Alright So this is my second time around Growing and my first time legally (woohoo!, got my card last weekend!). I live in Colorado and currently have two good sized plants, one in a flowering cycle. Also, i have 6 new seedlings i'll show a couple pics of as well. All of the plants go out on the porch for a full 6-7 hours of direct sunlight a day, plus an additional 3-4 of indirect sunlight until about 9pm, at which point the big girl goes into darkness, and the others under the Flouros. Anyways, as you'll be able to see from the pics the Big girl in flowering was topped once late in veg stage and then had branches trimmed for clones, but other than that not too much training involved. The other two in veg stage i have been LST and have been happy with my results so far, however, i was curious if i should also Top the new shoots growing upwards to keep it bushy? One of the shoots grew much taller than the others and i recently topped it and pinned it...should i top the others? What do you guys think of the plants from my pics? any suggestions? any ideas on what kind? They are all mystery seeds from bags so i have no idea haha. One more question, how soon do you guys think i could start topping or LST those little guys? Any information you experienced growers can provide would be greatly appreciated, just looking for any useful advice, thanks!
ALERT!: Fairly New Grower Who wants Advice on my Plants, LST, and FIM
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HookdOnChronics
Well-Known Member
Alright here's what I would do, if they were MY plants.
First off, no more HST (High stress training) stick with the LST (Low stress training) and just keep tieing them tops down. I do not think you should top, or fim, or supercrop anything anymore. It's basically causing the plant more stress when you could basically achieve the same results using ONLY LST. Of course it's your grow so it's up to you. This is just what I would do.
Secondly that plant in flower is hungry for some Nitrogen dog! AND a couple of the little seedlings. If you look at the plant, and notice the slight yellow tint to the leaves, and it's not dark green. That's a sign that the plant is hungry for some N. What nutes are you using?
P.S. Fellow Colorado Med Card holder here bro! And I grow my own medicine too! I LOVE THIS STATE!
First off, no more HST (High stress training) stick with the LST (Low stress training) and just keep tieing them tops down. I do not think you should top, or fim, or supercrop anything anymore. It's basically causing the plant more stress when you could basically achieve the same results using ONLY LST. Of course it's your grow so it's up to you. This is just what I would do.
Secondly that plant in flower is hungry for some Nitrogen dog! AND a couple of the little seedlings. If you look at the plant, and notice the slight yellow tint to the leaves, and it's not dark green. That's a sign that the plant is hungry for some N. What nutes are you using?
P.S. Fellow Colorado Med Card holder here bro! And I grow my own medicine too! I LOVE THIS STATE!
Thanks for the reply HookdOnChronics!
I'm not sure what you mean by high stress training? I've been under the impression this whole time that what i was doing is LST, bending the top down around the circumference of the pot when it grows upwards. Is there something you can see that i'm doing from the pics that makes it highs stress training? Or were you just talking about the plant in flowering? Thanks for the info tho, i think i will just LST the new shoots so it doesn't slow down in growth.
As far as Nitrogen and Nutes go, none of the plants got nutrients while they were young, i didn't care enough and was apprehensive to put work into the plants before i went to denver and got my prescription, but now there's nothing to worry about! Haha Colorado is so awesome bro! Anyways, i got some stuff made by General Organics called BioThrive Vegan Plant Food "Bloom" 2-4-4, the guy in the hydroponics store recommended it to me for a soil grow (it has 2% water soluble Nitrogen)...ever heard of it? And as for the plants in Veg (& i kno i might get chewed out for this), i am using just a general all purpose water soluble plant food until i can afford to get something more specific, but it does have 15% nitrogen and 30% available Phosphate. The bottle of that stuff says only to use it once every 1-2 weeks so that's what i've been doing.
How soon do you think i can begin to LST those little guys? Also...any input on me using sunlight AND artificial light? is this good? Seems like the obvious best source of light to me when available, hoping it will help replace my lack of HPS lighting during flowering, i use flourescents inside
I'm not sure what you mean by high stress training? I've been under the impression this whole time that what i was doing is LST, bending the top down around the circumference of the pot when it grows upwards. Is there something you can see that i'm doing from the pics that makes it highs stress training? Or were you just talking about the plant in flowering? Thanks for the info tho, i think i will just LST the new shoots so it doesn't slow down in growth.
