Ready to start LST ?

I believe it's best if you wait til the 3rd set of leaves are fully developed.

 

Looks like she's producing her fourth or fith leaf set. You can start bending in the next few days and get some growth out of those lower shoots. Go for a nice 90 degree angle at the level of the first leaf set and she'll respond well. Good luck!

 

Yes, the lower branches will now grow up together with the main cola. It's important to be patient and gentle at this point so as not to mangle your plant. The lst training will continue throughout veg, as showb in the graphic below. The numbers indicate weeks of growth. Note that not every plant will be trained all the way around the pot as you may flower before your training gets that far.



Not my image. Apologies for hot crediting the image source. Glad to provide credit if anyone knows the source.

As an example, here's a grow of mine that has been trained with lst. Four plants, four strains, even canopy of buds.



Hope that helps. There are a couple of extended threads on gc with excellent examples and tips from other members. I am by no means the master here and have learned what I know from others on gc. Credit where credit is due...

 

Sure. Feel free to message me if you need any help along the way. I've got a perpetual grow on this year so my mind is constantly on the subject of plant training. You'll be amazed at how the plant responds within 24 hours to each training and how your little input stimulates growth. Good luck!

 

I'm no expert on this, but my understanding is that a lights off rest period of up to six hours is best for veg growth. A week or two after sprouting I change to 18/6. Your mileage may vary, of course..

 

I find 11l to be just right for a month or so of veg and two months of flower. I usually start in small containers and transplant up once or twice to a max of 11L as she grows. Starting in large pots tempts me to overwater, the roots don't maximize the space and mold/root rot can develop. If you use the 11l all the way through, water just enough so that her roots will grow out and she isn't sitting in a bucket of mud all day. A lighter growing medium helps in this case.

Think of your plant like a pet. Give her what she needs and not too much. Overwatering is a problem for many growers, including myself, usually until the plant's growth phase kicks in and she really starts drinking. Once the main growth tip grows a few centimeters, train her again and the branches and leaves will really develop.

I'm transplanting 12 plants today myself before switching to flower in a few days...

 

I don't know anything about cfl growing. I only use cfls or a t5 box for seedlings and clones. I've read in places that hps is more efficient (cost, heat, lumens) when compared to larger multi-lamp cfl setups. Be careful of your temps. When I read "spot light" I think of a lamp that can keep french fries hot, which is not what you want. If you're getting the plant-usable lumens you need from those lights without too much heat, cost or risk of electrical fire (!), you should be fine.

Ha, I almost posted a pre-transplant pic of my tent but I'm embarassed to admit that I'm dealing with fungus gnats at the moment and it looks terrible with so many flies on white mylar. I'll post a pic after transplant and cleanup. I'm excited to try 12 plants of six strains, fimmed them and trained in an "x" pattern for a quick fim-lst-sog combo while the larger tent is finishing flower. I usually stick with four lst plants so this will be my largest grow to date in terms of plant count. Nervous/excited, the tent will be packed!

 

Well, it only took 3.5 hours but I got my tent sorted and all 12 clones and seedlings transplanted to 6L buckets. Here's a group pic from the balcony:

The layer of perlite on top is not my usual thing, just a precaution to surpress the fungus gnats that invaded my tent.

Here are a couple of shots of the training I'm doing on the girls. I fimmed/topped early, aiming for a nice "x" of four main stems for each plant:



I really ought to do a journal...

 

Thanks, I dig it too. Three of the little ones are five weeks from seed and the others are three week old clones. I'm growing organic with my own soil and worm castings. I supplement with plagron alga grow and alga bloom as needed. Not sure if plagron is available outside europe as we have some different brands.

Here are pics of the four in the flower tent to demonstrate the effects of lst training:

These girls are in week four of flower, planted from seed on 16. July. I can basically pull the same harvest from a four-plant lst grow as my mates do with 16-plant sog, plus i have more variety by training different strains to the same height. I'm really looking forward to this harvest as these are my "greatest hits" strains that everyone seems to love: master kush, orange bud, K-train and freddy's best.

Definitely something to look forward to once you've put in the time to lst.

Ah yes, might as well throw in one last pic. Here's a sweet mango auto I've had out on the balcony since june, ready to harvest any day now:

Notice that I did a little lst on her early and she responded by developing many colas of similar size instead of just a single. Also, the slightly smaller buds are less succeptible to mold.

Yep, it's a crowded house. Hope yours flourish in a similar way!

 

Lookin good, you can already see the lower growth is stimulated. As for flowering, I would wait a bit and let her wrap around to a half circle, switch, then continue to train her for the first couple weeks of flowering. The extra veg time and shoots will pay off with more bud sites and more yield. Maybe 1-2 weeks before the switch, def worth it in the end.