LST in an ebb and grow 5 gallon buckets system. couple qustions PLEASE!! :)

Ok so the new clones I have going Im thiking of LST'ing them. I have this setup

These ladies will be flowering but this is the setup. Would it be ok to LST in 5 gallon buckets with only hydroton as the medium? Or maybe the question is how important is it to also tie down your side branches?

The only way I can see doing it in these buckets is only tieing the main stalk around the bucket.

My reasoning for this is because i basically need 6-8 weeks to veg. I cant go shorter time because the bud room is full. I need to figure out a good schedule. i would really like to only veg like 4 weeks.. But i dont have a "mother" what im doing is just topping all my plants, using those as clones, and picking a few clones off my favorite plant. So, right now, i do that around two weeks before they go to flower so the lower stuff can catch up and it can recover. LST seems like it takes a little more time, RIGHT?

Id go with topping, then LST'ing those branches.

Thats what i do with pretty good results and itll work well with those 5 gallon buckets.

top, let those grow a little, top each one again and tie the 4 new tops to the bucket making an X or +

then let those grow straight up or top again. Now all up the X the side branches will grow straight up.

I do this with my HOG and it works perfectly! Make sure you got your humidity on point though because LST'ing makes alot of buds grow close together so mold can become an issue.

Good luck!

Ya, I mean im up for anything really. I am right now topping them. But now i still have at least like a week or 10 days of flower left. they gonna get super bushy. and they are about a foot and a half - a foot and 3/4 tall so the stretch is what im worrying about.

Bur your saying just keep topping then huh? so not only the top but like the next couple nodes down too?

Each plant after topping and cloning has around 8-10 nodes.

topped the plant once after it had a nice close node below it. so it gave me 4 tops. took all 4 of those and bent them down


^^^ also removed the lower lower small branches so they didnt waste energy on popcorn buds

the buds in the middle are all the side branches that are coming off the main 4 colas.



The 4 tops are some of the shortest colas in the picture. haha

You kinda gotta get on em earlier than your plants are at but if you want to keep em short its worth the chop.

I see. Ya man I kind like that. Every thing is getting light.. My only issue with that is, with my situation, as soon as i move my now vegging ladies to flower, my clones will have been in the cloner 7-14 days. I'll moved them to the veg room, but now im literally waiting 8 to possibly 10 weeks. thats a shit load of vegging. i gotta figure something out...

Keep one mother and cut clones later

^^^ that works well.

If not just keep topping them. Every top that has a top you can top. or you can pinch/bend them. Theyll grow bushy as fuck but ive kept a few for 90 days before flowering because i didnt have room

Ya I thought of the mother. But ill need a whole new setup for that.. light, reflector, fans. and id probly have to just grow it in dirt... i mean if i have to i can go this route. be nice just just keep a mother in that veg tent but when i first introduce them to veg im giving them a light feeding. The full grown mother, im sure, would not appreciate that... i already got a bud room, veg tent, clone closet... take up another space for a mother? im trying not to but i might have to.

Budbro, if your topping like crazy like that, how long do you make sure you give them to heal before throwing into flower?

Yeah it gets hectic when you get outta sync with your flower box. Shit backs up like a traffic jam

It depends on the strain. The HOG im running right now stretches alot. So ive topped her less than a week before flower.

But for most strains id say give them at least a week between topping and flowering.

I start my topping in clone. Instead of taking the top of a branch i take a lower cutting so its topped before it even roots.

Then once they get transplanted i usually wait a week or so and top them again.

Let em grow out and get all bushy then LST. Then a week or 2 before flower i top all the nice spots and even them out into a flat top bush. haha.

Ya man, i think i might end up trying that. Or doing a scrog. i can decide yet lol