured in mason jars. We're looking for two things, smokable bud and high quality trim (consisting of popcorn buds and sugar leaves). So with that, here goes...

Here are both ladies before the ax started swinging...
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Here they are after the Main-Line finished Round 1...
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Here's the bounty from ML's Round 1...
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And here's the big score from the Main-Line...
View attachment 3575835

And here's the Main-Line hanging out... LST, you're next...
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A quick shot of that nice "V-8" plant structure...
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Here's the LST after Round 1. It took a lot out of her...
View attachment 3575838

Here's the Round 1 bounty from the LST...
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And here's the main event for the LST...
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And here they are, smelling sweet and looking fine Each plant has it's own "sock" hanger with one bag of loose buds and one bag of high quality trim below...
View attachment 3575841

Now to what everyone wants to know - final wet yield, so here we go...

Main-Line: 17.9oz. main buds (hanging), 3.0oz loose buds (bag), 1.9oz trim (bag), 22.8oz total (including trim), 20.9oz smokable (excluding trim)

Low-Stress Trained: 15.1oz. main buds (hanging), 4.3oz loose buds (bag), 3.5oz trim (bag), 22.9oz total (including trim), 19.4oz smokable (excluding trim)

Let's assume the smokable bud looses 80% of it's weight during drying and curing. That would mean the Main-Line would yield about 4.2oz of smokable bud vs the LST producing roughly 3.9oz. Not a huge difference, but given the fact that during the entire grow the nutes were dialed in MUCH better for the LST plant than for the Main-Line, I must say the winner seems clear...

For smokable bud, Main-Lining wins the Plant vs. Plant Showdown!!!!

Feel free to shoot me comments or questions. I have detailed notes of every aspect of this grow.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

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Wohoo and a very Happy New Year to you too - you've gotten out to a lush start, that's for sure!
Yes, thanks for documenting this, it's been great to follow along!

check it

Purpsmagurps said:

check it
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Lookin Good Purps! I love how that LED makes your tent look. Like you've got a major laboratory operation going on! How you liking the main-lining? Don't be afraid to be aggressive with tying those branches down. It's best to catch them while they are young and thin. You're ladies have some thick stems, so I'm not sure how much more bending they can take. That said, you want to get each of those new "primary gowths" as much room as you can during veg so when you switch to flower they each have room to do their thing.

Keep up the good work Purps!

Greetings Plant Lovers,

Time for a quick Post-Game Review. Below are a few of the more interesting observations that came out of this grow. I'm not suggesting anything I say is law or scientific fact - these are just my observations. If you have specific questions feel free to toss them my way. These are my key take-aways:

1) - Main-Lining WILL NOT kill your planst!: Ok, anything taken to extreme can cause damage. And if you just start chopping on your plant without a plan or paying close attention you may do more harm than good. But if you do your homework and take your time, main-lining can benefit your grow in multiple ways and lead to a strong harvest.

2) - Main-Lining MAY increase size and height of plant: Of the two girls, the main-lined plant ended up both taller and wider. Because the main colas form a "ring" around the center, much of the inner space is unused. I'm thinking creative training techniques can address that. But in general, it appears main-lining simulates more vigorous growth which leads to bigger/taller plants.

3) - Main-Lining MAY increase nutrient requirements: I mentioned this throughout the grow. The main-lined plant was noticeably "hungrier" than it's LST'd counterpart. My guess is the increased growth mentioned above comes with increased nutrient needs. If doing a main-line grow plan on using a more aggressive feeding schedule than you otherwise would for the same strain.

4) - Main-Lining MAY add additional time to veg period: This one is kinda obvious. All the chopping means there are multiple times when the plant has to recover from the shock of topping. This may add a few extra days/weeks to your grow schedule.

5) - Uniformity of Main-Lining MAY add to yield: This I did not expect. The LST'd plant had three or four huge colas and a bunch of smaller bud sites. I assumed the LST would win the yield battle. But the main-line actually gave a higher total yield. I assume this is because each of the main-line colas were about the same size. None of the main-line colas were as big as the biggest LST cola, but likewise, none of the main-line colas were as small as the smallest LST colas. The main-line's consistency of cola size ultimately resulted in a higher total yield.

6) - Add plant supports early: So I added support to the LST plant right after flipping to flower, but didn't support the Main-Line until mid-way through flower. I think this had an impact on the main-line plant's ability to fatten up the buds. My guess is the main-line plant was putting extra energy into keeping herself upright while the LST was leaning on her supports and just getting fatter and fatter. If the main-lined plant had the benefit of support earlier I think she would have yielded even more.

7) - Main-lining MAY increase bud density: So the main-line buds are much "denser" than the LST's buds. Some of the LST's buds are kinda "fluffy" while all of the Main-Line buds are solid little nuggets. You'll notice in the pics that the purple jars from the LST plant look "fuller" than the main-line's jars. But they all have about an ounce of bud in each jar. An ounce of LST bud takes up more space than an ounce of main-line bud cause the main-line buds (on average) are heavier.

Lastly, the smoke is only OK, but getting better. I'll wait until the buds have cured for at least two weeks before passing judgment on the quality of the smoke.

Pics to come.

Post-Game Review - the pics.

Here are a few pics. As mentioned before, you may be able to notice the jars of the Main-Line plant don't look as full as the jars from the LST plant. Rest assured, all the jars contain about the same amount of bud by weight. The LST buds are just fluffier. The clear jars in the pics are "testing" jars and for immediate use. All the purple jars will receive no less than a one month cure.

Pics of Main-Line (aka, El Dorado)


Pics of LST (aka, The Kraken)


Oh, and when counting both the purple and clear jars the total yield from this two plant grow is close to 10oz. Hope everyone enjoyed the Showdown!

Gr8Xcape98 said:

Lookin Good Purps! I love how that LED makes your tent look. Like you've got a major laboratory operation going on! How you liking the main-lining? Don't be afraid to be aggressive with tying those branches down. It's best to catch them while they are young and thin. You're ladies have some thick stems, so I'm not sure how much more bending they can take. That said, you want to get each of those new "primary gowths" as much room as you can during veg so when you switch to flower they each have room to do their thing.

Keep up the good work Purps!

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Thanks! I went for doing it right this time, definitely going for aesthetics , my first grow was in a half bath shower, lol.

I really like mainlining a lot, was pretty scared to do it at first but quickly got over it..

And I'm slowly training just the main tops to their positions, I'm vegging for a little bit longer since I have a 600w hps and 350W led so technically saying I'm pushing 12-1300W equivalent to hid (1kw actual draw when bloom is on) So the penetration will be there to reach the lower leaves. platinum says it replaces a 800W HID but I'll give them 6 or 7 hundred.

On top of that my lights can profile within a foot of the top of my tent, with no heat issues the only thing that will stop me from running it at 600W is my humidity.
I'm going to be safer running 450W HPS dimmed down from 600W anyways. so I'll be running 1 kw with 2 angles of lighting, should cover enough to go tall in a 4x4. thoughts?