Low Stress Training (LST) Guide

BusyBee75

Well-Known Member
IMAG2706.jpg IMAG2705.jpg IMAG2712.jpg IMAG2712.jpg IMAG2754.jpg Screenshot_2016-04-16-23-01-30.png Screenshot_2016-04-17-10-19-40.png IMAG2695.jpg Screenshot_2016-04-17-10-18-14.png Screenshot_2016-04-15-12-07-40.png I'm running 2 -600 Apollo Horticulture hps, and a 1000watt double chip king LED. All purchased on Amazon for under a grand. I feed only General Hydroponics organic floralicious line it's a little more expensive thin the ionic I used to use as you see the results are phenomenal I am only in week 4 of flower and I already have trichome production all the way out to shade leaves trust them busy bee
 
In order to pull a pound off of a plant you have to get it a vegetative period of at least ninety to 110 days off of a 600
I think a 600 watts hps would get me 450grams (sort of one pound) in fact my dealer told me to get one, so it's got to be true. Thank you for your help busybee I gotta tell you I'm testing the dead leaves and they're awesome :blsmoke:
 

BusyBee75

Well-Known Member
Hey y'all, check out some start of week 5 flower. Some tasteful bud porn. You can gladly check the ladies out, but please don't stare, it makes the girls uncomfortable. Lol By time 5 more weeks passes , they are going to be the finest I've done to date. And I've no intention on slowing down. I'll be doing my hobby in northern California real soon.Screenshot_2016-04-18-15-44-13.png Screenshot_2016-04-18-15-44-23.png Screenshot_2016-04-18-15-43-47.png Screenshot_2016-04-18-15-46-43.png Screenshot_2016-04-18-15-46-07.png Screenshot_2016-04-18-15-45-02.png Screenshot_2016-04-18-15-45-40.png Screenshot_2016-04-18-15-42-13.png IMAG2862.jpg IMAG2869.jpg
 

subgrounds

Active Member
What an awesome thread man, especially the part about auxins and the utilization of weights & tying! Thank you for the knowledge refresher!
 

subgrounds

Active Member
Hey y'all, check out some start of week 5 flower. Some tasteful bud pornYou can gladly check the ladies out, but please don't stare, it makes the girls uncomfortable. Lol By time 5 more weeks passes , they are going to be the finest I've done to date. And I've no intention on slowing down. I'll be doing my hobby in northern California real soon.View attachment 3660239 View attachment 3660240 View attachment 3660241 View attachment 3660242 View attachment 3660243 View attachment 3660244 View attachment 3660245 View attachment 3660246 View attachment 3660248 View attachment 3660249
Had you just completed a foliar application of some kind? Or is that copious neem oil, like, are they sticky? Looks fantastic anyways! What are LEDs like nowadays here in 2016? Used LED as supplement for HID and as standalone supplement in greenhouse, but they were just... meh. I've heard they're a whole hell of alot better now. Is this true? Can anyone elaborate?
 

BusyBee75

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the compliment! And I don't only use LED I am trial running one a 1000watt, that I believe is only like a 600 watt because it was so cheap only 300$ , a KIND led is about 1200$-1500$ , mine is a KING brand, it's got 100-double 5watt diodes=1000watts, but you realistically need to Daisy chain like 5 of them in a room or tent that's like 10'x10'x 8' and hang em like 5 on a dice. They only suck like 250watts to produce 1000watt of light emitting diodes. So 5 of them would only use up 1000watts , and at 11cents a kilowatt, a veg period of 60 days, 5 plants one under each light, 24hrs a day equals roughly 60$ a month to run 27/7, plus fans (35watts)x like 4= maybe another 15$ month, realistically not counting any other equipment and nutrients, just power used for 60 day veg is about 150-175$ a month. Then flower cuts light in half to 30$ a month, fans stay on 24/7(terp extractor ect) so 45$ a month for 8-15 weeks depending on strain(I have Dr.Grinspoon pure sativa 14-17 weeks) so roughly about 300$ for flower, total cost for 5 plants each giving about 8-12 ounces(longer veg makes bigger plant, I veg for 110 days and take clones at day 60 that veg for 30 days then flower along side big mamma. Each giving like 5 ounces ) total coast about 600$ in electricity for about 40-50 ounces of primo if you grow my clones. Lol. That's not too shabby. LED has advantages, and cons, like penetration of light and density of bud. Peace out for now homie.
 

Rolla123

Active Member
Would you be able to top a plant and use the LST method on the same plant. Or is that too much to do on the plant??
 

