Understanding the Art of LST - Before You Look at Any Pics, Read This First

First off I want to thank the creator of the mighty LST thread started by Caprichoso (LST training in detail. Why bushes are better) as it is highly informative and a wonderful collection of pictures of the LST process.

Not too long ago I did not even know what LST was until I started researching it. Now, however, it is apparent from some of the more recent comments (and some of the older comments) in the LST training thread, that there is a basic lack of understanding when it comes to LST. More than a few people are just imitating pictures and going "WOW! That worked really well!"

Hopefully this post (along with the research I've done) will help some people understand a few things when it comes to LST. There is a lot of information out there on how to LST but it is mostly comprised of diagrams and pictures. If you understand what LST is and what you are doing by tying down the stems of your plants, then you will know when and how to LST your plants. If you understood why and how LST worked, then you would not even need the pictures to help you in the first place.

So here we go ladies and gentleman, gonna drop a bit of info and science here from various sources and readings:

The Art of LST
What LST is
Why LST Works
How LST Works

Armed with this information, you should be able to LST until your hearts are content or learn about how to better your LST practices. Instead of looking to pictures to learn about LST, you'll be using pictures as examples of how to LST.

What LST Is
LST stands for low stress training.

When it comes to marijuana growing, LST refers to a particular type of low stress training. It appears on the outside (and to the untrained eye) that the training of a plant is simply teaching a plant to be short and grow lots of buds. It is much more important and involved than that.

Topping the plants (or chopping as it is also referred to) is actually done for similar reasons that LST is done. Even though it is a completely different method. It, too, is a form of training (a high stress one).

A lot of you might be thinking: "Topping and LST aren't even close to the same. You're full of crap. I'm done reading this post."

Well, stay with me here and you'll understand.

Why LST Works
One of the #1 things you need to understand about LST: auxins.

If you don't understand them, then you are just putting strings on your plant so they look like other plants in pictures.

Auxins are plant hormones that interact with other plant hormones to form the "plant nervous system" in the most simplest terms. Auxins are used to help stimulate nearly all facets of plant growth.

Auxins are used to help promote new root growth and is often part of what is used in rooting compounds or rooting hormones that are so popular in marijuana horticulture. There has also been research (in the 50s I believe) that indicates that levels of auxins also influence the sex of a marijuana plant. Some research has also indicated that levels of auxins also play a role in the ways flowers mature on a plant.

Most of all, auxins, in marijuana plants, are known for producing adventitious buds along the stem and in the roots. Adventitious is sort of like it sounds: it's the "adventurous" part of the plant that sprouts when the plant is wounded or trained.

With LST, it is not as simple as: "Make more auxins. Plant grow big."

So why did we learn about auxins if we're not going to be making more of them? I mean, more is good when it comes to marijuana right?!

Well: no, not in this case. This part is important so pay attention: auxins are most concentrated (and synthesized) at the apical bud or the tip of the plant closest to the light. The rest of the plant has the ability to produce auxins, but the cells must be triggered to do so. Now, although auxins are hormones essential for many facets of growth, it is also an inhibiting hormone for the other buds further down the stem. This is to prevent the plant from producing buds which may compete with the apical bud.

In other words:
The plant is very happy having one bud that it tries to stretch as close as possible to its source of energy. It will do what it can to inhibit other sprouts below it from becoming that bud as it would require the plant to push those sprouts up to that level again.

If you are still a bit confused, think of images of trees and picture the growth that they have in a cone-shaped fashion. They are working to push the apical bud up to the sky.

Now that you understand what auxins are and how they are important for growth in marijuana, you can begin to understand how LST works.

How LST Works
This is where I get to those people who were saying "Topping and LST aren't even close. You're full of crap."

When you top a plant, you are removing the apical bud (the bud closest to the light) where most of the auxin is concentrated and synthesized. The plant stresses itself out (high stress training) and eventually produces new sprouts along the stem that will form new growth so that it can get a new apical bud and send it soaring towards the heavens.

