potforteacher
Member
I have a plant that's growing too tall for my closet. It's too late for LST and I need to tie this thing down or bend it, but my last attempt snapped a stem (luckily not completely off). Any advice on how to handle this?
How do I tie down my plant?
- Thread starter potforteacher
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ImarriedMARY
Well-Known Member
i'd bend it slightly (with something to hold it) and every other day or so take it down a half inch or so
BigTitLvr
Well-Known Member
Don't bother being gentle. Supercropping your tallest stems is a technique where you bend and twist the stem until it the cellulose structure tears and the stem bends down at or greater then 90 degrees . You may still need to tie it down after; It will try to raise up to the light immediately. But, it will repair its stem with a big, bulging scar and after it recovers, will provide more water & nutrients to the stem then before. In the meantime, growth hormones will move to new tallest grow tip, encouraging a more even canopy growth if you have a runaway tall stem.
ImarriedMARY
Well-Known Member
^^^^i guess there you go lol^^^^ i would have figured that'd put a bit of stress on the plant and may herm her though but not sure
HookdOnChronics
Well-Known Member
Ok, IMHO It is NEVER to late to LST. You say it's to late for LST, but you need to bend it and tie it down... That IS LST! lol, so I don't know what your worried about. It's easier to bend the stem after you've watered.
So, here's what you do:
1. Water the plant just before lights out.
2. The next morning right when the lights come on, go bend the stem and tie it down to where ever you want it, or as far as it'll go without breaking it. (It's easier to bend, and less easy to break after you've watered)
3. Let her rest for a day after bending.
4. Next day go and bend again and tie back if need be. If you just keep bending slowly, you CAN manipulate the stem to do whatever you desire!
It's really quite easy, and if there's a part where you want to bend, but it feels stiff, pinch the stalk with your fingers, "loosten" it up a bit, if that makes sense.
Hope this helps!
Hobbes
Well-Known Member
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Potforteacher I use an LST style I dubbed as Crop Circle Of Bud (CCOB), basically bending the stem horizontal and then in a circle around the bucket rim. The branches grow straight up like budcycles out of a hydro tube. I crease and snap stems now and again and repair them with never a loss of plant. Does slow things down though. Take a look though my pic thread, if there's anything that might help I can go over it with you.
HookdOnChronics has some excellent suggestions.
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I don't train like a normal scrog, bending the plant through veg. I top when there is enough height above the third node to make a good clone ~ 2" of stem + 2 nodes on top. After the top I wait until the two stems are 22" each then transplant from a 6" pot to a 5 gallon bucket - at an angle so the stems are easier to bend. I had been putting the plant directly into flower after training because my veg room was in a secret room with a 4' ceiling at the end of a crawl space, nasty to be hauling 5 gallon buckets around that. I framed up a wall in my flower room (32' x 20') and used hay bailing plastic for the wall - very thick tough black plastic. Now I've got a real veg room and I'm vegging the plants for a week after transplanting to 5 gallon pots and training. I'm thinking it will dramatically increase yield and shorten flowering time.
I'm running a test with these two Pandora's Boxes, they're at 16" and 19". The pic is a few weeks old, I've got the taller PB's stem almost trained and the shorter is almost 20".
The topped plant will have stems that are bowed like a cowboys legs, cross the stems so they follow their natural curves when you bend them - right side stem circles the bucket rim counter clockwise, left clockwise.
This Bubblegum's stems weren't crossed and took over a week to train. If crossed I could have done it in a few hours.
This is a 1 stem Kali Mist at 35" and a 2 stem Flo (18" & 19"). The stem is much thicker and more difficult to bend and train. We need to get the stem around the 38" of the bucket rim to get as many branches as possible, so two thinner, shorter stems are much easier. The stems virtually stop growth and stretch when bent horizontal, many more branches than a vertical plant of the same stem length. The Flo trained in about 15 minutes and the Kali Mist took days.
Flo - Kali Mist
.
Flo
.
Kali Mist
The above Kali Mist at harvest
.
