OK so I finally got a decent plant underway (my lights were much worse than I thought, redoing my fixture for air cooling), it is starting on its 5th set of leaves after the cotlyedon. So I'm thinking of topping this next set once there is some clearance or starting LST, probably the latter. But that got me to wondering...what exactly is the purpose of topping or LST besides controlling the grow? Does it only increase yield by allowing better light penetration, or should I just grow it out normally. This particular plant is a Female Neville's Haze. I'm not 100% certain why I ordered it since the flowering period is super long, but its going nonetheless and doing rather well AFAIK. Thanks for any feedback!
LST is more for keeping it short and light penetation .... topping will create new cola's .... everytime you top, your taking one, and splitting it into two. I top, and SCROG, and enjoy my results very much.
I was bending my plant slightly, to see how resistant it was to the stress. It is pretty stiff...when I do get ready to try LST, should I bend it gradually over the course of a day or go ahead and bend it down fairly close to soil level right off the bat?
You do need to prepare by oosening up the stalk slowly bending it back and forth at two different angles. So no it doesnt take the whole day
i dont know i alway that that lst'ing was to allow the side branches to shoot up and grow towards the light takin place of the main stalk. makin the side branches grow them buds bigger than just one main cola and mediocre side flowers. thats my take on it.
agree with keep it medicated. Here is my LST in action. 1 plant in a five gallon bucket. I drilled a lot of holes all around the top rim of the bucket. I used pipe cleaners to tie down the branches. Still have at least a month of flowering left but I have a pretty even canopy.
Them stem on that little lady will start to harden up... it is usually easier to start lst after the third or fourth leaf set, while the stem is soft. Unless you have a very powerful light source and a huge grow area, you should definitely practice some training. Lst seems to be one of the best for new growers. It's usually easily reversible, doesn't slow plant development, and gives you something to do other than stare at your plant for hours (ya perv). However, if I had the light and the space I would love to let a few ladies go wild..12 foot plants are impressive.
LST does several good things for your grow: - Controls height. Important for most indoor grows and some outdoor grows as well. - Increases budsites. By splaying the plant out you get better light penetration, which promotes more secondary and tertiary growth and more budsites. And generally, a plant with more budsites will yield more than a plant that has its bud concentrated in a single cola. - Takes best advantage of the inverse square law. Light intensity drops off with the square of the distance from the source -- if you double the distance from the light source then you get only one-quarter of the light intensity. This is an important issue for indoor grows, where a 3-4 foot plant would get radically different light at the top than at the bottom. LST flattens your grow to an even canopy, so that you can keep all of the plant the same close distance to the light, which means more growth. - Tricks the plant. MJ (and many other plants) have a survival mechanism such that the top getting the best light also gets the best treatment -- more growth hormones, more nutrients, etc. So, if in nature a plant's top gets snapped off then the next-best top takes over as the main top. With LST you create an even canopy so that every top is getting close to the same light, which causes the plant to send extra growth hormones to all of those budsites. - Overall increases yield. So now you have a plant that has more tops, puts all of those tops close to the light, and tricks the plant into sending extra growth hormones to all of them. This is going to result in more bud than you otherwise would have grown. In addition to all this, LST is pretty close to idiot-proof, you can do as much or as little as you want, you can start and stop at any point, easy peasy.
So can LST stress the plant enough to potentially cause hermies in a fem? I only ask because the one plant I wanted to LST underwent some light stress early in life but has made a good recovery and I didn't want to add any other stress if it would increase the potential for going hermie.
If your going to put any kind of stress on your plant, it's much safer to do it before the plant reaches maturity. Most training stress in the early vegetative stage will slow development, but stress caused during flowering is more likely to cause hermies. Lst and screen training, if done correctly, will not hermie a plant or slow growth in any stage. In my opinion there are no negative effects at all from proper low stress training...The biggest concern is trying to over-do-it and snapping a stem, but we don't man-handle our ladies like that. It's easily avoidable with a little care and patience.
The light stress was during the first week or so of seedling stage, and it was basically having my lights too close. The only leaves that show any signs of the stress are the first true ones after the cotyledons, the rest of the plant appears to be fine. It slowed growth for a week or so (two maybe), but appears to have picked up and has really done much better in the last week or so. She is on her 7th true node, but the stem is not too thick to bend right now, and could still be LSTed.
I am considering lsting my outdoor Durban Posion (90% sativa) Or would it be better to just let it stretch because its almost fully sativa and i dont really need room, would just like more yield