A little input on LST

Hi there. I'm about a week and a half away from the 30 marker on my LST veg.

I'm wondering if I should:

• prune all the small shoots off the main branches now
• prune some now, maybe 50%, then the rest right before flip
• prune none and let all the tops I currently have flower

Any other suggestions are welcome to of course. Also, would anyone let this go longer than 30 days?

Seems like a personal decision to me. If mine, I'd let 'em go, doesn't seem to be enough green to prune. You can prune and lst in flower so it is not like this is a critical decision point.

Thanks bug. I'll take a couple more clones now and let them go. See what they look like in a week and a half.

You did a really nice job training them. That's pretty much an Uncle Ben's Method. I'd probably top the 4 main shoots again. 8 mains would be good. Plus after topping again I'd just let them veg for a while longer. Just let them fill in and do their own thing until they fill up a little over 1/2 of your grow space then flip. Just manage the canopy a bit during flower.

Here is a similar situation with 8 tops. After this cleanup I just let it fill in and ended up with a really nice, manageable plant. You can even toss a hoop down the center of the plant to open it up and let light in. (Pic 2)

One thing is for sure.. You're going to have a lot of weed in a few months

sunny747 said:

You did a really nice job training them. That's pretty much an Uncle Ben's Method. I'd probably top the 4 main shoots again. 8 mains would be good. Plus after topping again I'd just let them veg for a while longer. Just let them fill in and do their own thing until they fill up a little over 1/2 of your grow space then flip. Just manage the canopy a bit during flower.

Here is a similar situation with 8 tops. After this cleanup I just let it fill in and ended up with a really nice, manageable plant. You can even toss a hoop down the center of the plant to open it up and let light in. (Pic 2)

One thing is for sure.. You're going to have a lot of weed in a few months

View attachment 3887978 View attachment 3887991 View attachment 3887979 View attachment 3887994

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Coincidentally, that is almost exactly what I decided to do earlier tonight. They had filled in quite a bit and were still only a small fraction of my total grow height. From soil to touching the bottom of the 6" cooltube is about 4'3. I'm using about 12".

This prune has left me with 6-7 branches which will grow into main colas on each plant. From there I can prune up them the farther along I get.

The two plants on the right are in Coast of Maine soil. The Ocean Forest is light years ahead from what I am seeing. Pretty reasonable at like 18$/1.5 cu. ft.. Each bag does 2 plants mixed with about 15% perlite.

Thanks for the info sunny.

Also that hoops isn't a bad idea. It could also be used to hold everything upright.

sponge said:

Also that hoops isn't a bad idea. It could also be used to hold everything upright.

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Yea, the hoop works great. In traditional mainling tutorials they use a tomotao cage, but it was really difficult to cut and rather expensive compared to a coat hanger. It really opens things up to let the light in.

I wonder why we strip everything off. I've followed the instructions and it worked well, but it still leaves me wondering. Any ideas?

Why we strip the bottom off or, 'lollipop' it? That is because once the plant fills in up top , particularly if you have multiple plants under one light, it is very difficult for the full intensity of the light to reach down near the base of the stem.

There is some light penetration considered sufficient but iirc it is only about 1 to 1.5' with the most powerful of lights; 600 and 1000 watts. I would think CFL's, led and weaker HPS bulbs have far less penetration than a 600 or 1000 watt HPS.

Those leaves and buds not getting the full intensity of the light are not going to be at their full potential, leaving you with fan leaves not being productive and fluffy light buds that dry out in cure to nothingness or chafe.

The tighter you keep the prune to where the nodes are condensed the more easily the full intensity of the light will hit all of the buds. Between physically pruning to keep all the bud nodes condensed at the top and the intense direct light; You wind up with big, fat, dense buds covered in crystals that are all very well and evenly developed when it comes time for harvest.

If you like to have some variety in your bag, you leave maybe one spaced out node below each fat cola. This is the stage I'm on, deciding how dense, or close to the cola I want to prune. I'll post a pic of how close I am currently. I got the LST down pretty good but I have a feeling the pruning part is going to mostly come with a experience and having a feel for whatever strain is currently being grown.

Incidentally, keeping the low hanging vegetation pruned off allows for far more air circulation at soil level. This from what I've read is beneficial for the plant in allowing more airflow to the soil and reduces the chances of getting parasites, insects, mold, algae etc...