LST (low stress training)

lots of people ask what is LST and how is it done, what does it do in the end.

LST is a training technique to keep the plant short and expose more light to lower branches, if trained enough you can create a very even canopy and grow denser buds.

you can start LST at about 3 weeks into the veg stage, make sure your plant was watered the day before or at least an hour before attempting as a dry plant will break very easily.

what you want to do is secure the stalk and loop something over the top at least 1 node down and bend her over being careful and going slow, going too fast can snap a plant too so go slow and easy and she should bend over 90 degrees no problem.

pic 1 is a plant at day 1 LST, bend right over at 90 degrees

pic 2 is the bottom of the plants branches now growing upward to the light.

pic 3 is the main cola's catching up with the rest of the plant, when she gets about 2 inches over pull her back down again under the rest of the canopy, in about 3 days she will be back up again and repeat.

pic 4 is what your new canopy should look like about 2 weeks into the LST, looks great and plants love the light.

pic 5. now ready to flower,she is 30 days old most branches should get great light to make some awesome buds for all our work, in 60 days she will look beautiful full of herb.

hope this helps anyone who wanted to know.

this is best used with CFL lighting and 250watt and lower HPS systems

damn nice pics... is that a current grow??

yup but she is well into flower :)

Thanks for the info. I was just in the process of looking up lst methods and this is exactly what I was looking for. My babies are two weeks old to the day so I am getting ready to take the next step.

Good luck on the harvest.

your more than welcome, its a very common question and its not covered in the FAQ which is really odd as it should be there, its the most common training aside from SOG.

there is also topping which ill cover at some point next grow and show how this is done and why its done, its like LST but removing the main cola and making the plant bush out and trigger all branches to becomes huge cola's as well.

Do you stop lsting when you put them in 12/12? Mine have been in flower light for a week now, so should I remove the restraints? Thanks!

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Originally Posted by invision

...this is best used with CFL lighting and 250watt and lower HPS systems

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Nice info! Question: why is this best used under the above conditions? ^ I mean, is there any reason why it wouldn't be compatible with say a 400w hps?

maybe he ment that with the lower watts its best TO DO IT, not that it WILL WORK BETTER, im doin a LST with 2 plants under a 400hps and they love it!!

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Originally Posted by Mrs. Greenjeans

Nice info! Question: why is this best used under the above conditions? ^ I mean, is there any reason why it wouldn't be compatible with say a 400w hps?

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i say its best cause 250watt and lower systems do not have the power to penetrate deep into the canopy, if your using 200watts in CFL you dont want to waste light on a plant that is tall, the bottom branches get little to no light and die off.

i myself have 150watt hps bulbs and if i didnt LST i would end up with a single main cola rather a bunch of cola's trained.

you can use this for any wattage its just more efficent on lower watt bulbs so you get to use up all those lumens that would have otherwised been wasted.

everyone should LST :thumbsup:

Gotcha! Thanks.:)

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Originally Posted by Demeter

Do you stop lsting when you put them in 12/12? Mine have been in flower light for a week now, so should I remove the restraints? Thanks!

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Nope, you can keep tying the plants into flowering. I never remove the ties unless they arn't doing anything.

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Originally Posted by harris7

Nope, you can keep tying the plants into flowering. I never remove the ties unless they arn't doing anything.

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So it doesn't interfere with the new little buds? I don't want to drag them down so they don't get light. I'm not really doubting you, I just need to be reassured:)

you can tie them up to week 4 no problem so no worries :)

you can tie them to the day of harvest... then tie on the day of harvest... after chopping :D

Raspect & Peace
APPRECIATE INFO KP....So 12 days into 12-12 not to late to Lst
Tamatoe Plant...1st Day of SEX Shown...Its a GurL....:thumbsup:
Getting to tall for space....
PLANT a SEED....WATCH It GROW.....Smoke HerB......
One Tamatoe PLANT....LOTS of RASTA LOVE:rastasmoke: oneLove

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Demeter

So it doesn't interfere with the new little buds? I don't want to drag them down so they don't get light. I'm not really doubting you, I just need to be reassured:)

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That would depend on your particular situation. You want to tie so that you can have a nice even canopy so that the light effectively illuminates the plant.
Individual buds shouldnâ??t be of concern, only the total weight of the plant.
Tying will/may reduce light intensity to some buds but have an overall benefit to the plant and to its weight.

