White Widow LST Grow

These plants were germinated 44 days ago. They are in Fox Farms soil and watered with lake water and fertilized with Flora Nova Grow. I committed a cardinal sin today. I cut healthy plant growth . Let me explain. My other grow still has 7 - 10 more days of veg PLUS another 10 - 12 weeks for flowering PLUS 2 weeks for curing . So what am I to do? One kick *** LST grow. I have been following the directions that are posted in this thread for about three weeks and within the last couple days I'm beginning to understand what's going on. So I took some pictures and decided to start a new thread so we can follow these babies all the way through to flowering and maybe help a newbie do a LST grow someday. So here is what I did today.

Pic 1 - The plant out of the closet this morning.

Pic 2 - The plant with the hooks removed just before pruning

Pic 3 - :cry: Poor baby was cut

Pic 4 - New hook put into position

Pic 5 - Another cut

Pic 6 - Final tie down

Pics 7 & 8 are the plants back in their grow space

Pics 9 & 10 are pics of the plants roots. I took them out and agitated the roots to prevent them from getting root bound.

I will post in another thread pics of what I did to get here. Going forward I will keep tying down the plants stalk around the inside edge of the container. I think each node will become a cola by doing this. With 15 weeks to veg, that's gonna be a lot of cola's!

Well that's it for now. Thanks for checking in and I hope you enjoy it! Later.

These are the instructions I am following for the LST. I'm on steps seven and eight and will continue to repeat them for another 14-16 weeks.

Well here we go, LST (Low Stress Training) the ultimate way to maximize your yield.

Before we begin lets get some knowledge on what you will be looking at.

Light Brown : Pot Outline
Green thick Lines : Main Stem
Small Thin Lines with Green Balls on top : Fan leafs
Yellow Lines : Side Branches
Red : Tiedown Metal Hooks (or thread whichever item you use, i use Hooks its easier)

The Text in the box : First digit is Step No. and Second Digit is Pot Size, below the numbers is the type of view your looking at (either from the SIDE or from the TOP)


Now that thats out of the way lets get it on..

Please note, you dont have to do it this way, its just the idea of how to do LST, this is the way i did it and you can see the end result of 4 weeks of growth this way in my signature picture where it says FIM/LST. Some may opt to use the eggcrate method where you utilize an eggcrate around the pot and tie it down to that with zipties instead of using string or hooks running from the pot itself... this way you can cover more square footage and maximize your yield even more.

Ok heres the STEPS PICTURE for you to follow along with.



STEP 1 : Grow your plant from Seed or Clone to 3 or 4 leaf sets, some use 5 but i always use 3 because after 3rd leaf set the main stem starts to harden and it will be harder to bend over your plant properly without breaking the main stem.

STEP 2 : Using a metal hook (i cut small sections of cloths hanger and bend a U shape at the end as a hook) bend over your plant with metal hook at the last internode (space between the last set of fanleafs and the next to last) and stick the metal hook into your dirt to hold down the stem.

STEP 3 : This is really not a step, just waiting time... Take note of how the top of the plant that was bent down will bend back upwards towards the light, this could take anywhere from 3 hours to 1 day. Under my 1000 Watt Metal Halide light it does it in under 3 hours.

STEP 4 : Veg and dont tie down until you have a new leaf set. You will notice Side branching has started already because good light is getting to the main stem areas next to each fanleaf stem intersection with the main stem.

STEP 5 : Depending on your starting pot size you may have to transplant. If you started out with a large pot, repeat step 2 over and over again holding the main stem down with hooks until you reach the end of the pot. In this illustration to save time and drawings, i started out with a small pot and it reached the end of the pot after the first tiedown. I repotted it into a 10 inch pot which will be my final pot size for this plant in order for me to continue the LST Bends around the inside edge of the pot.

STEP 6 : Now that your new leaf set has formed you have enough length in growth since the first bend(s) to allow you to start bending the stem horizontally around the inside edge of the pot. Use metal hooks again to keep this bend in place. Side branches should be coming along very nicely.

STEP 7 : Continue repeating steps 4 and 6, allowing the plant to grow and then keep tieing it down along the inside edge of pot using metal hooks (or whatever your using) Side branches should be forming and growing up towards the light.

STEP 8 : Continue to repeat step 7 until you are all the way around the pot... when you reach the point where your plant first met the edge of the plant Top the plant (cut off the very top of the plant ) and hold it down horizontally with a metal hook.... During all this time of repeating step 7 you should also be tieing down horizontally the new branches that have formed from the main stem as much as possible until you use up as much space as possible inside the pot as well , the outter branches growing over the outside edge of the pot you can hold down as well with string to keep those tops even with the inner branches.

STEP 9 : After you have used up all possible space inside the pot (or your eggcrate) its time to just let it flower.. This is a side view of how it will and should look by that time with all the side branches growing upwards towards the light.... these will all become Collas unlike a non LST plant will only have one colla.

During flowering and even before due to lack of light on the main stem fan leafs which is all the way to the bottom almost against the soil those fanleafs will die off anyways, i usually cut these off the main stem right after the branch has grown out in that area, keeps things neat down below where you will need good airflow during flowering.. so go ahead and take off any fanleafs coming off the main stem that is going around the inside edge of the pot.

Set your timer to 12/12 and watch it bloom

There is no Step 10 in the picture but we all know what that is

HARVEST!!!


