Current LST Grow

Thought I'd post some pics of my current grow.

pic 1 is the lst in a 2 gallon pot.
pic 2 and 3 are the cutting that I started the grow with.
pic 4 is the current stage in a self watering 5 gallon setup. I f'ed up the plant at this stage with a 4.5 watering, luckily she recovered after a good leaching.

The strain is NL#5, I'm pretty loyal to this strain.

The grow started on Jan 1, 2010. I've been keeping here on 24 light using a 300W CFL at night and putting her on the back balcony during the day. I live a very remote location so its pretty safe where I'm at. I'll be switching to bloom on March 29 by keeping her on the back balcony for 12/12 cycle. I'm in the tropics so you can pretty much count on 12/12 year round plus or minus a half hour. Three months in grow seems like a long time, I'm guessing she's slow due to the LST and the funky light shifts every day. Plus my outside grow closet is about 84F, which just cant be avoided here in the tropics. And I've got limited ventilation also. My grow closet is just there to keep some light on her at night to keep her in veg. Her only real good growth is during the day in the sunlight. I'm looking at about 8 weeks for bloom so I'll probably be ready to harvest in June. Haha. Thats a 5 month grow. Slower than shit IMO. But this is designed as a stealth, low yield, low maintenance grow so I'm pretty damn happy with my farming thus far.

looks ok, u can tie that thang down alot more you know, u should come by my lst thread in the links below. it has alot of info on lsting and u can ask anything theri and post pics and what not later

Two five g buckets from homodepot. Cut out the bottom of the inside bucket. Cut out the lid of the bucket. Modify the cut out lid as an inside table using pipe. Insert a "tremmie" pipe for watering. Invent a planter bag with two stages for continuous contact between the water zone and the air zone. Insert the planter bag into the table. Fill bottom half of bag with pearlite. Both the bag and the pearlite act as a wick for the water. Then pot your plant in the top half of the bucket just above the pearlite using your favorite soil mixture. Water from the top soil for the first watering to prime the whole setup. Then water through the tremmie pipe for each additional watering. To feed the plant I water through the topsoil. You can control or remove the reservoir water using a tube in the tremmie pipe as a siphon. The soil bag is made of horticultural fabric, the kind that is about 1/8 inch thick and fiberous. The soil bag helps with wicking the water and keeps good air circulation in the roots. I also think it helps to prevent root tips from spinning around the root ball. This self watering setup will last from 2-4 weeks depending on what stage your plant is in and the size of here root ball.

You want the wick portion of the bag that resides in the reservoir to be about 5 inches in diameter and filled with vermiculite. The tremmie pipe actually goes inside the soil bag and feeds through a slit in the bottom of the top portion of the soil bag. To make the soil bag you just cut out the pieces to fit your setup and then staple them together with standard staples, then follow up with sewing with fishing line and or dental floss.

You can make this setup using one bucket, but two buckets gives you an additional 4 inches of reservoir depth. I'm going out of town for two weeks and don't want my baby to get dry. I've seen plants last 1-2 weeks without water but it's pretty radical to make them dry out that much.

I have the soil bag extending about 2 inches above the soil level. And I've used duct tape to create a table to keep my leaves out of my pot. I think both the extended soil bag and the duct tape help to keep the canopy separate from the soil, and any insects that may be in the soil.

I've got a alcohol thermometer stuck in my soil to monitor the soil temp. Soil tems run between 29C to 40C between CFL's and Sunlight respectively. Thats 86F to 104F, pretty fuking hot IMO. But keep in mind my plant grew from a clone here in the tropics where the temp never goes below 80F so I believe she's acclimated since a baby to deal with the warmer temperatures. I use a reflective shade around the bucket during the sun time and can usually keep the soil temps around 96F. I'm guessing all that heat both stimulates and stresses my root ball.

mcpurple said:

looks ok, u can tie that thang down alot more you know, u should come by my lst thread in the links below. it has alot of info on lsting and u can ask anything theri and post pics and what not later

Click to expand...

Thanks McPurple. I never thought to tie her down more, this is my first LST. But I'll probably try to spread here out some more within the next few weeks. She's got about 5 primary branches and a whole lot of secondaries. I've been trying to bring the main stem around the pot but the main stems been growing more slowly down at the base and the side stems are starting to take up the canopy area. I'm going to spread out some of those tops stems but I'm running out of vacant real estate.

NLNo5 said:

Thanks McPurple. I never thought to tie her down more, this is my first LST. But I'll probably try to spread here out some more within the next few weeks. She's got about 5 primary branches and a whole lot of secondaries. I've been trying to bring the main stem around the pot but the main stems been growing more slowly down at the base and the side stems are starting to take up the canopy area. I'm going to spread out some of those tops stems but I'm running out of vacant real estate.

Click to expand...

Hey McPurple, I'm getting the idea now. I got radical and folded everything over. It looks like it's getting more even coverage now. I've got one more week of veg so she should adjust enough by then.

did u tie them over or picnch them and lay them over either way she is gonna be gaining alot of new main shoots and she will exploded in flower

mcpurple said:

did u tie them over or picnch them and lay them over either way she is gonna be gaining alot of new main shoots and she will exploded in flower

Click to expand...

The soft stems I just bent once and tagged down with some 40lb fishing line. The stiff stems I bent in multiple directions until they got soft and then I tied them down. I can tell there is going to be some major improvements. I watched her all day on my back balcony in the full tropical sun and she perked up real sassy like. There is a Plethora of shoot erections all over the plant now. It's been a happy day.

right on glad to hear their alreqady bouncin back after the bends.