Alright, so I know the VERY basics of training plants, basicly just to tie them down to the ground, not a very hard concept BUT, my plants are still quite young. I only planted the straight seed, and now the plants are about an inch or two high/ its an outdoor grow so I can't have any 6ft tall sativa plant shooting up. so my questions are....1) Do I have to wait until after I sex them to train them or is it just to save time 2) how big should the be before i train them because they still shift themselfs toward the sun and I dont want them to shift themselfs and hurt themselfs againts the string I think thats about it for now. Any HELP would be appriciated!
Why bother to train a male?? You only train girls, so you don´t do it until after you have sexed them
That is one legitimate way of looking at it, and I offer another: training plants before sexing, and presuming some will turn out to be males, still can make sense because: - pre-sexing plants can slow down your veg time. - training more plants is a valuable learning experience, even if some of those turn out to be male and are trashed.
I completly agree with Toastybiz. You can start training them soon, I'm not sure what the consensus is but 5-6 inches(usually 6 nodes) is where I start but I grow inside not outside, as for keeping the height down you can top and prune it to make it a bush and tie it down for extra stealth.
Just a sugestion something that worked for my plant if your worried about plant height pluck the shoots as they grow not the whole top just the tiny shoot in the very center. Why you ask? For one it will encourage your plants to make more bud sites and it will help keep vertical growth under control. One last tip when the little seedling leaves finaly die off is a good time to switch your lights.