I hope i shed some light on the method of LST and its benefits.


this would be plagerism if i did not give a shout out to DierWolf. he did a great job at it and it would be redundant to do it again. Thank you dierwolf. PEACE!

Here are some pictures of how I started the LST. As you can see I started when the plants where on there 4th node. Later.

Pretty neat and simple, you've inspired me to try this on one of my plants.

Good luck on your grow man! Look forward to hearing more on it soon.

Pull 'em down man they love it.

looking go im going to try this outside this year

good diagram my man,very simple to understand.how much increase in yeild will this "LST" give?

Actually, in documented test grows, I don't believe LST was proven to increase yield in any "substantial" amount. It simply keeps the canopy at a more convenient height, to help with penetration of the low intensity lighting. Which may, in turn, increase it slightly.

so Hick, if ppl have HID lamps,is this worth the effort?(LST)

I can only give you an opinion, shugg'. mine is "probably not". But there are factors that could affect it, height restrictions and/or lower wattage HID's for example.
IME, what it changes is not so much overall yield, but you get more medium sized and smaller buds, and NOT the single large main colos.

thanx for the hit-back Hick,yeah i`d go with that. i can see how in certain circumstances LST would be beneficial,as you stated "height restrictions"etc. But, you`ve gotta love the big colas! some times i don`t even "top" some of my plants,just to see that big frosty cola.
cheers.:48:

I'll be following the plant in the pot with the R1 written on it. This is what you are seeing.

1st pic - in the closet this morning

2nd & 3rd pic - R1 plant out of closet side and top views.

4th pic - R1 plant preparing to get cut.

5th pic - plant after cut.

6th & 7th pic - plant after tie down side and top views.

8th - 10th pic - yesterday I learned what supercropping is and tried it on a few of the plants. These are pictures of the poor things after I was finished with them. I accidentally broke off a branch while trying to pinch and twist around a node. It will be interesting to see how they respond to this.

Well that's it for now. Later.

Here are new pictures. This plants are going to be amazing when this is done. I'm keeping the lights right on top of them to the point where the plants are having to grow around the lights. I'm hoping that this will keep the plants very compact. Here are new pictures as of this afternoon.

Pics 1 - 3 are the R1 plant out of the closet today.

Pics 4 - 5 are after the tie down

Pic 6 is a close up showing sex (pretty sure it's female)

Pic 7 are the plants under the lights

Pic 8 The chamber is light tight. You should get a wiff when I first open that thing up!!!

Well that's it. Tommorrow I will water and give them a 1200 ppm dose of Flora Nova bloom nutes. Have a great weekend.

is that a bong,TY? anyway, they`re looking brilliant.What sort of "tie-downs are they? the way that`s done, you`d think you would get a better yeild? Have you noticed any rise in yeild, using this method?
great work man,
cheers.:smoke1: :stoned:
are you LST-ing all your grow,and do you use flouros for flower too?

shuggy4105 said:

is that a bong,TY? anyway, they`re looking brilliant.What sort of "tie-downs are they? the way that`s done, you`d think you would get a better yeild? Have you noticed any rise in yeild, using this method?
great work man,
cheers.:smoke1: :stoned:
are you LST-ing all your grow,and do you use flouros for flower too?

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Hey Shuggy. Thanks for the kinds words bro. This is my first full blown LST grow. I am flowering 5 plants right now (was six, but one of em sprouted nuts :rant: ) and they were not LST'd. I'm expecting a HUGE rise in yield, but most of the reason for that is because these ladies are going to veg for 5-6 months before I can flower them. And yes I use flouros in flowering also.

THE BROTHER'S GRUNT said:

Sup theyorker. Man your LST ladies are looking great. We have a few Northerberry ladies that are being LSTd to the max right now. Anyway looking good mang looking good.

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Thanks TBG! If you've got some pics of them babies I'd love to see em! Later bro.

5-6 months veg holy crap dude that is going to be bigger then the rain forest, man they are goin to yeild u a massive amount too when they done, keep us posted on how shes goin dude would like to follow ur grow closely to see how she goes, good luck dude hope u got a massive room to grow in to lol

These things are going to be out of control soon. I'm using the lights to keep the plants from growing tall. I hope it doesn't hurt them. It's not burning them and I have to keep them short cause they are going to be vegging a while. I'm worried that I stressed some of them too much cause a couple of them are looking a bit "swollen" like pollen sacks could be forming, but it's still too early to know for sure. Watered them with straight water and tied them down a bit. Here are more pics. Later.

I have faith in your grow!

Here are updated pics.

First 3 are pics of them when I opened the closet and took them out. 2 of the plants were getting so tall that the top growth was messed up because it had no room to grow. There was a beetle on one of the plants. I checked all the other and there was only the one, so I removed it and killed it. Then I thoroughly cleaned the area and set out to keep these plants down. As you can see they are getting way to big when you consider they still have at least another 3 months to veg.

Pics 4 and 5 show the topping I did. On this plant I topped 4 stems. Pic 4 is before and 5 is after. After topping them, I removed the plant from the pot and used a sharp razor and lanced the roots. Pic 6 shows the roots are nice and healthy. Before I replanted them, I added a couple of inches of fresh soil to the bottom of the pot and then turned the plant over and put it into the pot.

The last pic shows what I did to one of the plants...poor thing, maybe I should have titled this journal "Stress the hell out of the *******".