You need holes drilled in your bucket just below the rim, to anchor your stem tie downs. I drill a hole every 1", 38 around the bucket. Use 1' of twist tie and make a loose loop around a stiff part of the stem, probably 3"-6" from the end. Gently bend the stem in a semi circle - experience will tell you how far you can go each day, you are going to snap a few stems and will have to repair them. I use silicon tubing to protect the stem and duct tape around the tubing. When I started I snapped stems in two that were only held together with the skin and the stems healed. Tough plant. You'll find it easiest to use 3 or 4 training twist ties along the length of each stem, taking the slack off each after one is tightened.
This is a technique you should use out of desperation (my plants were too tall for my secret 4' room when I started growing) or on plants you can afford to throw away. If you don't have any extra clones around use your male plants for experimenting and learning, just put them back in veg so they don't mess up your females in flower. Great use for something you were going to chop and toss out, now you just toss them when you're done training and you know how far you can push your females.
It'll take a few days to train a mature plant, a skinny stemmed plant from a 20 oz cup can be trainned in about 15 minutes but the yield will be low. If you force the plant, or tighten more than once a day, you will crease or snap stems - tighten the twist ties once per day only even though they will feel loose hours after tightening. This is a procedure where you really need patience. Immediately after trainning your plants they'll look like these Jack The Ripper, Pandora's Box and Chemdog, it's normal.
After the stem is trained and held in place with twist ties you have to train the branches on long branched strains. On short branched strains you have an easier time, they almost train themselves, just need a little help. I start at the base of each stem and match branches from each node, connecting them in the middle by a short piece of twist tie. The idea now is to bring eveything towards the middle and to get the branches in order. After the branches of each node are connected with twist ties start from the bottom of the stems and line up each set of branches like a deck of cards that are fanned out - the branches will pull up towards the light. Give them a week or so for the branches to settle in that position and take the twist ties off. The branches have to be twisted slightly and arranged so the branch stems aren't crossed. In the end you should have the two sides of the nodes making a V with the branches that follows the stems like circular track. After a couple of weeks and some training you're plants will look like this Jilly Bean.
Super Strawberry Diesel indica phenos
Super Strawberry Diesel sativa pheno
This is a Super Strawberry Diesel after trimming the leaves during hang dry. The tomato care ring I tied it to is 18" in diameter, it yielded just over 2 liters (9 cups) of 4 week cured bud.
https://www.rollitup.org/seed-strain-reviews/211186-pics-my-garden-ssd-km.html
.
.
Potforteacher I use an LST style I dubbed as Crop Circle Of Bud (CCOB), basically bending the stem horizontal and then in a circle around the bucket rim. The branches grow straight up like budcycles out of a hydro tube. I crease and snap stems now and again and repair them with never a loss of plant. Does slow things down though. Take a look though my pic thread, if there's anything that might help I can go over it with you.
HookdOnChronics has some excellent suggestions.
.
I don't train like a normal scrog, bending the plant through veg. I top when there is enough height above the third node to make a good clone ~ 2" of stem + 2 nodes on top. After the top I wait until the two stems are 22" each then transplant from a 6" pot to a 5 gallon bucket - at an angle so the stems are easier to bend. I had been putting the plant directly into flower after training because my veg room was in a secret room with a 4' ceiling at the end of a crawl space, nasty to be hauling 5 gallon buckets around that. I framed up a wall in my flower room (32' x 20') and used hay bailing plastic for the wall - very thick tough black plastic. Now I've got a real veg room and I'm vegging the plants for a week after transplanting to 5 gallon pots and training. I'm thinking it will dramatically increase yield and shorten flowering time.
I'm running a test with these two Pandora's Boxes, they're at 16" and 19". The pic is a few weeks old, I've got the taller PB's stem almost trained and the shorter is almost 20".
The topped plant will have stems that are bowed like a cowboys legs, cross the stems so they follow their natural curves when you bend them - right side stem circles the bucket rim counter clockwise, left clockwise.
This Bubblegum's stems weren't crossed and took over a week to train. If crossed I could have done it in a few hours.
