Hey heres a LST guide stole it from rollitup.org But them i noticed that i didnt steal it from them they stole it from US!! heres the original How-to : LST (Low Stress Training) Well here we go, LST (Low Stress Training) the ultimate way to maximize your yield. 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 its 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) Now that thats out of the way lets get it on.. Please note, you dont have to do it this way, its just the idea of how to do LST, this is the way i did it and you can see the end result of 4 weeks of growth this way in my signature picture where it says FIM/LST. Some may opt to use the eggcrate method where you utilize an eggcrate around the pot and tie it down to that with zipties instead of using string or hooks running from the pot itself... this way you can cover more square footage and maximize your yield even more. Ok heres the STEPS PICTURE for you to follow along with STEP 1 : Grow your plant from Seed or Clone 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. 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 you timer to 12/12 and watch it bloom. STEP 10 :Two days before we harvest, Leave the lights OFF. dont let light touch them. When you do this, the female plants think there dieing(winter is comming) and extract all the Resin (THC) out of there system, thus making stronger more potent buds with the same tast. STEP 11: HARVEST!! if you followed step 10 the buds will be covered in THC crystals. they will be beautiful, have a NICE SMOKE Make sure you have just watered your plants, they bend easier and tend not to snap.
Wow man, I don't grow at the moment, but when the time is right I will most definitely use this method with the same technique. Good diagraming too.
thanks lol i tried to cover the most of the places but i wasent to sure where it came from,,, anyway thanks for clearing that up!
It works people! I'm on my first grow and from what I can tell of my three plants, the Blue Dragon will have 5 "main colas", the Grandaddy Purple will have 9, and the Grapefruit Kush will have 11. I can't wait to see the harvest!
hey mendoman you should post sum pictures at what they look like... i myself have never tryed it but i will be next year.
Here's the Grapefruit Kush with 11 individual colas (budding travels down from the top between 10 and 12 inches on each one): and here's the Grandaddy Purple with 9 individual colas: The plants are only about 16 inches above the top of the 10 gallon container so far.
very nice i look forward to working with my new plants and doing this,,,, mine are gonna be in the ground tho... so you think they would be bigger im gonna be workin with this stand thats max yeild per plant is 1500grms lol so im excited now Good luck keep me posted
a little different than the way i saw it done. the plants were in the ground and they were pulled straight over. it worked the same though. all of the branches grew straight up. pulling them in a circle like that would keep them more compact, which is better for concealment. i didn't like the way it looked on the plants that were pulled straight over because it spread the plant out and it looked like a row of smaller plants, which to me made it easier to see. i usually don't top or lst though, because i have seen both used so many times, and still haven't seen a clear advantage yield wise, if a plant is healthy and in good sunlight you can easily get a pound or more from a plant you didn't touch, other than feeding. please don't ask for picture proof either because i don't take picture of my plants, i will at harvest, i have said that before, and i have had a bad year this year with weather, a month straight of rain, and hail destroying my first crop i started, which i have said in previous posts. so this years single plant i ended up with was started over a month late. but i still expect a good yield, not fantastic, like it should be had it been started in sooner. oh and did i forget 2 weeks in the woods with hardly any light, unfortunately i had no choice, damn farmers. i am rambling, very high.
Yeah I did that this year. All six of my girls like like hedges now. Here is a link to my post with pics. http://forum.grasscity.com/general-outdoor-growing/408664-tied-down-view-bedroom-window.html#post4875835
I also did it my last grow, which was my first grow. http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-roo...st-timer-making-some-rooms-3.html#post3700992 Doing a SCROG hydro grow this time, same concept as LST but with a chicken wire screen. It's a carpet of green
does it really yeild more? because of the colas, there is more of them... i mostly just wanted to do this because it would keep them low... i have alot of helicopters come by
From all of the posts and grow journals I've seen the answer is YES! Your plant acts like it's got multiple main colas on every plant. Check out these photos by GC member Rabiez (in the middle of the page): http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/122936-how-lst-low-stress-training-16.html I'm hoping for a somewhat similar harvest!
Myself i have tried it and it takes to much time and effert to do it. But what i do is Super Cropping. I tried the LST method last year and it was alright but i can tell the super cropping is goin to do a hell of alot more. Just my .02 cents. Oh and if u want to know what super cropping is here is a link :[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1YEc7ENd5E]YouTube - Super Cropping...[/ame]
super cropping looks a lil extreme dont u think.... and its guarented if you squeeze them both ways... they will bend... that makes me a little eary because im squard i might break them and i was wondering if it would be to late to do it?.... whens the earlyest and latest times of doing that?
supposed to do it while it is still vegging. But i dont do it to that extreme like he does. I only did it to like 8-10 branches. But yes u squeeze the stem and bend it downward. If u feel skeptical bout it just try it on a couple branches. U can still do it as long as there not budding.
Has anyone grown the same strain with and without lst with the same nutes in the same location then compared the yield? Never tried lst myself. I like to see them reach for the sky.