The lowest stress training

I thought i would share my own contribution to the growing world since i've gotten so much out of this site.

I've developed a method I call lowest stress training because it puts literally no stress on the plant and can still get those big colas. Basically what I do is use multiple lights to make the plant think the sun is all over the place. To accomplish that I have one main light over top that puts out a lot of lumens, and then I place small highly focused cfl's along the side at various heights. The plants seem to respond by putting out slightly larger stems at those points which grow exponentially over the next few weeks. Once they are clearly bigger than the stems nearby I pull off the side lights and put them somewhere else.

That is really genius! I have been experimenting heavily with a similar technique (training the plant to grow horizontally based on light. Really smart idea. I am sure the lower you put the CFL, the more it tries to "get there"? Tell me more.... how close do you put the bulb to the branch you are training? An inch or so? or a foot? Thx.

I use cfl's for the side lights so I set them within about 6 inches of the plant to help focus the light and I keep them housed in metal reflectors so theres basically a spotlight on the stem.

Growing horizontal is a neat idea, I'm guessing you use just one light, though I also think if you reversed my setup so that the main light is on the side and the smaller cfl's are above you might also see a similar effect.

Many people do this method, its nothing new. sry to burst your bubble

Thats completely possible, I never saw it mentioned in any of the guides I read though… and I read a lot before I started.

Stringy limbs just wont produce enough to make the lights worth having on them. Lollipopping is the way to go...gives more energy to the tops.

Diabolical666 said:

Stringy limbs just wont produce enough to make the lights worth having on them. Lollipopping is the way to go...gives more energy to the tops.

Click to expand...

I agree but I think of it as thin the inner so that the outer buds get more energy. This would work well with sidelighting all through flower. An outside plant has a sphere shaped canopy, so that's where I come from with regards to lollipopping. More surface area on a sphere than a flat plane.

Dont say that infront of a scroggerlol

I can say that the limbs I have produced with this method are nearly as thick as the main stem, not stringy… however this did happen over the course of about 2 months so there may be a faster method to produce the same result.

At this time I can't definitively say that this will increase yield, but I believe that with enough light maximizing the number of bud sites will maximize yield.

I have no personal experience with lollipopping but it seems like a method that would only improve yields in a situation where the light penetration is not up to par… I think I can get the same effect by tying branches down so that there are no dark spots and using a HPS near the top of the plant that can penetrate to those lower bud sites.

I'm surprised that you are finding it useful outdoors because I would think light wouldn't be an issue. I would be interested to read a journal if you tried lollipopping and found it to be useful if you wanted to share.

Also I actually remove the side lights once the branches are clearly outpacing the nearby growth… I think turning the lights back on during flower seems like a good idea.

It doesn't matter how much light you have, it's only going to penetrate the canopy so far. The more buds getting adequate light is going to improve yield. The sun rises low in the sky and drops in the evening so that is why you get such a sphere shaped canopy.

_MrBelvedere_ said:

That is really genius! I have been experimenting heavily with a similar technique (training the plant to grow horizontally based on light. Really smart idea. I am sure the lower you put the CFL, the more it tries to "get there"? Tell me more.... how close do you put the bulb to the branch you are training? An inch or so? or a foot? Thx.

Click to expand...

Can put a 500 watt CFL only 2 inches away from plant; common spacing for cfl's 2 to 5 inches

Constantly tying back branches should allow light to reach the entire plant, especially if the main stems are made to grow horizontally. This has the added benefit that tying back the main branch so it is as close to horizontal as possible sends a similar signal to the plant as topping so that the other branches will grow strong too. And then I can always include side lights to reach dark spots. obviously this is only really doable on a small scale and probably would be easier indoors.

I know that pruning / lollipopping is really very common but I think it can be avoided with enough training. If you plan to do intense lollipopping why wouldn't you just grow shorter plants? it just seems like wasting time in veg to me.

Imagine that each cola is separated from every other cola by at least a few inches through LST, wouldn't that produce enough light penetration? And couldn't you get the same effect as lollipopping by tying back some of the larger leaves that are shading the rest of the plant?

HH is right as long as you add a small fan somewhere in the room circulating the air around the bulb at least a little bit. I have no idea where you are getting a 500 watt cfl bulb though, lol that thing must be 2 ft.

newGrows said:

. If you plan to do intense lollipopping why wouldn't you just grow shorter plants?

Click to expand...

Agree, I think the entire LST / SCROG phenomena is how the community smartly reacted when the laws changed and dictated "plant counts", for example in Michigan you can only grow 12 plants. You could get a much better yield with old school SOG growing hundreds of individual plants with huge center colas, densely packed, but that is "illegal". So growers adapted and workaround the "plant count" laws by using LST, SCROG to get the max yield per plant. I am talking indoors, where space/efficiency are the most important and the footprint of the lamps make old school SOG the ideal yield method.