PetrovB

Active Member
As a new grower, i have few questions regarding LST.
I want to top and than LST. i am 2weeks from sprouting and its been going good until now.
If someone can please clarify the following:
What time after topping should LST begin?
How long should i keep the plants bending, meaning after what period i should remove the strings?
 

Rolla123

Active Member
As a new grower, i have few questions regarding LST.
I want to top and than LST. i am 2weeks from sprouting and its been going good until now.
If someone can please clarify the following:
What time after topping should LST begin?
How long should i keep the plants bending, meaning after what period i should remove the strings?
Good question. Just commenting to bring this thread back up because I'd like an answer too haha
 
"1.)What time after topping should LST begin?
2.)How long should i keep the plants bending, meaning after what period i should remove the strings?"

Too lazy to find the original quote...

1.) This is up to you. I wait until the plant is able to be bent and tied to one side of the pot, this way all lower tops get light exposure. If you're topping there will usually be a delayed growth so once it gets back on track bend whenever you like, its pretty much trial and error man! Whatever suits your desires, do it.

2.) You could leave them tied for as long as you like, the entire grow if you wanted. I take mine off about two weeks into flowering because thats when they stop stretching and have basically found their final resting spot. There is no need to keep tied after this. Be careful not to let the branches grow into the string or whatever you're using. The branches will bulk up to hold the buds, during flower especially, so keep a close eye and make sure your ties are a little loose.
 

Walterwhiter

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone. I have explained to many people about the method of Low Stress Training, and more than one have told me that I should start a guide. So, here it is.

To start, let me explain just what low stress training is. In the thread I will refer to it as (LST). All a training is, is making your plant do something you want.The best part about LST, is the key "Low Stress". It doesn't stress your plant nearly as bad as other training methods exe. Topping. All LST involves doing is the tieing or staking down of a plants top/uppermost growth shoots in order to get more top growths. This bends the plant over and spreads the light to the undermost parts of your plants. When you do this, it makes the undergrowth bush out as well. However, spreading the light isn't what makes your plant bush out.

Auxins
I can not stress enough the importance of this word. Auxins, as defined in the science world are a type of plant growth hormone. In marijuana, they are the most import hormone when it comes to vegetative growth. In an untrained, regular marijuana plant, the auxins are most heavily distributed to the top/uppermost growth. The plant identifies this growth as its top and strives to grow it up towards the light more than the other lower growths. This is where LST comes into play. When you bend a plants top growth over, the plant identifies that it's top growth is no longer growing up, and it works to gain a new top growth. In essence, the auxins spread throughout your whole plant and this creates new growth along your nodes that have the potential to be equal to a "top bud or cola". Here is an example on the growth a plant recieves from the auxins being redistributed via. LST.

View attachment 1171750View attachment 1171753View attachment 1171793View attachment 1171800View attachment 1171819
Please take note at the new growth between the nodes. This is the work of the auxins. Also, take a look in the last picture as to where the original "top growth" is, and where the new top growth is. The plant created new ones. When flowering, this will give you more top buds, but less smaller popcorn buds that formed along the bottom of a regular grown plant. This particular LST grow was done with a smaller plant, but you can do it with large plants.


Now, let's take a look at the reasons why we LST.

1. Space- Many of times growers do not have the space to allow their plant to grow through the vegetative and flowering phase straight up (PC grows, attic grows, box grows). This is where LST comes into play. By tieing/staking down your plant, instead of growing vertically your plant grows horizontally, allowing your plant to still develop to maturity without growing up against your lights..

2. Light- As a plant grows upward towards the light, you constantly have to move your lighting fixture up to keep from burning your plant. As your light gets higher up, it gets further away from your bottom nodes and leaves. This can cause for more scraggly buds and leaves on the bottom of your plant, and put a dent in your harvest. This is especially true when you have lower powered lights(t5, CFLs, etc.)However, if you LST your plant sort of grows horizontally, allowing all of your budsites that grow up to be more exposed to the light. You will still have upward growth, just not as much depending on how long you let your new growth shoots grow before flowering, or LSTing the new growth down.

3. Stealth- Many of times those outdoor plants you have growing by the fence in the backyard just get too tall. What to do? Instead of growing up, just grow horizontally. This can keep those pesky neighbors from knowing that you have more than tomatoes growing in the yard.

Last but not least, let's learn how to LST. LST can be done in many fashions. I will first explain how to do it the way I prefer (with a few pictures) and the others I will give a lowdown on how to do them, but no pictures so bare with me.

