How to LST without stunting

Hi everyone,

I am starting this thread so I can gather info on how you LST without stressing autos. I have had a lot of success with LSTing autos, but lately I have stunted at least 3 autos that were growing vigorously and suddenly remained the same size forever after I LSTed. The way I do it is I wait until there are 4 nodes and then add a hook to the main stem and bend the top until 90 degrees. I am using fabric pots so I do not know whether that makes it more stressful.
How do you guys do it? I wonder how sometimes I get great results and others it completely kills the growth. I was guessing it was strain related but since it happened on strains that others have LSTed with success in the past, I think it probably something else...

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Blu_tri]

At the 4th node, autos begin to switch into flowering. Your plants may be having a hard time with their transition. I have a problem with felt pots staying soggy in coco. Do you have pics of plants when they begin to stunt? Or shortly after. ?

 

[Builder0101]

"At the 4th node, autos begin to switch into flowering."
Rather extreme generalization. Not to mention wrong. No offense. Just had an auto go 50 days b4 pre-flower. Was 19" tall and 30" wide. Could not even count the secondary branches much less the tertiary branches. IME the more I "LST" the more vigorous the growth. I highly doubt slowed growth has anything to do with LST. I'd look elsewhere for a cause. Perhaps a hormonal change gearing up for flower not that I've seen that either. Sometimes IME a little slow period b4 stretch once it has transitioned to flower.

 

[MrOldBoy]

LST Training can be successfully started from an early age - Trained a monster 12 oz plus plant using a method I coined “Candy Cane Training” which is so easy to do a toddler could handle the task ...... You can check out that gal here - Did 40 page Joirnal on this Battle Winning Plant and you see early on I started trying before she was knee high to a grasshopper..... Here is the link - The link is also in my signature line along with another a second Journal where more CC Training was done ....

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/mephisto-sams-crack-completed-dry-cure.70062/

Candy Cane Training involves hanging Candy Canes I.e. Tent Stake Pegs on the branches and leaves .... The KEY, I believe, is to NOT leave in “training” too long - although I admit I’ve only grown and trained a few marijuana plants and have no real test studies or comparative side by side “Train - No Train Grows” .....

I finished my last grow in March and have since switched my energy to Vegetable and Flower Garden Grow I am experimenting with Training a few Pepper Plants and have a few pics to share here of training sessions ..... Pepper Plants are not nearly as hardy or strong as marijuana but with some care and patience the peppers are starting to respond with some promising lower growth which in turn should produce additional fruit ..... Hope this helps - Peace and Be Well - MOB

Here is a picture of the “Candy Canes” used in Training - These are an assortment of tent pegs and hanging basket extensions

Pepper inTraining - CC stay on for a few hours and then removed - Rinse - Repeat Process as desired but don’t leave on over 4 hours for Peppers but overnight OK for Marijuana

 

[Blu_tri]

"At the 4th node, autos begin to switch into flowering."
Rather extreme generalization. Not to mention wrong. No offense. Just had an auto go 50 days b4 pre-flower. Was 19" tall and 30" wide. Could not even count the secondary branches much less the tertiary branches. IME the more I "LST" the more vigorous the growth. I highly doubt slowed growth has anything to do with LST. I'd look elsewhere for a cause. Perhaps a hormonal change gearing up for flower not that I've seen that either. Sometimes IME a little slow period b4 stretch once it has transitioned to flower.

I must admit every strain is different . But every grow technique is different as well. Depending on what you mean by flowering. You have the pre- flowering. The stretch comes next. Then the praying. Then the formation of the calyxes and pistils. Which will stack until ripening. It’s all about the growers efficiency as to how long the plant stays in each stage. Personally I concentrate on get my lady’s to move as efficiently as possible. This shortens my grow time. 9wks is what I shoot for. Plants can survive in a suspended state indefinitely when proper conditions aren’t being met. In my opinion this elongates grow time. The quicker a grower is able to get thier plants from pre-flower to stacking bud, the shorter his grow time will be. Just my opinion. Here is a 30 day purple lemonade that’s already budding. I used a different technique which is not very effective. Node spacing in my opinion shows how well your plant is doing. If you are stretching, you aren’t doing something right. Here is a smaller blackberry kush that’s moving decently. Gonna start I like for it to get at least this size before I start watering. Plant will take off one watering starts. Pics of the different stages included. These plants are usually praying at 8 inches tall 4wks old. The remainder of the time is spent stacking bud. I take mine early because I love the trippy high. Do what you feel is best. They are you plants.

 

[Odissey]

At the 4th node, autos begin to switch into flowering. Your plants may be having a hard time with their transition. I have a problem with felt pots staying soggy in coco. Do you have pics of plants when they begin to stunt? Or shortly after. ?

