How I perform low stress training on my plants: Lots of pics!

[InTheShed]

Would you advise to cut the leaves ?

It doesn't look as crowded as a lot of plants I've seen so I wouldn't take any leaves at this stage. You can tuck the big ones down to expose the new growth.

But if any are touching the soil I'd slide a flat rock underneath to keep it elevated.

If you can get white light pics that would be a whole lot better though.

I'm now training them at least once a day to keep them flat. I counted 10 new tops on each of them, so my efforts aren't going unnoticed

The faster they turn back up the happier they are! Sometimes I'll adjust the ties twice a day to stay in top of new growth.

10 new tops sounds great!

 

[Paperboii]

Hello again @InTheShed! Thank you a lot for replying. I took some better pictures for you.What do you think?

edit: I put stones under the leaves that touch the soil. Well I still suck at photographing, there are two small colas that faced toward the soil under the plant.

 

[InTheShed]

Much easier to see in the white! Any branches facing down will head towards the light as the grow, and it they don't look like they'll make good tops in the end you can always trim them later.

I'm a bit concerned about the thin string you're using to tie the plant though. It looks like it might cut into the branch as it grows. If you have something thicker, or if you can wrap the string with tape at the places it touches the stem, that would spread out the contact point.

 

[Paperboii]

Much easier to see in the white! Any branches facing down will head towards the light as the grow, and it they don't look like they'll make good tops in the end you can always trim them later.

I'm a bit concerned about the thin string you're using to tie the plant though. It looks like it might cut into the branch as it grows. If you have something thicker, or if you can wrap the string with tape at the places it touches the stem, that would spread out the contact point.

Oh alright I will do that. Would untying her and again tying cause any problems though. I’m little scared that I’ll harm her. I can’t get any new seeds during quarantine and she is my preciouss . Also concerning the position do you think it’s okay, it still doesn’t look like the new colas getting enough light so I will try to move/tie fan leaves above them. Thank you

 

[InTheShed]

No harm in untying and retying as long as you're careful.

And leaf tucking is a part of any training when you don't want to take off leaves.

 

[PumasPyjamas]

This is probably on the rougher side of LST, but this is how I train my plants. Lots of FIM, defoliation and bending. Sometimes I mix in a bit of super cropping, but I'd rather bend with gardening wire to minimize the damage.
Working pretty good so far!

 

[InTheShed]

This is probably on the rougher side of LST, but this is how I train my plants. Lots of FIM, defoliation and bending. Sometimes I mix in a bit of super cropping, but I'd rather bend with gardening wire to minimize the damage.
Working pretty good so far!

Plants look great, but other than "bending," that ain't LST even on the rougher side!

 

[PumasPyjamas]

Plants look great, but other than "bending," that ain't LST even on the rougher side!

I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I kinda have to disagree on not being LST.
It all started off pretty mellow and I upped the intensity as the plants grew larger and seemed like they could take a beating or two. This is the heavily tied plant about a month ago.

Heres another one

And another one

But yeah, those supercrop'ish 90 degree angles (in the previous post) aren't really LST if you do it as aggressively as I do, but if you do it gently to a young and flexible branch its not a stressful event as you'll quickly notice that the plant adjusts itself within hours.

 

[InTheShed]

I don't mean to be rude either! I did say that the bending would fall under the category of low stress, but FIMming, defoliation, and supercroping are all high stress training techniques.

Feel free to disagree, but I'd like to keep this thread on topic.

 

[PumasPyjamas]

I don't mean to be rude either! I did say that the bending would fall under the category of low stress, but FIMming, defoliation, and supercroping are all high stress training techniques.

Feel free to disagree, but I'd like to keep this thread on topic.

Yeah, guess I have to agree that those techniques are way more stressful than just tying down and bending. Totally didn't mean to hijack this thread or anything. Just wanted to show off the result of combining different techniques while practicing the basics of LST. 8)

 

[Paperboii]

Hello again @InTheShed, with your advices I think my plant doing great new colas starting to grow. As you said I’m trying tuck down the fan leaves as much as possible. I will tie her again today and just to be sure my next move will be tying the new colas to the empty side of pot and make her spread right? Do you think they’re big enough?Also is there anything that I can to for that tiny cola under? Thank you so much

 

[InTheShed]

Hello again @InTheShed, with your advices I think my plant doing great new colas starting to grow. As you said I’m trying tuck down the fan leaves as much as possible. I will tie her again today and just to be sure my next move will be tying the new colas to the empty side of pot and make her spread right? Do you think they’re big enough?Also is there anything that I can to for that tiny cola under? Thank you so much

The LST looks good to me! I try to tie what would have been the lower nodes to the side of the pot away from the main stem to leave room for the nodes above it to fill in the middle. And they're big enough when you can tie them!

The branches (colas are the buds that stack on the tops of flowering plants) that are underneath can come off when you thin if they don't look like they will make good tops in the end. I'm guessing this is a photoperiod rather than an autoflower, yes?

 

[Paperboii]

Thanks for the clarification @InTheShed I have been using the wrong terms all along haha . I planted it 42 days ago and there are no visible preflowers ( at least I can’t see them). That’s why I think it’s photo (it’s bagseed). Would it be a good idea to make clones from those underneath ones? I dont want to lower the yield by cutting the main ones since it will be my first time and I might fail at cloning.