The Closehanger
For this method, all you need is a closehanger, wirecutters, some string or wire, and a piece of ducttape. This is for younger and smaller plants.

Step 1: Cut your closehanger into straight pieces (8-12 inches depending on how tall your plant is). You want the top of the closehanger to be anywhere from 4-6 inches below the top of your plant.

Step 2: Put a Crook or a bend in the end of the closehanger piece. This allows you to put the 2nd node down from the top of your plant under it.

Step 3: This is called the countertie, and is probably one of the most important steps. Take your string or wire and make you a piece long enough to reach from the base of your plant to the edge of your pot. Tie your string or wrap your wire about 3 inches up the base of your plant and run it to the edge of the pot. Don't pull on the plant, just make sure it isn't loose. Tape the other end of the wire/string to your pot. This gives a counter resistance to your LST so that your plant doesn't get uprooted on the stake down.

Step 4: Place your closehanger in the dirt of your pot, with the crooked end up.

Step 5: GENTLY bend your plants top over and place it under the closehanger.
View attachment 1171859
Step 6: As your original top growth, and new top shoots begin to grow up, you can continue to stake them down and get lots of new growth. Repeat the process until you are satisfied with the bushiness and amount of top shoots that are on your plant. At this point you may let your plant grow as tall as you want or just switch to 12/12. I reccomend for indoor growers with limited space, as soon as you have the amount of top shoots you want that you switch to 12/12 as the plant will bush out incredibly if you continue to veg.

That is just the way I do LST. I'm not saying it's the best way, or it's the most effective. It's all a matter of personal preference. There are many other ways to do this including.

1. Screw and string Method- This simply involves screwing screws into the lip of your pot all the way around (8-12 of them). You then tie your plants top down to the screw nearest it with string. As new top growths emerge, keep tieing them down to screws around the pot.

2. Weighting- All you need to do here, is get some sort of a weight (Fishing weights, clips, or anything your plant can't lift). You then tie a string to this weight, and tie it to your top node. It pulls it down, and as new top growths appear tie them down with more weights until you have the desired amount of new upper growths.

3.Object Tieing- For bigger outdoor or indoor plants, you can find some sort of an object that the plant can't move, and tie your shoots down to it. I have a friend who uses a ladder that he uses as his weight and just ties plants down onto it. They are huge plants though.

As you can see, there are tons of ways to LST. When it comes to Low Stress Training, there really is no wrong way. Just tie your plant down, spread the auxins, and watch the new growth.

I really hope this helps people better understand LST and get a better feel of what to do when it comes to training their plant.

Thanks a ton for reading my thread.
:peace:Rollbluntz:peace:
Definitely dig the scientific aspect!
 

☢Smokey♛Dragon♨❀

Well-Known Member
Okay so I wasn't hating on topping at all man. Your a well respected grower and I have read your topping method, and I appreciate your opinion on the matter. I just don't see why you have to come in here hating on LST and calling people noobs. This whole thread is opinionated and in no way was I saying LST is better or anything like that. As for scientific? How would you define stress exactly I would like to know. When I said the hermaphrodite statement earlier, I will slightly rephrase that. Topping, if done wrong can hermie a plant, and again you are right about me not knowing the absolute way to top a plant. All I said was "I prefer not to". I may try it in the future who knows, but for now I will stick to the so called "ball and chains" instead of the "knife and axe". :P

To me if you cut a plants top off, and it has to repair itself over a few days and repair that cut, that sounds like stress to me? Don't get me wrong it does do the same thing as LST really and spreads hormones, but the plant also has to REPAIR the wounds. When I tie a plant I see no wounds for it to fix? When someone ties a plant down it corrects itself in a couple hours, so to me it sounds like the tie down has it when it comes to recovery time. But hey opinions are like assholes everyones got one right?
Isn't fiming [fuck I missed] a better method than toping? It where u only pinch 70% of the top and instead of 2 new main colas you get 4!
 

Fiete

Well-Known Member
I do LST on my Autoflower on Day 13 to know, is that good how i do it? I Cut to Fan Leafs to Help Light for New Growth!

OC Day 17 LST (1).jpg OC Day 17 LST (2).jpg SC Day 21 (1).jpg SC Day 21 (2).jpg Orange C Day 24 (1).jpg Orange C Day 24 (2).jpg Orange Crack Day 26 (1).jpg Orange Crack Day 26 (2).jpg
 
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