Low Stress Training (LST) Guide

Bosgrower

Well-Known Member
You can move the pins or just untie the pipe cleaners from the pins without touching the branches. What’s great about the pins is that you can put them anywhere on a fabric pot.
 

gr865

Well-Known Member
Been using these for yrs, work great, can make a soft hook that pressures the stem in no way and get a good bind to the safety pin. Only thing is with the salt in the nutes the pins are only good for one run, :)

This was in early training, 1/21
20180121_094003 (2).jpg

Not sure if this is the same plant, they are all the same clones but this was taken earlier this week, prior to retying them down more. Day 21
20180219_090008 (2).jpg
This was taken on day 23 of 12/12. They were about to come out of the tent to do a little trim and retying.
20180221_085938 (2).jpg

Same day different angle to show the amount of yellow pipe cleaners I used.
20180221_085946 (2).jpg

GR
 

Andrewk420

Well-Known Member
You can move the pins or just untie the pipe cleaners from the pins without touching the branches. What’s great about the pins is that you can put them anywhere on a fabric pot.
Just wanted to give you another thanks for the tip. I went and got a pack of clothespins and set them up. The plants seem to be loving getting bent around so easily. I have been trying to move the pins in the morning and evening while the lights are on and I think it's really going to pay off with more developed bud sites.

 

Andrewk420

Well-Known Member
Also another question for the more experienced growers:

I have been spinning the pots as regularly as I can to promote even light distribution.

I've also been gently bending fan leaf shoots strategically to allow more light to penetrate. Is this a good idea or doing more harm than good?
 

InTheValley

Well-Known Member
Nope, thats fine,, your not hurting her. Just keep in mind, if 2 leafs are covering eachother, they cant breath, and condensation gets trapped and cant evaporate, which can lead to problems.

Better to bend then to clip off in the veg state.
 

Andrewk420

Well-Known Member
Nope, thats fine,, your not hurting her. Just keep in mind, if 2 leafs are covering eachother, they cant breath, and condensation gets trapped and cant evaporate, which can lead to problems.

Better to bend then to clip off in the veg state.
Thanks, that's what I was trying to avoid by bending the ones I did. A couple had made a "double fan leaf shield" over a lower part of the plant. I bent them back apart a little but it didn't seem to break.
 

gr865

Well-Known Member
Day 35 12/12

Prior to retying the plants.
20180305_083215 (2).jpg

After LST and retied back down.
20180305_085106 (2).jpg

Day 38 and they already need to be tied back down.
20180308_205353 (2).jpg
Couple of pics of pheno #5 that is a Monster Crop, was 33 days into flower when I took the clone. This was on 12/26/17
20171226_101718 (2).jpg

Yesterday20180308_104218 (2).jpg 20180308_104149 (2).jpg

20180309_081938 (2).jpg

Not sure what I will do next, the ladies in the tent have about 3 weeks to go and then I go on a few week trip. She will go into the tent after these ladies finish and will continue to veg for a month plus more. Would like to put her into flower late May so she will be ready mid August. Another option would be to grow it for clones and do a SOG, but I get better returns off my vertical grows. Then it's back to my 5 plant vertical grow with screens, going to try Big Buddha Cheese again. Last attempt failed but different setup this time, drip system and no Blumats.
 
Last edited:

InTheValley

Well-Known Member
here is an update on the fireOG above. She has had a ruff life, lol.. slow start, had to CPR her 3 times, didnt really start growing till 50 days from seed, transplant shock, cold, all kinds of things.. Her she is now, 120 days from seed, 28 day flower since flip. The last pic is a male, which i pollinated my FireOG. Since it was my first try at this, Im naming the offsprings as, FireStarterOG, lol.. She has 60 colas, and a bunch hidden inside.
 

Attachments

QuikWay

Well-Known Member
LST FTW.... will never top after doing this...
I just used staples no strings or anything. the last picture 2022 is of a plant that was topped and then LST... it only has 5 main colas and will not grow any more main colas...
The 1893 and 2025 pictures are 2 weeks apart.... all my untopped plants have 8 - 9 main colas and could have more if i kept LSTing... but they are bushy enough for me... i want height, now.
 

Attachments

gr865

Well-Known Member
Just a little update on my Monster Crop LSD plant.

4/19 a couple of days before major trim
20180419_224449.jpg

4/22 gave her a good trim, took everything below the 4th node twisted and bent smaller branches around to fill the center
20180422_135927.jpg

4/27 and here is was yesterday 5 days from major trim, still moving the branches around to get best position for flower
20180428_091337.jpg

4/28 here she is today, removed some fans, will remove more in the days to come, flip and then not touch her till day 21 of flower.

20180428_163507.jpg keeping her low
20180428_163518.jpg having to bend the tips as they are growing beyond the screen
20180428_163525.jpg she has just about totally filled the screen

GR
 

QuikWay

Well-Known Member
Just a little update on my Monster Crop LSD plant.

4/19 a couple of days before major trim
View attachment 4128617

4/22 gave her a good trim, took everything below the 4th node twisted and bent smaller branches around to fill the center
View attachment 4128620

4/27 and here is was yesterday 5 days from major trim, still moving the branches around to get best position for flower
View attachment 4128622

4/28 here she is today, removed some fans, will remove more in the days to come, flip and then not touch her till day 21 of flower.

View attachment 4128612 keeping her low
View attachment 4128614 having to bend the tips as they are growing beyond the screen
View attachment 4128616 she has just about totally filled the screen

GR
hoooollyyyyy shit.. those skinny leaves make my heart sing..
your plant is beautiful. your LST work is art haha. very nice.
this looks like the absolute best way to take advantage of my 150w hps(I'm not sure what height the light reach maxes out/how tall of a plant they can handle)
thank you for this post. i will probably try this on my next grow.
 

Lewist

Member
Thanks for the advice. Very informative
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:
 

Piratemccall

Active 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:
I start my plants the same way, I figure want to spur side growth but not lose big % of vegetation by cutting.
 
Top