LST is helping to stimulate that growth near the bottom but by tricking the plant instead of chopping it. In nature, if something happens to a plant and the bud that is closest to the light gets blocked, it will try to move around that something. If it can't, then eventually new growth will form lower along the stem to try and send a new shoot out to head towards the light.

When you LST, the reason that you are tying the tip of the plant down is so that the plant gets confused. It is used to producing the auxins in the tip of the plant close to the light. However, because the tip of the plant is pulled down to such a degree, it is not receiving light at the very tip like it used to so it sends the auxins down the stem to produce new sprouts to become new apical buds (or so the plant hopes).

This is why some people continue training as the plant gets older, but like to start when the plant is new as auxin development starts with roots and continues through all stages of the plant. Continued training of the plant is helpful because, as you can imagine, each apical tip can be brought down to promote new growth further down the stem. Every time you bring the tip down, the plant will be fooled. As new tips of the plant are reaching towards the light, pulling them back down below 90 degrees (or close to it) will make those auxins start to flow again. This can continue on and on.

Now that you know how LST works, you don't even need a picture to look at. You just know that you need to trick the plant into thinking it's highest tip is no longer its highest tip. It's as simple as that, but it is also as complex as you want it to be.



So, what did we learn here?
1) LST can be done for all strains of marijuana
2) LST is another way of altering/stimulating the auxin hormone to produce additional growth just like other training methods
3) LST is not just for training height
4) Understanding auxins will help you understand LST
5) There is a lot of material available about this but most of it is in books which means if you really want to understand how auxins affect marijuana, you should look further than Wikipedia

I hope this information is helpful to everyone looking to figure out how to LST or why it works or when is the best time.

Just an additional note: using shielded copper wiring instead of string is not only easier as there are no knots to tie, but it is very reusable because there are no knots to untie. Here are some examples of my own LST just for posterity's sake:




Any comments or corrections are appreciated.

-Q

If you don't understand them, then you are just putting strings on your plant so they look like other plants in pictures.

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Bravo! Well written! Thanks for the concise and informative summary. I am a lazy bastard and just let my plants grow as they will, but if I ever got off my stoned ass and did some LST work this would make an excellent primer.

Your secret is out, though. We now know that you are a teacher in real life...

Good post thanks.

preach on!

LST is your friend.....

Good info, thanks. I'm just about to start training 2 white widows.

any pics?????????



















j/k

LST all the way!

Good read.

Would you say that LST is closer to supercropping than to topping?

Quazi
Nice info I just got done some LST'ed Geisha a short while back, first time I tried it, I was impressed and happy with the results, the only thing I will say is that some plants respond to LST better than others Thanks for the informative post

DeebeeAhhSee said:

Good read.

Would you say that LST is closer to supercropping than to topping?

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I would say that the supercropping methods are more similar than topping.

I would say they are very similar, indeed.

However, I used the topping/chopping example to illustrate a point: even though they seem like completely different techniques, training of any sort is usually for the similar auxin-based purpose.

I'm glad everyone has liked the information. Use it, spread it. It is good!

Very nice explanation.

But isn't another effect of LST, which complements the benefits you discussed, that a plant growing in a more horizontal, spread-out shape enables more of the plant to be closer to the light? It is the best way of growing to take advantage of the inverse-square law. The increased hormones along with the increased light both contribute to increased bud growth.

Any training process is meant to expose more buds to greater amount of light.

LST and the auxins do not create dank buds alone. However, training your plant to grow in a specific way will cause auxins to create bud sites in locations that are ideal for overhead lighting situations.

"But isn't another effect of LST, which complements the benefits you discussed, that a plant growing in a more horizontal, spread-out shape enables more of the plant to be closer to the light?"

