LST: How Extreme Can You Bend It?

Toby Flenderson

Toby Flenderson

Member
There's alot of growers out there using low stress training to conserve space, but I have one question about LST: How much can you bend the main stem? From the start of the 3rd node, can you bend it completely horizontal? Or when you bend it and it begins to grow again, will it straighten up and move what was holding it down? In my head LST can make a plant bend in ridiculous shapes and have sharp turns, but is that correct? I think sharp turns would increase yields much more than just bending it down a little.
 
jondamon

jondamon

Well-Known Member
the idea behind LST is that you tie down the leading growth so that it is no longer the highest part of the plant and the next highest growth will be given the plant auxins and will grow as a leader then tie it down etc ,

Now some people like to grow a plant untrained then tie down the leading growth and carry on.

Other people like to top the plant first and then tie down the resulting leader growth.


the plant can be bent in anyway you want but depending how extreme you want to LST you may have to train it over a few hours/days gradually as not to split stems etc



J
 
racerboy71

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
i have seen pix of lst where some one actually tied their plant in a knot.. it was the craziest thing i've ever seen.. i don't know how long it took them to achieve this, but it looked pretty damn cool when it was all said and done..
 
djruiner

djruiner

Well-Known Member
they can take a good amount of stress really..almost to the point of the stem breaking..in some cases even breaking the stem wont do that much damage..it repairs itself and grows stronger...im do some crop circle training right now...they seem to really love it...its in a party cup...it should be about 8 inches tall but with the training its barely 2-3 inches out of the cup
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ClosetSafe

ClosetSafe

Active Member
You can literally bend it further than 90 degrees. It might just take a few days or a bit of super cropping to soften the tissue so you can still bend it. If you do point it toward the ground, it will just correct itself and start pointing back towards the lightsource. So be sure to secure the bend at multiple points to account for such corrections.
 
ClosetSafe

ClosetSafe

Active Member
wow, just read this:
racerboy71 said:
i have seen pix of lst where some one actually tied their plant in a knot.. it was the craziest thing i've ever seen.. i don't know how long it took them to achieve this, but it looked pretty damn cool when it was all said and done..
Click to expand...
wish I could see it too. +rep for making me believe in new possibilities
 
Toby Flenderson

Toby Flenderson

Member
djruiner said:
they can take a good amount of stress really..almost to the point of the stem breaking..in some cases even breaking the stem wont do that much damage..it repairs itself and grows stronger...im do some crop circle training right now...they seem to really love it...its in a party cup...it should be about 8 inches tall but with the training its barely 2-3 inches out of the cup
View attachment 1320894
Click to expand...
That picture is what I definitely wanted to see, because I'm doing a party cup grow. Although I most definitely agree, let's see some pictures of extreme LST jobs! Also, can you top a plant that is undergoing training, or is that too much stress?
 
racerboy71

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
to answer the question about whether you can top and than lst, yes you can.. i would top first and give it a few days, than start the lst..
 
G

g420

Active Member
i have a afi i'm doing LST to i topped and bent it right in half (without breaking the stem) it was about 12 inches tall when i did this. plant shows no stress at all. i'll post pics in a few days.
 
racerboy71

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
im doing my first lst job on my current crop, and its pretty cool to watch.. i started the seedlings in the 16 oz solo party cups, and around the top of the outside of the cups, i ran a ring of small diameter wire, and i've been using bread bag ties to secure the plants to the wire.. so far, i've got them about 3/4's of the way around the solo cups..
my question is, by doing this lst, its kinda hard to tell how big they really are, so how on earth am i supposed to know when to start flowering them? and also, just one last question.. should i keep the lst up during the stretch in the first few weeks of flower, or should i just let them do as they please once i start flowering?
thanks ahead of time for any info... and i would also love to see some more crazy pix of lst here.. i know that the pix i was reffering to of the knot was on this site, but i can't seem to find it now, uggh..
 
alexonfire

alexonfire

Well-Known Member
You have to be constantly training it, otherwise the stems harden up and you will not be able to train as easily. About after 2 weeks of flowering the stems stop growing and there is only bud growth. Are you planning on only flowering in the party cup? If so then I would have no veg period. 3-4 days max before putting into flowering, they need bigger pot size. The minimum for a 12/12 plant I would use a 1 liter size pot.
 
racerboy71

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
alexonfire said:
You have to be constantly training it, otherwise the stems harden up and you will not be able to train as easily. About after 2 weeks of flowering the stems stop growing and there is only bud growth. Are you planning on only flowering in the party cup? If so then I would have no veg period. 3-4 days max before putting into flowering, they need bigger pot size. The minimum for a 12/12 plant I would use a 1 liter size pot.
Click to expand...
thanks for the info alex.. no, i've transplanted them out of the party cups and into three gallon containers by simply cutting the bottoms out of the solo cups and burying the cups almost up to the rim in the new bigger containers..
they have been vegging for a lil over a month i would say, and still no signs of preflowers.. so i guess i'll just keep lsting them like you said, i wanna see the final results of a grow that has been lst'ed the entire time...
 
alexonfire

alexonfire

Well-Known Member
I would suggest that you put it into flowering now because of 2 reasons:
1. The plant will be stretching a lot in the first 2 weeks of flowering when you can do a lot of additional training, also the plant will grow up to 2x its size it was before flowering.
2. A rule of thumb for pot size is 1 gallon per month the plant is alive. This means that you automatically have 2 months for flowering and then if you already are in a month of veg that equals to 3.

I hope you can understand by that explanation. If you don't understand I will try to re-word it.
 
racerboy71

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
cool. i've never heard of that one gallon per month of growth rule, but that really makes good sense to me.. if i could plus rep you again, i would, lol... thanks again for the info though.. good stuffs..
 
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