well im lst-ing my plants, & i have decided that maybe i shouldnt of lst-ed them, space is not a problem (at least height). its my 1st time to try lst, & now that ive done it, im really not to fond of it (at least this grow). it works great, its just giving me to many problems. im doing it the way its posted on here by going around the pot, its just the plants are getting out of hand, always pulling up my stakes holding down the stems and branches, constant tieing & untieing the tie downs as they grow, plus its really a pain to keep them going around the pot in the right direction, they just want to grow every which way, i got maybe 2 of 6 plants under control. so the question is, is ok to untie & unstake them & try to get them to grow back upright, or possibley in a s shape upward. any thoughts or ideas. ill take pics & post tomarrow.
You certainly can untie them and let them go free. In fact, at some point in the grow this is a good idea anyway (by late into flowering). Don't expect any bends that are grown in to straighten out, but everything will be growing up from then on. You don't need to force the plant into a particular round-the-pot pattern. Do that with the main stem, with the primary goal being to get as much of the branch sites directly exposed to the light at a relatively even height. So if branches want to grow left instead of right let them, in fact tie them in that direction, if there is space. Don't let branches grow into an already crowded area. To make the logistics of LST easier, try drilling holes all the way around the top edge of your pots, then you can anchor directly to the pot anywhere you want. Also, use pipe cleaners instead of string, a lot easier to bend and adjust (no tieing-untieing).