The Wang's Guide To: LST (Low-Stress Training)

Pics will be included tonight or tomorrow

Description: The idea of LSTing is to create multiple tops instead of one main top. Several types of training have been invented.

1) Topping: This achieves the same effect but puts stress on your plants making them more suceptible to becoming a hermaphodite. By cutting the top off of your plant, the side branches grow into two main tops. If you top these two tops, you get MORE tops. I do not like the idea of barbarically chopping my plants. In my experience, it seems that topping the plant makes it stretch.

2) Scrog: This is the same concept as LSTing except you use a screen to keep your plants down. As your plants grow, you tuck them down under the screen. This is a good way to train your plant without the use of strings. It also seems to be easier. One disadvantage is that it is tougher outdoors to set up a screen like this.

Experiences:

1) LSTing is very simple but you must be careful, i have accidently chopped one of my plants while LSTing.
This happened when I ran out of yarn to tie my plants down with. I stupidly used sewing thread which proved to be too thin and like a sharp blade chopped my plant in half. Good thing it survived, (accidental topping).

Rules of Thumb:

1) Only LST during the vegetative stage, when flowering, it may cause too much stress and turn your plant into a hermie. We all hate hermies.

2) Use yard or kite string, something thick so that it doesn't chop your plant.

3) LST around your third node. No sooner. Give your plants time to stretch out a bit, nobody likes to be born under slavery.

4) I like to leave the string on the WHOLE time the plant is alive. When the plant gets bigger, it's stem gets bigger and when this happens the string gets tighter. First the string will start cutting into the stem. The stem will then grow around the string. If you notice the string is getting too tight and the stem is growing, loosen the string a little. If not, I have not seen any harm done to my plants that have had this happen to.

Steps:

1) Poke holes around the edge of your pot. About four is good enough.

2) Slip the string *refer to rule of thumb #2* into the hole and around the bottom of your stem. Add pic. Tie the string, This will be your support string to keep the plant from getting yanked out when you tie it down.

3) Take another string, and slip it through the opposite hole. Wrap this string around the top of your plant under the growing top. Tie your plant down at about a 90 degree angle.

4) Place under light. Your plant will readjust itself to grow straight up again. WHen this happens, simply tie it down some more. Eventually side branches will also become main branches.


Questions/Suggestions: Any questions or suggestions asked will be added here with an answer.


The End.

The Wang

nice work wang,

don't forget this thread on the subject:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=6090

right on i have big_buddahs LST tutorial from overgrow in my gallery very simple instructions and pics included. as for using string no thx i use twisty tie in the local garden shops you can get a 100ft roll of twisty tie for plant training very cheap and wont cut into the plant. as for toping here's a better idea n if ya mess up FIM ya just topped the plant no worries

Oops, couldn't find that one when i searched..

good basic walkthrough but we already have a bunch of guides to lst dont we?

The only suggestion i've got is to change that little picture of topping so that people know you're cut it off at the stem, not in the middle of the leaves. People may simply cut their newest leaves in half instead of severing that growth region entirely.

Yeah you probably do, but the thing is when i go to search for some i can't find any.

My bad if i have wasted your space.

All info is apprecited Wang. Thanks and I am sure many more say the same.

I use the rubberband method. Just put a rubberband around your pot and put your strings under them. It holds them tight and are easy to take out and retie if you have to. When I LST I usually transplant first and then LST after a few days. I let them veg for another 2 weeks or so and then put them into flower. By then the bottom branches are growing good and betime the plant stretches it's a mini bush. From there each branch is a mini cola. I had like 8 mini colas on my Diamond Head plant.

I love LST!!!!!

try elastic string works the bomb and also allows plants to grow in the stems alot , helps with running high speed fans too plants have a little bit of free range with this method and seems less stressfull

I buy twist tie on a roll, and use that to train my plants.
Its fast and easy to untie and retie a branch as needed, often i will only loosly hook a banch to hold it down for 2-3 days, and then I move the tie up the branch closer to the growing tip, to retrain it in the planned direction, and so on and so forth, until blooming takes hold and the branches turn hard and ridgid.

I've used LST since I grew my first Indoor plant, the only time I have not used it was when I did a small scrog(which turned out great).
I have also used LST outdoors through the years, to help with super bushy plants.

I waited too long to LST. Ended up FIMming a bunch of branches. Got a ton of tops now, but a lot of them seem to be at a stand still. New growth is healthy, just not very vigorous. Anyone else have this problem? Growing Troublemaker (HKxMK)