This is my first time growing and already topped once. My girls are already in there 5th day flowering. I do hella reading everyday. Im horrified to do a supercrop. For this LST, I didnt want to use string. I had 2 bags of bamboo stakes that I cut into pieces that were in-between 6" and 18". About 50 pieces total. I got some flower wire from the 99cent store. Its basically like a wire clothes hangers metal, but softer. I cut them into 5" strips. Its amazing that no one sells wire hangers anymore! I taped them onto the bamboo stick and even curled the wire up over the tape and then taped again. It aint going no where. Duct tape is awesome till you run out. I then staked the bamboos into the ground pretty deep, I dont want them sliding out, and then simply hooked the branch with the wire. Some of the branches didnt want to bend much, but I still did it. Did I get understand the concept and achieve a successful LST? Let me know what you guys think.
It made my girls look way smaller. Depending on how hard the top node stem was, they went from 24" to about 15-18" after I was done. Every pre-nug has access to sun now. I even trimmed some of the super big leaves.
I know, I should have done this way sooner. Its not an even canopy. It looks like an "onion blossom from chilis", LOL. Do you guys think it will make a difference this late in the game? Or should I yank my hooks?
i dont think it will do too much now that there done veging. Its not like you have space restrictions so i dont really see why you decided to lst?
I guess I thought it would help get it some sunshine in places it normally wouldnt. I kind of came to conclusion it wasnt for me after I saw some youtube videos that talked about space restrictions. If anything, I got some stakes ready for when I try a CFL grow inside my spare bedroom closet. I will leave them in and chalk this up to being a noob. At least I didnt supercrop it. I feel so stupid now. LOL
haha its all good man, looks like you have some nice plants going. Thats a cool little greenhouse too.
Thanks. I thought I had another month of vegging, but it looks like everyone who is growing outdoors in my area is flowering. Next year I start early so I can get me some 6 foot trees in that greenhouse. NO LST, but will top like crazy. At least the Mango trees growing in there are coming along nicely. Can I LST a Mango tree? LOL, just kidding.
Maybe LST helped out. Please correct me if im doing more damage than good. I just noticed that this morning that all the flowers are pointing straight up and the flower nodes have grown about an inch. All in one day! I got about 20 flowers that are now upright again while the main stems are at a 90. Will these think they are main nodes too? So much fun to watch. Very cool. I will post a pic later. Oh, this on a Sour Grapes clone. This girl was planted a week after the rest and its bigger than the rest now. WOW.
This is what the Sour Grapes looks like after 24 hours. All the branches look like this. I love the way it looks!
Very nice. you could always (Time, Money Permitted) put some chicken wire over it connected to four posts and tuck as they pop up to get a nice little canopy, but looks like you are outside and don't have that kind of time in the season. nice.
Thanks. They are all starting to flower. Some small, others several inches tall. Its cool cuz when I did the LST 10 days ago, it looked like I peeled an artichoke. Bare and unhealthy. It didn't looks as bushy as it used too. This morning I went out and sat in their with my girls (as I always do) and talked to them. I noticed they no longer look like artichokes, they look very bushy with flowers all over the place. I cant even see my hooks anymore. I did have to relocate some as the branches keep growing out at a 90 now. I keep on eye on them and I usually got to keep moving them out. Being my first grow, I have ran into the same noob milestones that all noobs go thru. Im just glad that out of 6 plants, only one is sick (nitrogen diff) and im fixing her up with fish em. I can see the new growth is nice and green! With vegging behind me, I now realize all my mistakes. I hope I dont make any while flowering. Then comes harvest and then curing. I wonder which ones are going to make it all the way to the end. I hope I dont do anymore noob mistakes. Thanks for dropping in!
Torture isn't it..sitting there with them waiting, watching.... I don't like harvesting because of all the labor involved, and the worst is the curing....waiting....waiting....sampling How you plan on curing it, jar, dry ice?
I hate waiting. Its like when I was a kid waiting for Christmas. All the catalog companies back in the 70's always sent their Christmas catalogs in September. So for me, its just like that...waiting months and months. LOL. Its been a long time since I have anticipated something like this. I just hope its not a let down like when i got socks. LOL As far as harvesting/curing, I have read up on that, and got a basic idea, but being a noob, I dont want to try anything radical. I might try different things, cus its obvious not all my plants will be ready at the same time, being different strains and all. I always take pics and in one week they grew like crazy. It also shows my GDP has been sick for a while. I will continue to do LST, even if size is not an issue. It really helps with getting more sun in places it normally wouldnt. Its all about results, and I love the results so far. I just posted a pic in the Greenhouse section. TO TRANSPLANT OR NOT TO TRANSPLANT.
Yeah, I now know I should have done this during veg and ONLY if space was in issue. Im growing in a greenhouse so space is not an issue. An LST was not needed in my case. I get that! By the way, your LST'd plants look awesome. I hope to do that with my closet CFL grow soon. I guess I shouldn't call what I did an LST, more like a method to get more sunlight to the normally shaded flowers. I will be a noob and call it SLT. Sun Light Training. LOL No matter what, since its doing some good I will call this a lesson learned or even practice. As long as I didnt kill them, its all good.
lol...i got you...and thanks...so you just tied branches down(witch is a form of LST)to provide light...i got it...
Here is an update. As you guys know, I used flower wire tied/taped onto bamboo stakes to do my "LST". I then hooked the branches down. Today I noticed that the branches looked way too low, almost broken. After closer inspection I found that the hooked stakes were no longer "holding down" the stems, in fact the branches were soo heavy with buds that the stakes were now worthless. So I thought! I then bent/flipped/reversed the hook around and then made it a support! I gently lifted up the heavy branches and then placed them on the hooked stake. I had to do that to about 8 branches. Next time, I will gently wrap the wire around the stem (giving it enough room so the stem can grow/breathe and not pinch the stem) and leave it be. This way in the beginning they will hold the branches down and towards the end, they keep the budded branches off the ground. Even though I thought my LST was a bad idea, it turned out to be a good one. Now Im not going to have to tie strings on my branches so they don't fall. AWESOME! Im saving ALL my bamboo hooks for next year.