Indoor Help me LST my bushy autoflowers, first time grow week4 start

[ryanisgrowing]

I strongly recommend do not top/fim. I know people say it does not matter with autos, but I've done both and there is a definite slow down when I do it. Maybe when I get more experience I'll go back to topping. But for a relative newbie growing autos, I recommend do not top. You don't even need to because LST gets you the same results anyway. So why the heck top?

At day 28 you should be OK to start LST. I recommend just doing a simple, basic bend of the main stem at this stage. That will get the lower bud sites to start to become colas and give you a more even top/canopy which means you get better and more buds. All you need to do is pull a pot up to a work bench and anchor down the main stem with a tie tied to one side of the pot. Put the tie near the base of the stem, and leave it room to expand. Then this next part is key. You don't want to split off branches when you do this. So securing a tie near the top of the main stem and bending from there where there is more flex is what you want to do. This tie would be opposite to the anchor tie.

Have a look at this guide. And in particular Idea 3. https://www.growweedeasy.com/simple-cannabis-plant-training-guide

Also check out this guide from @A-Train
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/low-stress-training-guide-descriptions-and-pictures.57314/

Once you do this LST main stem bend your are almost done. You could leave it at that and just tuck leaves every day and do the odd pruning to get rid of inside center lower larf.

I also stole @bushmasterar15 's idea of using clothes pins to bend some branches. I have plastic pins with a clip on them that I can attache lead fishing weight to.

You could also do more LST on top of the main stem bend. Like SCROGs. Or get grow thru grids like this and you can do a SCROG without using a big net in your tent. These grids let you do easy leaf tucking and some pseudo scrogging to get a nice level canopy of equal buds. you can see how some of the tops are almost horizontal in this picture because they were just bent gently and tucked under the wire of the grid.

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Hey lunarman, thanks for the reply. I'm going to take your advice and not top or fim on my first grow. I'd like to see how the plant grows naturally first before experimenting. Anyway, just thinking about topping and fimming has been stressing me out lol. I wasn't able to find a spot on the main stem with enough space to tie around for the last few days but after I raised the light a couple inches last night I can already notice a HUGE difference. I'm going to send you a picture of where I'm thinking of tying from the top. The red circle is where I'm planning but I'm wondering if I can tie it on the internode above the circle if there's enough room, it doesnt look like I'll be able to do it there without touching the new node/bud site. Also, I didn't really understand what you meant by placing the tie close to the to the base of the stalk and leaving it room to expand. Could you elaborate or if you had any pics of it would be great. Let me know what you think!

 

[ryanisgrowing]

@lunarman @bushmasterar15 , is this okay? I’m being very careful not to bend the main stalk, there isn’t much resistance to how much I’m pulling it down right now. Let me know if this is not enough, or or too much, or just right

 

[bushmasterar15]

Here are a few threads you can check out on seed to jarand LST guide both have some great how to's along the way.
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/school-daze-seed-to-jar-live-guide.65331/page-6
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/low-stress-training-guide-descriptions-and-pictures.57314/

 

[lunarman]

Hey lunarman, thanks for the reply. I'm going to take your advice and not top or fim on my first grow. I'd like to see how the plant grows naturally first before experimenting. Anyway, just thinking about topping and fimming has been stressing me out lol. I wasn't able to find a spot on the main stem with enough space to tie around for the last few days but after I raised the light a couple inches last night I can already notice a HUGE difference. I'm going to send you a picture of where I'm thinking of tying from the top. The red circle is where I'm planning but I'm wondering if I can tie it on the internode above the circle if there's enough room, it doesnt look like I'll be able to do it there without touching the new node/bud site. Also, I didn't really understand what you meant by placing the tie close to the to the base of the stalk and leaving it room to expand. Could you elaborate or if you had any pics of it would be great. Let me know what you think!

it is hard to tell you were to put the tie to do the bend based on a picture my friend. You really just have to feel the flex points and decide yourself. In that growweed article it does give you the starting point as being as high as possible which has a softer flex. You can do it in stages too across days. you don't have to do it all at once, and in fact I always do it over a two day period. When you do it gradually you first off reduce the risk of breaking it but it also gives you some time with the plant to get a feel for it.

The bottom ties around the main stem at ground level is what I mean. That is the anchor tie. Like in the article. That stem or trunk will get bigger with time as the plant grows, so you want to make sure the tie is not going to restrict the growth.

Hope that helps and answers everything.

 

[ryanisgrowing]

Thanks for all the help! All my questions were answered, here’s a little update on how they’re doing! I haven’t done anymore training cause I’ve been giving them a little time to recover. Gonna start again probably today I started tucking some of the bigger fan leaves to give more light to the new colas and bud sites.

 

[lunarman]

How high is the light on those? The plants look nice and healthy @ryanisgrowing . But a little short in height to be bending right over. It is hard to tell for sure from the picture. It might be better to try and get a little stretch before bending, and raising the light might get you more height from the stretch phase. Maybe a day or two before bending.

 

[ryanisgrowing]

The lights are at 25” right now, I raised it a couple days ago from 21”, seemed like they were getting a little bit of heat stress. The problem is I only have about 31” of room to work with from the top of the pot to the max height of the light, the plants are about 6-7 inches tall and the light is capped at the top. Maybe I started training too soon but it was already day 28 and I was afraid the main stalk would become too tough and thick to bend. Should I take the tie out then? It’s already been in for a few days I was hoping the stalk would be able to stretch more horizontally with it tied seems like she’s doing fine with it in though, what are the negative impacts of LST when they are too short?

 

[ryanisgrowing]

 

[ryanisgrowing]

Sorry about your neck, idk why this site always rotates my photos

 

[lunarman]

I would definately keep it simple and think to yourself that "less is more". If you got a bit of a bend going I'd just keep it at that. You'll learn a lot from this grow and you don't want to push something to far and have a casualty.

I have had some short plants in my time. Every grow I get them. I grow 6 to 8 plants at a time and I get all sizes. And I dont know why either. Just learning myself and working on understanding the timing of growth and how to use light heights to control plant height.

One negative of low bushy plants is they can become bushy and bushy low plants tend to get soft wet buds at the bottom of the canopy where there is less air. You want to avoid that. So you might have to do some pruning of bud sites and leaves that are in the darkest parts of the plant, which is usually at the bottom. And you might have to do it over time, not just one time. Just do a little each day so that you can see thru the foliage. Don't cut out a lot in one day. there is no rush for one thing. And pruning too much at once is not good IMO. I would recommend reading more on growweedeasy.com. There are a few articles on LST, pruning, when to do it, how much to do etc.