Extreme LST

Or not so much, I just tied her down after her new tops started to come in. She has three coming in so I'm going to let the grow up and pull them around the sides of the pot to help fill up and bush out the area around the pot.

Plant looks healthy. One thing though is some of the plant laying right on the soil?

johnmac240 said:

Plant looks healthy. One thing though is some of the plant laying right on the soil?

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It's pulled down and will come up on it's own over the next day or so. Some of it is resting near or against the soil but I don't think that is too big of an issue.

Cool.

I consider myself pretty extreme in that I start early... I find spreading the young leaves (the new ones at the top that are still closed together, hiding the budding ones coming up) helps the new ones come up faster, keeping nodes tight and speeding development. You have to be very gentle though... it only takes a little extra pressure to break one of those.

Since I top my plans I don't LST the main stem at all, just the big branches to allow the smaller ones to come through, so mostly i just pull them out (away from the center). I wind up with a star pattern, which is a convenient shape for me.

I have thought about taking the whole stem horizontal... either the way it looks in your pic (but keeping the main stem horizontal as it grows) or by turning into a spiral. Maybe one of these days I'll just make them into random shapes, topiary style

thewanderingjack said:

Cool.

I consider myself pretty extreme in that I start early... I find spreading the young leaves (the new ones at the top that are still closed together, hiding the budding ones coming up) helps the new ones come up faster, keeping nodes tight and speeding development. You have to be very gentle though... it only takes a little extra pressure to break one of those.

Since I top my plans I don't LST the main stem at all, just the big branches to allow the smaller ones to come through, so mostly i just pull them out (away from the center). I wind up with a star pattern, which is a convenient shape for me.

I have thought about taking the whole stem horizontal... either the way it looks in your pic (but keeping the main stem horizontal as it grows) or by turning into a spiral. Maybe one of these days I'll just make them into random shapes, topiary style

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I'm actually going to gently bend the tops around as they grow out and circle the plant around the sides of the pot before I put it into flowering. I'm trying to make a nice bush out of her.

Cyrus420 said:

It's pulled down and will come up on it's own over the next day or so. Some of it is resting near or against the soil but I don't think that is too big of an issue.

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it is a big issue. you need to get air circulation and you need to be able to see the soil so you can tell what it is doing and add more or top dress nites..

backtracker said:

it is a big issue. you need to get air circulation and you need to be able to see the soil so you can tell what it is doing and add more or top dress nites..

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So the reason it isn't a big issue (in this scenario) is that the plant will not be like that very long (literally a day, maybe two... I've seen them change up in <12 hrs). Everything will start reaching up... lifting from the soil... it's very cool to see. By the time he has to worry about checking on anything or adding anything (top dressing huh?) they should be good... better even, as training like this can give each bud site more space, giving the pant a broader more open structure.

Ofcourse if it is too tight down and not lifting up enough within a few days you will want to give it a little more breathing room.

Having a plant touching the soil for... idk... days? weeks? varies I suppose... will cause a moist spot and molding etc. Even in a warm room with good ventilation (maybe especially in a warm room, since the plants transpire more), something like overlapping leaves can create wet spots that lead to serious issues.

It's just one of the good reasons to have a fan both circulating air and moving the plants about.

backtracker said:

it is a big issue. you need to get air circulation and you need to be able to see the soil so you can tell what it is doing and add more or top dress nites..

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I have a 440 CFM fan set to about 25% power pulling all the air from my 2x2 and constantly bringing in fresh air plus a clip on fan to keep air moving around the base level of my tent. How is tying my plant down close to the ground going to prevent air circulation?

And I don't need to see the soil to tell if I need to add more nutes or not I have her in an organic potting mix that only needs water. Have you ever tied down a plant like this before they pop back right away in fact I'll go take a picture now.

You can see pretty clearly here that the plant is already turned up and reaching for the light.Some of the leafs are still very low and touching the ground but my top soil dries out real quick and my humidity is below 40% so I'm not too worried about it.

Yup... looking sweet.

Just to note: I have had minor problems even at 40% ambient humidity, but that was specifically in ~high temps (high 70's), and only where there was touching or overlapping that wasn't being moved by the fans. The leaf would transpire and the humidity would get trapped, sandwiched between the two leaves, or leaf and soil. But I would pretty much swear this has been with mature plants that are no longer growing out.

Please update as to what you end up doing... like I said, I mostly use one method for convenience, would love to see what others look like.

thewanderingjack said:

Yup... looking sweet.

Just to note: I have had minor problems even at 40% ambient humidity, but that was specifically in ~high temps (high 70's), and only where there was touching or overlapping that wasn't being moved by the fans. The leaf would transpire and the humidity would get trapped, sandwiched between the two leaves, or leaf and soil. But I would pretty much swear this has been with mature plants that are no longer growing out.

Please update as to what you end up doing... like I said, I mostly use one method for convenience, would love to see what others look like.

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Oh yea my temps range from 80 to 85 and I know what you're talking about I had my tent stuff with three different plants my last grow and one was so thick with leafs that it would form condensation near the thickest of bunches. As long as air keeps moving though I have no fear of mold my tent is pulling in it's full volume of fresh air always.

Yup... my cannops got so dense that while my tops were hot and dry UNDER the canopy it was like a jungle... warm and wet.... the thick foliage had trapped all the water evaporating from the soil... from one day to the next a shroom popped up! I spaced my plants out and LSTd them more open and all was well.

Even now with minimal fan use and only natural air exchange i only saw the overlap-moisture problem once (as in on one leaf, well, two since one was overlapping the other)... so it's a pretty rare and easily fixed.

backtracker said:

it is a big issue. you need to get air circulation and you need to be able to see the soil so you can tell what it is doing and add more or top dress nites..

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That should say nutes or nutrients. nites sounds a little kinky