This is a 1 stem Kali Mist at 35" and a 2 stem Flo (18" & 19"). The stem is much thicker and more difficult to bend and train. We need to get the stem around the 38" of the bucket rim to get as many branches as possible, so two thinner, shorter stems are much easier. The stems virtually stop growth and stretch when bent horizontal, many more branches than a vertical plant of the same stem length. The Flo trained in about 15 minutes and the Kali Mist took days.
Flo - Kali Mist
.
Flo
.
Kali Mist
The above Kali Mist at harvest
.
You need holes drilled in your bucket just below the rim, to anchor your stem tie downs. I drill a hole every 1", 38 around the bucket. Use 1' of twist tie and make a loose loop around a stiff part of the stem, probably 3"-6" from the end. Gently bend the stem in a semi circle - experience will tell you how far you can go each day, you are going to snap a few stems and will have to repair them. I use silicon tubing to protect the stem and duct tape around the tubing. When I started I snapped stems in two that were only held together with the skin and the stems healed. Tough plant. You'll find it easiest to use 3 or 4 training twist ties along the length of each stem, taking the slack off each after one is tightened.
This is a technique you should use out of desperation (my plants were too tall for my secret 4' room when I started growing) or on plants you can afford to throw away. If you don't have any extra clones around use your male plants for experimenting and learning, just put them back in veg so they don't mess up your females in flower. Great use for something you were going to chop and toss out, now you just toss them when you're done training and you know how far you can push your females.
It'll take a few days to train a mature plant, a skinny stemmed plant from a 20 oz cup can be trainned in about 15 minutes but the yield will be low. If you force the plant, or tighten more than once a day, you will crease or snap stems - tighten the twist ties once per day only even though they will feel loose hours after tightening. This is a procedure where you really need patience. Immediately after trainning your plants they'll look like these Jack The Ripper, Pandora's Box and Chemdog, it's normal.
After the stem is trained and held in place with twist ties you have to train the branches on long branched strains. On short branched strains you have an easier time, they almost train themselves, just need a little help. I start at the base of each stem and match branches from each node, connecting them in the middle by a short piece of twist tie. The idea now is to bring eveything towards the middle and to get the branches in order. After the branches of each node are connected with twist ties start from the bottom of the stems and line up each set of branches like a deck of cards that are fanned out - the branches will pull up towards the light. Give them a week or so for the branches to settle in that position and take the twist ties off. The branches have to be twisted slightly and arranged so the branch stems aren't crossed. In the end you should have the two sides of the nodes making a V with the branches that follows the stems like circular track. After a couple of weeks and some training you're plants will look like this Jilly Bean.
Super Strawberry Diesel indica phenos
Super Strawberry Diesel sativa pheno
This is a Super Strawberry Diesel after trimming the leaves during hang dry. The tomato care ring I tied it to is 18" in diameter, it yielded just over 2 liters (9 cups) of 4 week cured bud.
https://www.rollitup.org/seed-strain-reviews/211186-pics-my-garden-ssd-km.html
.
.
The Lt.
Member
Hobbes...great pictures there...that awesome. I know that in my small CFL setup a few of my leaves were starting to touch the bulbs. I took a piece of fish tank air hose (I have the soft green kind found at Meijer). Pit a tack in the wall and wrapped it around the plant and tacked it again. I am not looking to move it a ton just off the light though.
Dan
Dan
BigTitLvr
Well-Known Member
All of these other suggestions work fine. bend them slowly if you like. But supercropping will NOT hermy the plant, although it does stress the plant to a degree. So does LST (hence, the name: low STRESS training)
Just imagine the plant in its natural habitat. If its tallest branch snaps over, it will repair the damage if it can and the growth hormones shift to the new tallest grow nodes.
Overall growth is slowed a bit, but that is what you want; help it concentrate on root and flower growth instead of height.
Good work Hobbes! That should be a tutorial.
Silky Shagsalot
Well-Known Member
i start tying down in flower. just tie em and pull em down.
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GidgetGrows
Well-Known Member
If you want to bend it and not break it, you have to pick a place and grab it with your fingers and squeeze it real hard. You will be able to feel the veins collapse in your fingers and once it gets weak just lean it over to the side..