Unfortunately not because eventually I got rid of them since I have very little space and they were not growing. Actually the ones I trained were not flowering yet but started soon after, could it be that they are strains that start flowering very early and therefore should not be trained at all?

 

[Odissey]

"At the 4th node, autos begin to switch into flowering."
Rather extreme generalization. Not to mention wrong. No offense. Just had an auto go 50 days b4 pre-flower. Was 19" tall and 30" wide. Could not even count the secondary branches much less the tertiary branches. IME the more I "LST" the more vigorous the growth. I highly doubt slowed growth has anything to do with LST. I'd look elsewhere for a cause. Perhaps a hormonal change gearing up for flower not that I've seen that either. Sometimes IME a little slow period b4 stretch once it has transitioned to flower.

I absolutely do agree that LST makes for stronger plants. Actually I have had great success with it. It is just thay recently I have had a lot of poor results with it while doing what I would consider is the same

 

[Odissey]

LST Training can be successfully started from an early age - Trained a monster 12 oz plus plant using a method I coined “Candy Cane Training” which is so easy to do a toddler could handle the task ...... You can check out that gal here - Did 40 page Joirnal on this Battle Winning Plant and you see early on I started trying before she was knee high to a grasshopper..... Here is the link - The link is also in my signature line along with another a second Journal where more CC Training was done ....

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/mephisto-sams-crack-completed-dry-cure.70062/

Candy Cane Training involves hanging Candy Canes I.e. Tent Stake Pegs on the branches and leaves .... The KEY, I believe, is to NOT leave in “training” too long - although I admit I’ve only grown and trained a few marijuana plants and have no real test studies or comparative side by side “Train - No Train Grows” .....

I finished my last grow in March and have since switched my energy to Vegetable and Flower Garden Grow I am experimenting with Training a few Pepper Plants and have a few pics to share here of training sessions ..... Pepper Plants are not nearly as hardy or strong as marijuana but with some care and patience the peppers are starting to respond with some promising lower growth which in turn should produce additional fruit ..... Hope this helps - Peace and Be Well - MOB

Here is a picture of the “Candy Canes” used in Training - These are an assortment of tent pegs and hanging basket extensions
View attachment 1184662

Pepper inTraining - CC stay on for a few hours and then removed - Rinse - Repeat Process as desired but don’t leave on over 4 hours for Peppers but overnight OK for Marijuana
View attachment 1184668

Very interesting technique. This seems very low stress

 

[Odissey]

I must admit every strain is different . But every grow technique is different as well. Depending on what you mean by flowering. You have the pre- flowering. The stretch comes next. Then the praying. Then the formation of the calyxes and pistils. Which will stack until ripening. It’s all about the growers efficiency as to how long the plant stays in each stage. Personally I concentrate on get my lady’s to move as efficiently as possible. This shortens my grow time. 9wks is what I shoot for. Plants can survive in a suspended state indefinitely when proper conditions aren’t being met. In my opinion this elongates grow time. The quicker a grower is able to get thier plants from pre-flower to stacking bud, the shorter his grow time will be. Just my opinion. Here is a 30 day purple lemonade that’s already budding. I used a different technique which is not very effective. Node spacing in my opinion shows how well your plant is doing. If you are stretching, you aren’t doing something right. Here is a smaller blackberry kush that’s moving decently. Gonna start I like for it to get at least this size before I start watering. Plant will take off one watering starts. Pics of the different stages included. These plants are usually praying at 8 inches tall 4wks old. The remainder of the time is spent stacking bud. I take mine early because I love the trippy high. Do what you feel is best. They are you plants.

Wait so you do not train at all? These are some impressive plants! I am afraid if I do not train the yield will reduce since I microgrow in a box with only 100cm height and have a 125w qb there. I have also read somewhere here in this forum of someone who transplanted at sex to get dwarf plants with monster yields. Does anyone have experience with this?

 

[Odissey]

But actually my last grow I yielded 88 dry grams from a fastbuds GSC in a 80 cm tent with 55w led and I am absolutely sure it would not be possible had I not LSTed. She almost did not fit the tent and had developed like 10 major long fat (size of a 1.5L bottle) colas. So I am a bit puzzled why I am having this issues now. Actually, I have right now two cosmic queens by mephisto. One I LSTed and the other I did not. The one I LSTed stopped growing and the one I did not is still going hard. Here is the photo:

The one on the left is the CC that I LSTed and she is 8 days older than the middle one. Same strain same pot size, some soil and nutes, only difference is I LSTed the older one. On the right is a cbd 20:1 by fastbuds that was algo growing very fast and stopped all veg altogether after lst and started budding....