Part II - High Stress Training Super-cropping, topping, chopping, decapitating, crushing the herd, bending the stem, FIM, call it what you will: it's high stress training (HST). Any time you are physically damaging the plant to train it, you are causing it to undergo a series of chemical and horomonal changes that will result in what everyone is looking for: more budsites on your plant. There are 2 main types of high stress training: 1) Topping (via FIM or other method) 2) Stem mutilation We'll start with topping. Topping involves removing the apical tip from the plant. This causes the plant undergoe a series of changes, resulting in the auxilary buds sprouting new apical tips. As discussed in part I, this is because there is no auxin generator above the tips inhibiting the growth of the sites. This will usually result in at least two bud-sites where there was one. Another type of topping is called the FIM method. FIM stands for "Fuck I Missed." This is because, instead of completely removing the apical tip, you are only removing half of it, looking like you "missed" the top. This can results in 3, 4 or even more tops from the location. A common FIM technique, is to bend a box-razor blade so there is a curve in it. This way, you can scoop out the area necessary to make the FIM cut. DierWolf, from the grasscity.com forums, produced an excellent image that illustrates the difference between regular topping, and the FIM technique: So, you might be asking yourself: "if the FIM technique produces more bud sites than regular topping, why would anyone top their plants?" Now would be a good time to look at the pros and cons of FIM vs Topping. FIM -Pros Potential to produce many bud-sites More careful methods Can keep canopy level the same Great for small grows -Cons Large risk of failure - if you cut wrong, you won't get the results you're looking for Larger risk of infection - more exposed foliage More time consuming More difficult Topping -Pros Quick Easy Does not require tools Great for large grows -Cons Less budsite potential than the FIM technique Longer recovery time FIM is generally known to cause more bud-sites than regular topping but it is definitely more time-intensive. Topping can be as simple as using your fingernails to pop the top off of your plants as you walk along your grow. To properly FIM, precision and a tool must be used for maximum results. Speaking of fingernails, let's look at the other type of high stress training: stem mutilation. Now, there are interesting theories, methods and discussions invovling both the science and application of this type of training. This type of training is known by many different names: -Crushing the herd -Supercropping -Stem-smashing -Leaning the stem over All of them have the same general idea: mutilate the stem evenly around an area so that the stem bends over at a 90 degree angle. In this case, we aren't removing a piece of the plant, but rather damaging an area of the plant so that the angle of the branch changes. The most common methodology for crushing the stem is to pinch the stem enough that it breaks and separates a bit. Then, turn your pinch by 90 degrees and pinch again. This will cause the tip of the plant to fall over at an angle. Supercropping can be done during vegetative growth to achieve effects similar to LST. That is: the apical tip will be bent downwards once the branch has been pinched. This causes the plant to think that it needs to send new tips to grow towards the light source. Supercropping can also be done during flower to keep those stretchy plants from burning themselves. There are plenty of examples of supercropping well into flower w/out having too adverse of an effect on the plant: pic Obviously, some strains will respond better than others. In addition, if you supercrop well into flower and you have some heavy budsites, you may find the stem has troubles supporting itself. Be smart about it and don't crush the stems too hard if you don't think the plant will grow out of it. Let's check the pros and cons of this type of training: -Pros Not as stressful as removing plant parts Less worry of failure Not as prone to infection Quick and easy -Cons Somewhat inprecise Can have a learning curve Changes for different strains In the last type of training, I started to talk about how supercropping can be used to trick the plant by damaging the stem and causing the tip to fall to, or below, a horizontal level. This leads us into the basics for the next type of training. Part III continues below...
