When, or how, do I begin LST?

[bobj]

According to this, it says I should start this during seedling stage. But how?? Where am I supposed to find stems long enough to grab and secure down? Complete Guide to Cannabis Plant Training | Grow Weed Easy

Plants are almost two months old, nearly a foot tall.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Whenever you tie the natural top of the plant down in such a way that it is no longer the uppermost part of the plant, you will, by doing so, cause the auxin (aka "plant hormone") that governs this thing to be redistributed to whichever portion(s) of the plant that are now above it and, thereby, provoke a branching response and cause those lower branches to grow at a faster rate that the formerly higher top. This is a basic light-seeking behavior, evolved in nearly every leafed chlorophyll-containing plant, Sol having been up above (during the daytime), lo these many millions of years.

Begin at any time that there is enough plant to do so. In other words, after there are a few nodes. Your plants qualify. If you end up waiting too long, the main stem will become less flexible, meaning that you'll have to make much smaller adjustments, taking longer to accomplish what you'd otherwise be able to accomplish in one go, or else risk breakage. In other words, lol, it's easier to train a sapling than a large tree.

 

[bobj]

Whenever you tie the natural top of the plant down in such a way that it is no longer the uppermost part of the plant, you will, by doing so, cause the auxin (aka "plant hormone") that governs this thing to be redistributed to whichever portion(s) of the plant that are now above it and, thereby, provoke a branching response and cause those lower branches to grow at a faster rate that the formerly higher top. This is a basic light-seeking behavior, evolved in nearly every leafed chlorophyll-containing plant, Sol having been up above (during the daytime), lo these many millions of years.

Begin at any time that there is enough plant to do so. In other words, after there are a few nodes. Your plants qualify. If you end up waiting too long, the main stem will become less flexible, meaning that you'll have to make much smaller adjustments, taking longer to accomplish what you'd otherwise be able to accomplish in one go, or else risk breakage. In other words, lol, it's easier to train a sapling than a large tree.

So what I have to do, is pull the tallest stem down? The middle one?

 

[TorturedSoul]

Middle? Er... See the top of the plant? Adjust it so that it's no longer the highest part.

In the most extreme, you could turn the entire thing upside-down, lol. But that would make a mess. (Although, if you do a web-search for "topsy turvy tomato plant," you'll learn that that's an actual thing.

I assume that it's the branches that are growing from the middle of the plant that you want to grow at an increased rate, so that they can be (more or less) comparable to its top.

 

[Bounce3d]

grab it there and pull to the side,

i normally do one opposing and low down, right at the base of the stem. so that when i pull it down it doesnt pull it out the soil

 

[Bounce3d]

 

[bobj]

okay, how do they grow?

What I mean by this is, how do I want to pull my plants down to arrange them to grow in a sort of pattern? notice the symmetrical fashion of how I've arranged my plants, do I want to pull the top part of the plant towards the open space?

I went out and bought some 'twisty tie' plant ties from my hardware store, I'm going to anchor them to some bamboo skewers I found in the drawer. I'm going to go ahead and tie these down and upload a picture for you to see to see if I did this right. This will be my first time ever trying to perform such a task, so know that I am doing this with absolutely no experience whatsoever.

 

[bobj]

I'm going to assume this is a crap job of what it is I'm aiming to do, isn't it?

Edit: it looks so ugly and uncomfortable, I don't know if I can live with myself.

 

[bobj]

this is what the plant looks like after my "LST" attempt. Is this it people? Really? I gotta contort my beautiful weed into this obscure 90 degree angle monstrosity? This is hideous

@GainesvilleGreen look

 

[Sparkey224]

Great job, you can bend them over like mentioned above or just snip off the 4th or 5th node and chill for awhile until she bounces back.

Vegging longer (3-5weeks) in plastic 1gal will also promote side branching. Then transplant into finals (i like fabric pots for finals) and she will explode.

 

[bobj]

Great job, you can bend them over like mentioned above or just snip off the 4th or 5th node and chill for awhile for her until she bounces back.

Vegging longer (3-5weeks) in plastic 1gal will also promote side branching. Then transplant into finals (i like fabric pots for finals) and she will explode.

Have you SEEN how terrible looking that plant is?? It doesn't look normal, I'm so scared that I'm going to permannently disfigure or otherwise kill my plant/affect it ain an adverse manner..

 

[Sparkey224]

Have you SEEN how terrible looking that plant is?? It doesn't look normal, I'm so scared that I'm going to permannently disfigure or otherwise kill my plant/affect it ain an adverse manner..

She will adjust and perk back up. I promise. She looks good just dont play with her all the time.

 

[bobj]

She will adjust and perk back up. I promise. She looks good just dont play with her all the time.

I am going to do the rest of the plants like that and post a photo, brb

 

[Sparkey224]

Two outside plants were veg in 1g for 4 weeks and topped either 4th or 5th node cant remember. I dont touch them again until the lollipop before flip. Also really important to veg them in their finals at least 10 days before flip. Slow is the way to go my friend.

 

[bobj]

here are a few photos of the way I've 'LST' my plants, I do not want to do any overly evasive manoeuvres to my plants. This is my first time doing so. From my limited understanding, I'm doing this to trigger some sort of chemical reaction in my plants to grow differently to obtain light. Have I positioned them correctly to multibranch? Sorry for the barrage of questions, I did not anticipate this being so unorthodox, my plants emitted a 'smell' when I touched them and I can tell they're stressed

 

[Emilya Green]

It's all a matter of dominance. A non topped plant has one single main cola, and it is dominant. If however, you bend the top down as far as you can get it, the top of the plant is no longer dominant and every other branch on the plant gets the signal through a special fear hormone, that dominance is up for grabs. Every branch starts building upward, trying to steal the dominance. Usually, about 3 will make it. If you bend them down too, then others will try to become dominant. Using this, you can shape the plant into whatever you want it to be, and certainly not 5 feet tall.

I use a combination of methods. First, about node 5 or so, I top the plant. This immediately creates 2 main branches. As they rapidly grow out to gain dominance, I LST them all the way to horizontal. The game begins, and all the side growth will try to rise to the top, and as it does, I bend it over too. Before you know it, you will have a short plant with 10 to 16 colas on it that will become your canopy.

Enjoy learning to train these plants. It is a very relaxing pastime that will also greatly increase your yield.

 

[lovitonce]

I was the same way my first grow...but you would be surprised at how resilient marijua a plants are. Here are some pics of my first grow. I kinda went hard on the training. I topped (@3rd node) and tied them down on one of my plants I actually went a little to hard and split the crotch of my plant right down the middle of the main stem. I thought for sure the plant was going to due but it healed itself and gave me some pretty good (size, quality) buds..your plants are looking nice and healthy. Another evasion for topping and training is to keep pla to low and make better use of your grow space.

 

[Regrowth]

You did an awesome job. Those tops you tied down will try to dominate again so you may need to adjust in a few days or add a second skewer to each one. And I didn't mean to scare you away from topping. Topping once is fine but I wouldn't bother doing it more than that - especially when you can get plenty of tops by training the way you are now. The plants produce trichomes in small amounts even in veg so rubbing the stems may produce a scent.

 

[bobj]

Everyone in here is phenomenal, thank you so much for all the kind words and support <3

 

[lovitonce]

Here are a few more screens shots of the plant I was telling you about. Maybe it can help you kinda gage how resilient the plant really are. These plants are topped and trained.