LST before flower: will it hurt more than help?

so heres the deal. I have a few plants in 1 gal. pots that are a little over 2 feet tall...been topped TWICE so have a total of four main colas currently forming. The problem is Im about to transplant them to almost 5 gallon pots and i dont have enough height in my growbox to accomodate them during their flower stretch. I MUST control their height without adversely affecting yield but actually even if it did reduce yield i need to do this anyway.

Please look at my quick sketch and tell me if you think they will do ok with my current strategy to tie down each cola to a corn of my square pots and what might be the impact on their growth and yield.

Has anyone ever done this so late?

Yes im lazy and didnt see this coming......next time i wont repeat the same mistake!

I wouldn't bend them over in half like that you may snap a few. Use plastic garden tie downs and just get the plant to grow horizontally for a bit

mjinc said:

I wouldn't bend them over in half like that you may snap a few. Use plastic garden tie downs and just get the plant to grow horizontally for a bit

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the problem is i dont have any horizontal space at all, in fact i have lower leaves dying because theyre not getting any light from having plants too close together. So somehow i need to maximize the light penetration while keeping the plants oriented in vertical growth.

I was thinking of getting some tomato cages and wrapping the branches in a spiral manner around them. The only problem is tomato cages are a little bit expensive and im on a super tight budget. I was thinking of buying some bamboo stakes and putting one in each corner and then using tie downs to wrap the branches in a spiral pattern around the stakes in the same way as i would around the tomato cages, i just dont know if the bamboo stakes would be strong enough to hold up against the tension applied to them.

anyway, thanks for chiming in....still looking for a solution.

Your plan is do-able... You just have to do it in steps... The branches should be fairly pliable and bend easily..
You need to take care not to split the main stem.. Tape it ..Start by hanging weights then slowly pulling them down..
Keep tape handy.. you may break one.. If it is still attached tape it.. grows right back.. I don't know if the tops will go that low but give it a shot.. Or get them level then top the four.. lots of smaller buds...

HydoDan is pretty much on it.

Don't attempt to bend too much in one training session. Ease the ladies over, little by little.

Stay Hazed

i just bought tomato cages at lowes for 5 bucks a piece, and they come in colors. the plain metal ones are 3 bucks per. they had a very interesting looking unit i hadn't seen before, might be handy if your medium is dense enough to hold it in place
http://www.homedepot.com/p/G-B-60-in-Color-Tomato-Twist-901267ST/205471425

If you really wanted to bend your tops to that extent you may be able to supercrop them to get them to go that low. I'd imagine it to be tough depending of the rigidity of what your trying to bend however it may work without being terribly damaging.

Been 90% plus LST for years. It will help! Keep bending and tying down.

Pinch a little to just before they crackle and bend. This will help keep um from breaking. Takes some practice and lots of feel but works great. I do it all the time. Never loose any...yeild good too

hillbill said:

Been 90% plus LST for years. It will help! Keep bending and tying down.

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What he said.

I often pretape spots that look susceptible to split. Go in steps and take advantage of the time right before watering, push it just a bit and as it gets closer to entering wilt the stems will be softer for bending....

Stomper420 said:

Pinch a little to just before they crackle and bend. This will help keep um from breaking. Takes some practice and lots of feel but works great. I do it all the time. Never loose any...yeild good too

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Agreed, if the stems are older they will be a bit harder to train, but pinching and slightly twisting before bending will help heaps for those pesky stems.