No. That is not a direct effect of LST. That is the effect of you having an overhead lighting setup and a successful, continual LST. LST does not guarantee that the plant will grow in a more horizontal, spread-out shape that suddenly makes it awesome for overhead light. Continued training of a plant will eventually cause it to stop growing vertically and start to spread horizontally, but that is continual training. The reason I say this, is it is possible to LST a plant in its earlier stage to cause growths further down the stem. However, if you do not continue to train the plant, it will grow vertically. If I were to ask whether that plant was LST'd the correct answer would be yes. But, the plant would not be in the horizontal, shape you are speaking of.

One has to be careful when making a statement of cause and effect to ensure the words/verbs they are using are factual.

In addition: I think you might want to research what the "inverse-square law" is.

More + More = More is not an example of it. That's just adding.

Glad you liked the information though!

lst is the shit imo, just off one of my plants i have about 20 budsites. im expecting big yields on my triangle kush. nice write up hommie its always good to give back, especial good information. ima hit ya with some rep my dog well deserved

check out my 2 lst triangle kush plants @ 11 days 12/12. i cant wait to see them bud, im getting excited!!!

DeebeeAhhSee said:

Good read.

Would you say that LST is closer to supercropping than to topping?

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I was just thinking to ask where supercropping fit in the scope lst--topping.

Some would disagree with me I'm sure, but I think supercropping during flowering gives you the best of both worlds (LST only in vedge for sure). It seems to me, that crushing the herd stimulates the side nugs aggressively like topping while the main cola still gets enough auxins that it doesn't seem to suffer from the injury, rather the opposite.(IME) I'll do it anytime in the first half of flowering, some people say this is too much stress in flowering, but my fattest nugs always have the telltale knuckle and dogleg.(insert dick joke here...Oh shit I just did!)

sorry if this is too off topic but the whole time I was reading OP I was wondering the supercropping effect on auxins.

Quazi said:

In addition: I think you might want to research what the "inverse-square law" is.

More + More = More is not an example of it. That's just adding.

Click to expand...

For any given point in space, the intensity of light from a point source decreases with the inverse square of the distance from the light. Double the distance, you get 1/4 the light energy, triple the distance and you get 1/9 of the energy, and so on. Most of the light energy is still there, just spread out. So a plant that is also spread out (assuming an overhead light), as with LST or SCrOG, captures that spread-out light energy that would otherwise be lost with a tall, thin plant. It also enables you to move your light closer, which means even more light energy striking more leaves.

I always thought that this was the main reason for training. But thanks to your informative post, I now realize there's a lot more to it.

Roger that. I was under the assumption, from your previous post, that you were trying to say more + more = more with it.

While the light is more spread it, it is not the fact that the plant has spread horizontally, necessarily that makes LST great. With continued proper training, you can ensure that your buds/colas are sucking up most of the light. Then you aren't really worrying too much about the rest of the plant getting light at all.

I wish there was a little star with a rainbow colored trail. "The more you know!"

-Q

Yeah there are quite a few varying opinions of when supercropping can be effective. i don't necesarily agree that it should only be done during veg. But we will see because I've done this crop while in early bloom. I'll see if I can post a pic of how they look now.

when lst your plant and all your stems are all the same height would topping those Evan more productive .like you have 6 shuts and you top the 6 you would get 12 shuts off of that making 12 colas right has any on done any experiments ?

I've done some LST before but this time around I did it in a totally unconventional and unplanned manner. I started out with FIM, then I started supercropping, and then I started tying them down to even things up. I guess I just got greedy, I don't know. I only have 6 plants at the moment though, so I just wanted to get as much as I possibly could, without wasting energy on a piss poor yield.

When I flower these bitches should I keep them tied down or just let them go? I mean, I wouldn't call what I did normal low stress training, so yeah I don't know... I plan on putting a trellis over them a little bit into the stretch so hopefully that will help manage things. I also plan on trimming everything below the screen...

I gotta move them to my flowering room anyways so they'll have to be untied from the rack I have them sitting on to begin with. I just want to maintain the somewhat even canopy that I've been working for in the first place... Tying them down is a pain in the ass and takes awhile, so I'd be happy to just let them do their own thing and hope the branches don't start outgrowing each other. I just want to know what someone else thinks...