Part III - Low Stress Training It is easy to get confused about low stress training when you are first exploring cannabis training. This is because the acronym for low stress training (LST) also happens to be the name coined for a particular type of low stress training. No one is quite sure of the source, but many attribute it back to Delta or myMUSICveins (thanks greenisgold) for popularizing the name and the technique. There are two main types of low stress training: 1) The tie-down method 2) Screen of Green (ScrOG) Low stress training does not require any mutilation or damage to the plant which, for some, is the sole reason to use it above high stress training methods. Low stress training is done by tricking the plant into thinking the apical tips are no longer able to be the apical tips. In nature, if a branch gets blocked by another branch, or a large leaf from another tree, the plant will do it's best to navigate the growing tip so that it can continue growing upwards. If, however, the plant cannot easily find a way to make that growing tip go back towards the light, the level of auxins will shift, and the lower sites will be called upon to try and stretch up to become the next apical tip. This process can be repeated over, and over again in our controlled, indoor environments: apical tip grows up, apical tip trained down, other tips grow up, other tips tied down, more tips up, and so on. Now, let's look at the two approaches to low stress training. First we'll explore the tie-down method that is also just known as LST. There are a couple different approaches to LST. a) Constantly training a single apical tip b) Training every apical tip The first approach involves constantly training, and untraining, the main apical tip so as to utilize as much of the growing pot as possible. TillthedayiDIE420 from rollitup has a great image detailing this method: In the image, the 1st large number represents the week. The second large number represents the size of the pot in inches. Although it does not need to be followed exactly, the idea is there. The second approach to LST is simple: train every apical tip down until you are happy with the bush you have. There are many different ways to attach the training to the pot and the plant. In addition, there are many materials that you can use to apply the training. I prefer using clipped pieces of shielded copper wiring. This reduces the amount of time you have to fuss with knots and the pieces are easily reusable. For attaching, you can attach the tip to the base of the stem to begin with. From there, you can either put holes in your containers, or tie some rubberbands around the outside and pull the training medium down to them. They just snap in place. Very handy and easy, though the rubberbands have to be replaced: Now that we've gone over LST, we can look at the Screen Of Green method. The ScrOG method is almost identical to the LST method. Instead of using string or wire, a screen is fastened to the pot, buried along the edges of the pot and stretched up across the plant, or built separately from the plant. Once the plant has reached suitable height, training can begin. Once the screen is above the plant and the apical tip is long enough, it is bent down and pushed beneath the screen. This will cause the tip to grow horizontally. In addition, it will promote new tips further down the stem. These tips can then be trained downwards for horizontal growth, or trained to grow upwards in the hole of your choosing after some horizontal growth. Eventually, the main tip will find it's way to a hole in the screen and start to grow up again. Depending on the size of your screen, you can push it back down and under to promote more growth further down the stem, or allow it to continue upwards with the new tips that you have created. ScrOGs can be done for single plants, 2-3 plants or multiple plants in a SoG-style setup. Once you have a nice screen of tips, or a jungle of trainings from string/wiring, you can send the plant into flower and watch the magic happen. Now that we've looked at the different types of LST, let's look at the pros and cons of each. LST (Tie-down method) -Pros Requires very little materials Can be moved from pot to pot relatively easily Easy -Cons Time consuming (especially if using string) Materials may be harder to reuse Harder for larger applications Screen Of Green (ScrOG) -Pros Easy to train once setup Screens can be easily reused Can be done for large applications w/out requiring much time Cool as hell to look at Easy to harvest -Cons Requires setup Hard to transport or move from pot to pot Requires a bit more learning Requires planning ahead of time for best results Since both methods are so similar, it really ends up coming down to a matter of style and preference more than anything. Both produce excellent results and can greatly increase your harvest. This is especially true for micro-growers where every bud-site counts. Speaking of every bud-site counting, we're going to explore the last bit of "training" for this guide. I put quotations because, well, it's not really a type of "training" at all. Follow along and you'll see what I'm talking about. Part IV continues below...
