Question on LST...NEED ADVICE FAST

I just put my babies into flower 3 days ago and I can see they are going to get too tall for my flower chamber. I want to do LST to halt the vertical growth but here is my problem: I am leaving for 3 days and won't be able to tend to my plants. Will tieing the tops down for 3 days in one direction be too long? I have read alot on LST but can't seem to find out how long to tie them down in one direction before bending them the other way and tieing them down to a different side of the pot. HELP GUYS.

That should be fine man. Honestly I don't know what you're talking about with bending them the other way, I just tie mine over one way and then tie the branches out as they get long enough to make the canopy even. Only time I ever change that original cola's position is if it grows out past the pot or up too tall, then I bend it sideways and re-tie right there.

Maybe I have this all wrong then????

I thought I tie it one way and let the side leaves grow up towards the light and then tie it in another direction and let the side leaves on the opposite side of the plant grow up towards the light. Repeat in enough directions and the result is a bushy plant. Is this incorrect????

You can do it that way, but they all grow out fine even just tied in one way. Just make sure to reposition leaves so that the light can penetrate through to the branches.

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Originally Posted by canadagrown

Maybe I have this all wrong then????

I thought I tie it one way and let the side leaves grow up towards the light and then tie it in another direction and let the side leaves on the opposite side of the plant grow up towards the light. Repeat in enough directions and the result is a bushy plant. Is this incorrect????

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Yeah, it's all correct. It's not an "exact" procedure. Some people do it to greater extents than others I'm guessing. The goal as you stated is to just create an even canopy, so whatever it takes to do that is correct!

If you were still in veg, yeah you could LST it all the way around the pot if you wanted to.

Ok thanks for clarifying guys! But I'm not sure if I understand how I can get an even canopy by tieing them down in only one direction. How do the leaves on the underside of the tied down plant bush out??

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Originally Posted by canadagrown

Ok thanks for clarifying guys! But I'm not sure if I understand how I can get an even canopy by tieing them down in only one direction. How do the leaves on the underside of the tied down plant bush out??

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Well, if your light lumens and canopy penetration are good, then there should be no worries. Also it helps to turn your pots a qtr. turn everyday to get lights to all parts of the plant. :jointsmile:

There must have been at least 5 posts about lst'ing in the past week lol. Here are my pictures of lst'ing during veg and flower. My veg room was small so I had no choice, flower room is big, so I just lst'd to open up the canopy and allow the bottom of the plant to grow also. After your lst, your plants won't grow that fast for 3 days so you'd be fine, just make sure you bend them in such a way that It wouldn't matter if they did.

The last two pics are of what they should look like when your done lst'ing.
Good luck!:thumbsup:

Nice work bcals, this is what I get my girls to look like:

LST Low Stress Training:rasta:

Well here we go, LST (Low Stress Training) the ultimate way to maximize your yield. It is important to start your grow with high potency marijuana seeds genetics, with LST you can even go for tall sativa cannabis seeds strains.

Before we begin lets get some knowledge on what you will be looking at:
Light Brown: Pot Outline
Green thick Lines: Main Stem
Small Thin Lines with Green Balls on top: Fan leafs
Yellow Lines: Side Branches
Red: Tiedown Metal Hooks (or thread whichever item you use, i use Hooks - it's easier)
The Text in the box: First digit is Step No. and Second Digit is Pot Size, below the numbers is the type of view your looking at (either from the SIDE or from the TOP)



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.

During flowering and even before due to lack of light on the main stem fan leafs which is all the way to the bottom almost against the soil those fanleafs will die off anyways, i usually cut these off the main stem right after the branch has grown out in that area, keeps things neat down below where you will need good airflow during flowering.. so go ahead and take off any fanleafs coming off the main stem that is going around the inside edge of the pot.

Set your timer to 12/12 and watch it bloom. There is no Step 10 in the picture but we all know what that is HARVEST!!!

Sativa indica hybrids or sativa marijuana seeds strains are suitable for LST as they grow fast and low stress training helps to control their height. Choose a potent, high yielding cannabis seeds variety for LST!

Sorry forgot the guide:rasta:

Sorry forgot the guide:rasta:

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Originally Posted by redtails

Nice work bcals, this is what I get my girls to look like:

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Thanks yours looks real nice as well. How much did you end up yielding from her?

About 30g dry. Not bad for an autoflower that was only supposed to get to 25g indoors. She wasn't dense at all, strain seems very inconsistant as all 3 I've grown are different phenos.

Nice pics guys! Redtails that is really interesting, I've never seen such a little bush like that... nice work!

Here's some pics. These are only 16 days old (from clone). I think I let it get a bit too far outside of the pot. It's kinda leaning way off to one side, I need to kinda reign her in.

Also, do you trim off the fan leaves that can't turn themselves back up toward the light? You can see in one of the pics that this leaf just won't get any light. Seems like there's no point keeping it there.. I've got a few leaves that have been pretty much turned upside down. What do you think?

I think you should leave the fan leaf, For some reason I feel the more i trim off the slower the growth?

Try taking the stem of the leaf between your thumb & forefinger on both hands and gently twist back & forth so you can loosen it up and rotate it to the right position. Never tried it on a leaf but I know it works great on younger branches.

I would just leave them period considering it won't matter if the light can't reach the leaves underneath. The plant will just suck up what it can out of it and then it will die. Then either it will just fall off itself, or when the majority of it looks crispy, just poke it lightly and it should just fall off. If you cut it or remove it any other way it'll just stress the plant.

It may seem like something so small that wouldn't effect the plant, but every little bit counts in getting the best results. immitate nature!