 

[InTheShed]

Absolutely! I will often leave a few shorter shoots when I'm thinning to have something for clones later on.

 

[steffgrowsweed]

Hi InTheShed I have been studying some of your articles, so first a big thank you to you and all the value you add to this place, I appreciate it a lot. Since I'm a recent clone parent (to my surprise 3 out of 4 survived), I wasn't left with much of a choice training-wise (very uneven nodes), so I decided to give LST a proper try. Here is a couple of pictures with a first shy LST (just layed her down with a stone to support). Lots of wild revegging growth going on. Then a first "proper" LST with defoliation and lastly todays state of affairs. I was trying to keep everything level. The plant has now grown over the edge which required me bending both nodes to bend in a 90 degree angle.
I am currently thinking of training or waiting for the inner nodes to grow to the outside of the pot as well and then switch to flower. What do you think so far? I am very unsure about all the next steps and what to possibly expect, especially since it's a monster crop clone with unpredictable growth. Happy day for you and yours and a big virtual bunch of beautiful flowers, Thank you

 

[InTheShed]

Hi InTheShed ☀ I have been studying some of your articles, so first a big thank you to you and all the value you add to this place, I appreciate it a lot. Since I'm a recent clone parent (to my surprise 3 out of 4 survived), I wasn't left with much of a choice training-wise (very uneven nodes), so I decided to give LST a proper try. Here is a couple of pictures with a first shy LST (just layed her down with a stone to support). Lots of wild revegging growth going on. Then a first "proper" LST with defoliation and lastly todays state of affairs. I was trying to keep everything level. The plant has now grown over the edge which required me bending both nodes to bend in a 90 degree angle.
I am currently thinking of training or waiting for the inner nodes to grow to the outside of the pot as well and then switch to flower. What do you think so far? I am very unsure about all the next steps and what to possibly expect, especially since it's a monster crop clone with unpredictable growth. Happy day for you and yours and a big virtual bunch of beautiful flowers, Thank you

I think you're doing a dandy job of keeping the monstercrop in check! The only thing I'm thinking is that it might be a while before the inner growth can be trained to the outside before the ones already at the outer edge get too big to deal with.

I would let the inner nodes grow up and let that fill in the middle of the pot. That way you will have room on the outside for the main branches and you will end up with evenly distributed tops when you flip.

 

[steffgrowsweed]

I think you're doing a dandy job of keeping the monstercrop in check! The only thing I'm thinking is that it might be a while before the inner growth can be trained to the outside before the ones already at the outer edge get too big to deal with.

I would let the inner nodes grow up and let that fill in the middle of the pot. That way you will have room on the outside for the main branches and you will end up with evenly distributed tops when you flip.

Thank you I am more of a visual person, so I tried to add lines and things to visualize what I've understood.

The pink arrows pointing to the outside of the pot I want to train further to the outside. The orange arrows pointing up along the pink arrow to the outside, I do not want to train to the outside but let grow upwards. Is that right? The inner growth (orange arrows) should soon catchup and I would need to readjust the outer pink arrow bits to make sure they stay level, maybe lift their head a little. Does any of that make sense or am I overcomplicating things?

 

[InTheShed]

I'll need to see that on a computer later instead of a phone now .

 

[Amy Gardner]

I’ve been meaning to drop this in here since i started. It’s been long enough now that it ill be a pretty big photo dump!

I began LST on a Northern Lights Auto from @SeedsMan a bit over 2 weeks ago, following Shed’s guide here to my best ability.

It’s is a variegated pheno with very twisty and tight new growth so it’s been a challenge at times! The best part is that it hasn’t started flowering yet, 31days out. LST began on day 17.


Pre-bend

NLa day 16.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 17, 2020

Pre LST

NLa day 16.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 17, 2020

First gentle bend

NLa day 16.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 17, 2020

LST day 1

NLa day 16.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 17, 2020

LST day 1

Second gentle bend, taking it a little further each day.

NLa day 17.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 17, 2020

LST day 2

NLa day 17.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 17, 2020

LST day 2

NLa day 17.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 17, 2020

LST day 2

The long veg time has allowed me time to spread out the branches. It’s a very twisty bushy thing and still shows the leaf colour variegation.

I snapped pics every couple of days to track it so I’m just going to dump them in (I hope!) chronological order. Each time I took a side-view, a Saugaview® and an up-from-under-view

NLa LST day 19.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 26, 2020

NLa LST day 19.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 26, 2020

NLa LST day 19.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 26, 2020

NLa LST day 21.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 26, 2020

NLa LST day 21.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 26, 2020

NLa LST day 21.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 26, 2020

NLa LST day 24.jpeg

• Amy Gardner
• May 26, 2020

That was about 5 days ago and I started laying out the side branches the next day. I’m going to drop that in a seperate post - too many pics ...

 

[Amy Gardner]

I dont know if you can tell in the pics, but the central stem kind of naturally twisted itself at one point so I didnt have to take off the other (underside) branch at the opposing node the way you usually have to.

The page is about to tick over so rather than dump a ton more pics on this page...