Part IV - Sea of Green (SoG) The Sea of Green (SoG) is not really a training method, persay. However, because the acronym often gets lumped within micro-growing styles, I felt it was worth exploring in this guide. The Sea of Green method does not involve training the plants or changing levels of auxins like what we've talked about before. Instead, SoG allows a grower to maximize a variety of cannabis while at the same time trying to dial in a strain/method that allows for the most grams per watt. The SoG method involves growing many plants in smaller pots. Usually this is done with clones. There are quite a few different growers who utilize the SoG method in these forums. SoG can be done on smaller scales in containers such as cut 20oz soda bottles, or it can be done by utilizing taller, 1/2-3 gallon containers, with less width. By allowing for more plants under the light, one can grow many different strains without worrying about the canopies interfering with each other as much. The idea behind smaller SoG grows is to get bud from the soil to the tip of the plant. This is a strain-dependent characteristic, but is often a desired one from SoG growers. Let's take a look at the pros and cons of this method. -Pros Easier to grow more strains Clone friendly Can potentially mean increased yield -Cons Higher plant count Not good for all strains More time-consuming SoG is great for some who want variety and a bunch of colas sitting in their flowering chamber. However, the small size and number of plants is just too troublesome for some. Now that we've looked at the main types of training, you can make your own decision and go out there and start maximizing your yield. But don't just take my word for it... Part V - References/Links I will try to include as many helpful links here as possible. If there's another you think I should add, then please let me know. LST training in detail. Why bushes are better Understanding the Art of LST (Before You Look at Any Pics, Read This First) Low Stress Training (LST) and MORE Walk Through (Pics) Auxin - Wikipedia Delta9420's Low Stress Training (LST) Explained ***DrBud Takes CFL SOG to the Next Level*** post your SCROG and LST plant pics Well, that's it everyone! I hope this has allowed you to make a decision as to the type of training you want to do. From here, there are many resources available for detailed information and pictorial examples for the type of training you decide upon. Mostly, I just hope this guide lets you put more buds under the lights: Good luck in your travels!
What do you mean images are broken? they should all work fine. i copyed all images from the original and even url linked them to blowup's of them.
[quote name='"69Bandit"']What do you mean images are broken? they should all work fine. i copyed all images from the original and even url linked them to blowup's of them.[/quote] Looks good man, subbed this to have a propper read when i get time, does look good tho an im gettin all the images ok
You didn't rehost the images, and they are on a limited access server. This could mean that you need an account to access the files (a private section of another forum, maybe?), or are password protected. Either way, all but 6 of them are So, some people will be able to see them, others won't. If you want everyone to be able to see them, rehost them and replace the image link with your new hosted image link. The write up is helpful, but I would really like to see a lot of those pictures. I did give you rep, though. Just trying to help, bro.
Ok, all pics should be hosted for good on my google accnt. If any pictures or links don't work for you please post.
This is very comprehensive. Thanks so much for sharing this info. Someone suggested I train my plant, but it seems as though if you muck it up you could really ruin it. I would assume you want to let your plant get to a certain height before you FIM or TOP it. How far along do you want it to be before you decide to FIM or TOP? Also, how do you find out what type of stress your plant would respond to best, just trial and error? (Im leaning towards FIMing since it seems like you would get the most out of it) Sorry for the bombardment of questions. I'm new to growing Thanks again!
Great stuff, Bandit! May be a dumb question, but can you do both HST and LST at the same time? As in, could you LST while in veg, inducing a SCROG, and then once those new colas have branched out, could you then FIM and get even more?
You would have to veg longer, but yeah. you can pretty much do whatever you want to the plant and keep growing it out as long as its 18 hrs of light.
I've read a little about the different ways to train before, but not in a concise well worded presentation like this one. Thanks for sharing with the rest of us. And I'll lift a glass to the person who put this all together, Now i need to try ALL the different routines! There was an older stoner, named Dr. Bud Greengenes I think, who had a great sog method that gave him a quarter ounce of herb, every week, in a perpetual garden. Others have built on this method and gave us the stadium method where the light is in the middle of the plants and the plants are staggered on two or three levels around the light. If I could spell colluseum right, and apparently I can't, that is the type of grow I am talking about. I guess my point, if i have one, is that there are so many ways to grow this stuff, it is fantastic! Again, thanks 69Bandit for the posts!
Great Tutorial, plus rep. Thanks for re-posting. Very informative on all methods of training, both high and low stress.