As far as Nitrogen and Nutes go, none of the plants got nutrients while they were young, i didn't care enough and was apprehensive to put work into the plants before i went to denver and got my prescription, but now there's nothing to worry about! Haha Colorado is so awesome bro! Anyways, i got some stuff made by General Organics called BioThrive Vegan Plant Food "Bloom" 2-4-4, the guy in the hydroponics store recommended it to me for a soil grow (it has 2% water soluble Nitrogen)...ever heard of it? And as for the plants in Veg (& i kno i might get chewed out for this), i am using just a general all purpose water soluble plant food until i can afford to get something more specific, but it does have 15% nitrogen and 30% available Phosphate. The bottle of that stuff says only to use it once every 1-2 weeks so that's what i've been doing.
How soon do you think i can begin to LST those little guys? Also...any input on me using sunlight AND artificial light? is this good? Seems like the obvious best source of light to me when available, hoping it will help replace my lack of HPS lighting during flowering, i use flourescents inside
Oh alright awesome. Well from what i've read up on and after a couple trial runs, that method (known as Low Stress Training) is a way of training the plant to increase the yield without too much stress. The technique i used was once about 6 inches tall you tie/pin the top of the plant down toward the edge of the pot, so it essentially looks like a clock with the plant being one of the hands haha. Once the top of the plant grows upward again, pin or tie it again, training it to grow around the edge/circumference of the pot it's in. You'll be able to see from my pics that what this does is it makes the plant think that each one of the new branches that emerge from the trained stem is its own plant and will put more energy into those as well, also because they now get more light since the top is bent down. The end result is multiple any many more "bud sites" on the plant, you can essentially turn one plant into a bush that looks like 4 plants growing together. if your plants are already large you can do other forms of LST such as tying your branches down a little to get more light to the smaller growths. You could also simply lightly tie down the top of a larger plant also.
HookdOnChronics
Well-Known Member
High Stress Training (HST) would be supercropping, FIMing, or topping. Because you'll notice in all of these methods you have to 'harm' the plant by cutting it or snapping the stem. Whereas with LST, you are only bending the branches of the plant over to cause the SIDE branches to grow up more towards the light, thus creating an even canopy and helping to increase yield, without the extra stress of HST still.
And yes, hands down the best light you can have for your plants is the sun! I've never grown under the sun though, so I couldn't answer you questions about going from nautral to artifical light.....
Never heard of the nute your using. You don't need to go out and spend hundreads of dollars on nutrients. I mean I use my own piss sometimes for godsakes! lol, Human urin has and EXCELLENT source of N in it. And it's perfectly safe! Just don't do so unless you know how much to use ect.
I don't use expensive nutes. You wanna know what I use? I use *Miracle Grow All Purpose Plant Food (for veg, 26-8-2
* and Miracle Grow Bloom Booster (for flower, 15-30-15) and you want to know how much money I spen TOTAL on both those nutes? Under $15. They've lasted me for the past 20 plants I've grown, and it's no where near even 1/4 of the way gone. Everybody says not to use it, it's a bad idea. Well newsflash, it's NOT! You just have to know HOW to use it! That's all!
Go check out my grows if you want to. They're in my sig, and Miracle Grow is the only nutrient I've ever used. And I grow under only CFL's.
And yes, hands down the best light you can have for your plants is the sun! I've never grown under the sun though, so I couldn't answer you questions about going from nautral to artifical light.....
Never heard of the nute your using. You don't need to go out and spend hundreads of dollars on nutrients. I mean I use my own piss sometimes for godsakes! lol, Human urin has and EXCELLENT source of N in it. And it's perfectly safe! Just don't do so unless you know how much to use ect.
I don't use expensive nutes. You wanna know what I use? I use *Miracle Grow All Purpose Plant Food (for veg, 26-8-2
* and Miracle Grow Bloom Booster (for flower, 15-30-15) and you want to know how much money I spen TOTAL on both those nutes? Under $15. They've lasted me for the past 20 plants I've grown, and it's no where near even 1/4 of the way gone. Everybody says not to use it, it's a bad idea. Well newsflash, it's NOT! You just have to know HOW to use it! That's all!Go check out my grows if you want to. They're in my sig, and Miracle Grow is the only nutrient I've ever used. And I grow under only CFL's.