LST: When, How, Why

My autos are in their 5th week and I’m wondering about LST. When and how is the best way to tie down/train your plants? I’ve seen clips on Amazon and I’ve seen where people have used jute twine and spikes to tie them down. If you use spikes…wood? plastic? Metal? Which branches do you tie down?

A beginner with a million questions.:raising_hand_woman:t2:

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The general objective of plant training is to increase airflow and light penetration.

Some people LST for LST sake, which is a mistake in my opinion. Your plants are young and do not need help with airflow or light penetration.

Others may have different opinions.

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I think LST is not really necessary with outdoor grows. The sun does the work for you by moving. Indoors with stationary lights, a flat even canopy helps the plant. In nature, not necessary. If you want to learn and practice, take a couple and bend and tie.

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LST especially will help you since your plants are in shade during daylight hours. Try it with 1 and watch the branches stretch. Watch the main stem thickness and see if you helped your plant or slowed it down. Experiment…just be real gentle and have duct tape nearby just in case :grin::sunglasses::call_me_hand:t2:

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I have to add since they’re in buckets…just stick a stick in the soil and use a twist tie to secure it (after you’ve bent it some for exposure)…I’ve added a pic of my seriously country boy style of this

It worked

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I wouldn’t worry about an Auto outdoors right now. They are way to small and Autos can be very picky. Now if it was a Photo, then you can expect some LST. But I never train my Autos indoors. I let Mother Nature decide how they will grow.

@grizZz and anybody else who can help, have ya ever broke a main stalk? Can it be fixed? It’s a clean snap across, but still attached together.

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@Gracie what you did there is called super cropping. If you hold her down she will grow with the 90. If you don’t hold her down she will mostly straighten back up on her own. She isn’t broken. This is a known training technique, just higher stress than low stress training. The main difference in super cropping and lst is if you cause a knuckle or not. You caused a knuckle, so your lst is now a super crop. If you just let her be she will be fine, if you want her to grow sideways from there with ties/net, she’ll also be fine.

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Bad @$$ accidental super crop! I was afraid I’d have to do that on purpose to my BB auto who I thought was gonna get too tall for my tent :sweat_smile::joy: totally chickened out: I’d probably snap her anyway…: thankfully Jill stayed a good distance below the point of no return :rofl:
Looks good tho! No breaking! Nice little bend! :v::v: Good luck!! :green_heart:

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Yea so I awoke one morning last week and found one of my plants had been snapped over so I grabbed some duct tape and just stood it back up and taped it securely…it most definitely stunted it’s growth but it lived up to the point of showing me it was a male plant…if ya find your snap soon enough ya can save it quite easily and if you do save it…it actually comes back WAY stronger

@BigMommaC this girl is a Bruce, hopefully she’ll give me a Banner crop (sorry, couldn’t help the pun) from this super cropping she accidentally got.

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Cover the area with honey or aloe, tape and splint/support. I used first aid tape. I broke a whole limb on my first GG4 and she recovered. I am sure other growers will answer and provide other options. Best to you!

Gracie do you have drainage holes in the buckets?

@Pinboy yes, I have holes. I think next time I may try the cloth bags, though. I’ll need a few new items to grow one or two inside…whole new ballgame then.

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Yeah the cloth bags are nice. I use 3gallon inside and 5 for outside

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I really like to use these clips they work wonders

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Gracie you have plenty of super good help already here. Imma step back and let them help ya :wink::call_me_hand:t2: Good luck don’t give up

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Exactly. I don’t see any need to LST with autos (besides experimenting) that are going to be 100% outdoors. Natural sunlight will penetrate those leaves. If you need to increase airflow, just trim a few of the inside leaves. But you probably won’t have to do that for a long while from where they are at now.

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Come on, did you even try?