A long time ago, when the feds changed the mj laws to have mandatory minimum sentences based on plant counts, the old school SOG method has kinda disappeared unfortunately.

newGrows said:

Constantly tying back branches should allow light to reach the entire plant, especially if the main stems are made to grow horizontally. This has the added benefit that tying back the main branch so it is as close to horizontal as possible sends a similar signal to the plant as topping so that the other branches will grow strong too. And then I can always include side lights to reach dark spots. obviously this is only really doable on a small scale and probably would be easier indoors.

I know that pruning / lollipopping is really very common but I think it can be avoided with enough training. If you plan to do intense lollipopping why wouldn't you just grow shorter plants? it just seems like wasting time in veg to me.

Imagine that each cola is separated from every other cola by at least a few inches through LST, wouldn't that produce enough light penetration? And couldn't you get the same effect as lollipopping by tying back some of the larger leaves that are shading the rest of the plant?

HH is right as long as you add a small fan somewhere in the room circulating the air around the bulb at least a little bit. I have no idea where you are getting a 500 watt cfl bulb though, lol that thing must be 2 ft.

Click to expand...

LST is still the best way to cultivate less stress -unless one has a "special" grow project (Sea of Green, SCROG, ect) And moveing the plants branches (buds) to get light is easy but one can come up with interesting looking plants that give good yields. Lst is good for small grows but large grows (25 +) is need in SOG grows because of the size of the plants. Don't get me wrong very good yields can be produced by a SOG - comes down to how much time one wants to invest in their "project" including the space allowed or a grow

newGrows said:

I know that pruning / lollipopping is really very common but I think it can be avoided with enough training. If you plan to do intense lollipopping why wouldn't you just grow shorter plants? it just seems like wasting time in veg to me.

Click to expand...

Stupid is as stupid does.

Let me save you some time - being "popular" in cannabis forums is usually misguided. Why? Because folks that embrace these misguided paradigms don't know what makes a plant tick and have no clue when it comes to botany. They do a knee jerk reaction associating a certain practice with an effect when in reality the two are not even related.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/no-lower-budsites-do-not-need-light-to-develop-get-educated.829061/

And what's this stress stuff as it pertains to topping? The only stress to a plant is when a grower doesn't know what he's doing.

Hey I appreciate any insight other people have with this plant. But starting your reply with "stupid is as stupid does", seems like a knee jerk reaction to me. At any rate to me, the heart of the argument over these training/not training ideas, is time. Time is the great equalizer. Many strains need a couple more weeks to get those bottom nugs to finish and for some it's not efficient to wait for that. Some strains will be denser earlier and it's acceptable to harvest the whole plant without having to wait on those bottoms.

Stress is a broad notion. The right amounts at the right time will benefit the plant, think indoors with an oscillating fan, the plants respond and thicken up the stems to support a bigger plant. But too much wind just directly on the plant will really stress and stunt that plant. Same with light, too much too soon will kill a plant, but increase slowly and the plant will respond and get bigger.

I know my veg times and the size I want to finish, so from an early age I start thinning the undercarriage as needed and top as needed to get a broad even canopy. My yields go up by doing this, but again it may mean a little more veg time. I prefer this because of the uniformity of the colas and to ensure I harvest the whole plant at once. It is my experience that the right amount of topping/thinning at appropriate ages will not stunt the plant but the plant seems to grow faster. Too much too often and the plant will be stunted. I also try to thin early on because waiting means that plant wasted time and energy on a branch that won't make it to light, at least not in the time frame that I need. I'm open to new methods and have grown for over 12 years. This works for me and my understanding of this plant. I would rather spend a little more time getting those tops colas, than a little more time getting those popcorns.

Uncle Ben said:

Stupid is as stupid does.

Let me save you some time - being "popular" in cannabis forums is usually misguided. Why? Because folks that embrace these misguided paradigms don't know what makes a plant tick and have no clue when it comes to botany. They do a knee jerk reaction associating a certain practice with an effect when in reality the two are not even related.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/no-lower-budsites-do-not-need-light-to-develop-get-educated.829061/

And what's this stress stuff as it pertains to topping? The only stress to a plant is when a grower doesn't know what he's doing.

Click to expand...

This post has taken me down something of a rabbit hole haha its been a bit of a trip. I'm currently sifting through oscar's thread to see if his counter argument has any merit... so much ad hominem attacks in these threads its hard to find the actual information.... i'll check back here when I feel more informed.

Im a bit excited by the idea of the double harvest which is new to me at the moment.

Oh and just a side note... yea starting off with a post like that seems unnecisarilly hostile.

If the shoe fits........

1 pound