Donâ??t worry about it

bump

my 3 look like pic 2

thats a good thing as it shows the tops are now aiming for the sky and the training is going good, another 2 weeks and they should look like a endless seam of tops that look like a single plant :)

happy growing

they are under a 175 MV light and 4 40w floro's. and 2 40 w 3 foot floro grow lights.
so i hope it only takes another 2 weeks.

i hear all the time MV lamps suck but i see people use them and they look great, i dont know but they so seem to work out for people, i even seen a flowered plant under a MV that looked killer.

keep growing

i have some pics on here in a thread i think its called my first grow.
I will be adding to it.

here is the link to my pics i added during thier low stress training.
they are lookin sweet.

http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-gr...ml#post1264729

very insightful A+. plants are looking very nice. hope you get some big buds off them! good luck!

I just dont get what I need to do after its been bent to 90 and is growing back already... I dunno just bend it over another direction or what

sorry about that KL4 i guess i didnt explain that part :wtf:

what i do is just tie them back down going in a circle around the pot, so at first you tie her off at 90degress then a few days later the cola catches back up, now when you tie back down just follow the edge of the pot until you either made a complete circle or she is ready to flower.

this can takes weeks before you make it fully around the pot plus she gets a bit taller over time so becareful to leave room to water her somehow.

you dont have to leave multiple ties on her either just move it up a node or 2 and retie her down and thats that :thumbsup:

Good thread, Invision. You do good LST work. I always like it when someone starts a thread like this with the NAME in the TITLE so people can search for it easier. :thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by invision

your more than welcome, its a very common question and its not covered in the FAQ which is really odd as it should be there, its the most common training aside from SOG.

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I think you meant SCRoG.

Be cool. RastafarI. :jointsmile:


The Fog :rastasmoke:

hey thanks Fog :)

yeah i did mean scrog but SOG is just another method without the screen so either can be the same i suppose, you should LST a crop one time to see what you think of it Fog you may like it.

When should you top if your LSTing????

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Originally Posted by invision

hey thanks Fog :)

yeah i did mean scrog but SOG is just another method without the screen so either can be the same i suppose, you should LST a crop one time to see what you think of it Fog you may like it.

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Well, Invision...SOG is not really the same as SCROG without a screen. They are completely different growing methods, from what I understand.

SCROG = Training your plant so that it bushes out, then training each branch through a wire screen to direct light onto all budsites equally. This requires massive training and lots of attention. You can get a good harvest off of just a couple plants. See justaseed's lovely ladies thread. Pimp shit. Canuckgrower has some plants that could probably be thrown under a screen nicely.

SOG = Growing MANY plants, all with one main cola. This requires lopping off most of the bottom growth of a plant, to let the plant focus on the top cola, which also means you can fit many more plants into the same growing area. Look at MULLETMAN's grow for something SIMILAR to a SOG. He had 12 plants under one 400w.

ToKAlot, you don't really HAVE to top if you are LSTing. Many people actually don't. They just bend the top of the plant over to get the main growth tip BELOW the other tips. This allows the plant to devote the main growth hormones to the other tips instead of the original main tip. There is a really cool diagram out there somewhere (for all I know, It is in this thread) that shows how you can LST the plant in a spiral pattern around the pot.

Another way is to top the plant when it has about 5-6 nodes, then train all the remaining shoots so that the plant ends up like a Pimp goblet. :pimp: Check the JOURNAL to see what I'm talking about. It's buried in there somewhere. :)


The Fog :rastasmoke:

im giving myself a bump cause its just a damn good thread to waste

yep now find us that diagram!

OK, now if I can make my plants grow like pimp goblets, I will be the shit...

I have 6 new rooted plants coming from my co-op at the end of the month, so after they've settled in I'm gonna go goblet style.

I know with my first grow, which is coming to a close, I started lst'ing them and then all hell broke loose in the rest of my life and I had to let them go, so I didn't get the main cola all the way round the pot like I wanted to, so I got some crazy tall side shoots, but they're making huge colas ala the main cola, in some cases bigger than the main cola.

LST works, that's for sure, even if done half-assed as I did...

If you do top it's best to get them when they're very young so the split will be low and it gives the plant plenty of time to recover. I usually pinch off the 4th or 5th node as soon as it is pinchable. This way you can train both stems resulting from it to grow in two opposite directions. Once several inches have grown on each stem I take a 1" thick strip of duct tape and wrap it around the trunk where the split begins to stop it from tearing once the training begins.

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hope you mention this one

great thread all my questions answered:thumbsup:

looks great, but what does the 1-6, 2-6 etc mean on that diagram, is that weeks one through six?

first number is the step and the second is pot size.

o rad, thanks alot