Hi Everyone, I am doing an experiment on a Gold Leaf variety.
I was looking at pictures on how to do low stress training and thought if this Gold leaf grows straight up it will hit the top of the Green House and then I won’t be able to bend it as the stem will be too thick and stiff to do it.
So then I had the thought to train them to grow in an “S” shape…Look at the diagram inserted where I drew a picture of the idea.
I started today setting up and tying it up in traction so to speak…It should as it continues to grow be tied up more and shaped like an “S” If it continues growing I will keep training it to grow in the loop over fashion until it blooms somewhere in August.
I will not do it to the Auto’s as it might hinder its development, plus they are already flowering…
So the plants are very happy,
I should get my fans installed this weekend to help cool off the green house.
It is already getting sticky in the green house…pungent smell…I can imagine when they are all flowering and getting sappy and sticky…
If anybody has any further ideas concerning my project, let me know…We can all learn from one another…
Thanks Kellie <3
Please tag me. Interested in watching this.
Great idea!!! We shall call it PROJECT S LOL
I will be watching
@MAXHeadRoom @Rugar89 This is a great site to learn about LST (Low Stress Training)
http://www.growweedeasy.com/lst I’m not trying to take people from here, I am just telling you all the path to my getting the idea to do what I’m doing…
So we see it is one of the methods to increasing our plants yield…
I’m excited and will continue to post changes to journal its progress…
Totally frikin Cool!
Please tag me as well. Love to see proces
The picture of for ‘s’ goes straight up, leaning all the weight to one side. The middle line of the ‘s’ should be twice as long, evening out the weight. So your ‘s’ looks like it is on a 22° angle.
I do something similar when I’m not using a scrogg net… 
I use the galvanized wire that runs through a chain link fence at the top or bottom… u can pick up a 50 foot roll at home depo for not that much money… you can cut them to any length you want depending on how big you think your plants will get… you stick them in the ground or pot and tie the main trunk of the plant in several places all the way to the top of the plant… then every day you gently bend it over into what ever shape you want… this works extremely well… there’s two important things you have to do when making these , as you see in the pictures , at the bottom of them you need to make an s … the reason for this is so when you go to bend the plant the wire won’t spin on you… the other important thing is at the top of the wire you need to bend it over so when your tending to your garden you don’t accidentally poke your eye out because once you start doing this technique these wires will be everywhere and it gets hard to see them with all the foliage…
Hope this helps you out @kelliehu
I wish I had one on a plant to give you a better example … sorry
@TheDuke It really doesn’t matter what side is the heaviest as it will be tied up pulling up on branches too relieving any weight issues…it will have strings coming down from above eventually…These will relieve the weight on the bends, I will also have posts along side to support the plant as it grows…This is only the start…
@Laurap I went into the green house this morning and was a little groggy from waking up still but had my thoughts together of what I need to do next and as I was watering and checking out the bends in the stem and watering I reached to one side while sitting in my chair and the chair collapsed and as I was starting to fall to one side where I would fall on sharp objects I reached out to the green house supports and tore out one of the twine supports that held the top up thus tearing the top completely off!!! Nooo, I was sooo pissed!!! It cut the stem clean off and took 3 levels of branches with it…(Crying)
So now it is topped but will still make a nice bonzai type bush with many colas but not the shape I wanted to go for…
BUT!!!
I still have two other plants in traction for the “?” project growing just fine…They’re all doing fine…
But now I need to replace the chair…LOL
This project continues…
Oh no! You’ve got my sympathies!! Sounds like my life. Glad to hear you weren’t hurt as well. I’m already attached to my girls & learning to LST, saw what you were doing and thought how cool and also I had never thought about it but the S curve would be easier to train the plant. Thanks for including me and looking forward to seeing your progress
@TheDuke @Rugar89 @Laurap @MAXHeadRoom @peachfuzz
I am sorry I posted some pics on this other forum post…
http://ilgmforum.com/t/outdoor-greenhouse-sun-in-california/11364/18
Looking good
Hi Everybody, just a little update…
Well when I first started growing the autos and Gold Leaf…I started with 5 Northern Lights autos and 2 Gold leafs, all in pots at first.
I marked the containers with a “N” or “G” so I would know what is what…
Later on as they sat outside on table growing ever so slowly because we were having strange patterns of weather the markings washed off even though done with permanent markers.
So I didn’t know what was what yet…
But I figured I would in time as the autos would show themselves up in a few months with pistils.
So - During the germination time a few seeds died because of the storms washing through…I should have put them inside.
But I thought they could manage anyway. I was wrong of course…
So I germinated new ones to replace them, but again didn’t mark them…
So as time progressed the autos did show themselves…So I counted all the ones who had pistils. I had 3 Northern Lights autos…and 4 Gold leafs.
So my counting got all messed up, I guess I was stoned that day Lol
Anyway, at last count it is 3 NL and 4 G. All which are thought to be G are in LST as everyone has seen.
But one which is in LST turned out to be a NL after all!!
She showed her beautiful little pistils the other day!
I thought oh crap that is going to slow down her growth, but at this point it is too late to untie her and let her go back as she is now bent over and branching out with her little pistils between every node…
So to make a long explanation if you followed it, it will be interesting to see how she comes out being in LST as I heard that slows or hinders their progress.
We will see…
I will be germinating the remaining NL seeds soon so they will be ready by October…Since it takes 10 weeks as told when I bought them…
However the NL’s were planted on 4/10 and June 18th would have made it 10 weeks, but they are still pilling on more pistils and the buds are getting thicker and thicker…So I plan on letting them go as long as they can until the pistils and trichomes turn amber red…They show every sign of being a month away from that ever happening…
So I think in the beginning because of the weather kind of stalled them and they are going to do what they want regardless of time…So lets see.
So now I have 4 NL’s and 3 G’s …
But soon to come the opposite side of the Greenhouse will get the new NL’s planted and they will grow into October easily for the 10 weeks as the weather is more consistent and they will be harvested along with the LST Gold Leafs…
I am getting excited…the NL’s are stinking up the yard…during the day…
Lol, we have had skunks venturing through here, probably thinking there is a fellow skunk here…Lol
Wish me luck - More pictures coming later… 
Here are some higher quality pics…My question to all on my Northern Lights Autos is:
How many more weeks left do you think I have according to how green the leaves are still?
I mean, usually a plant will suck all the sugar it can to build and make the bud blossom bigger as it does the leaves turn yellow…
I have picked off the lower leaves as they yellowed and died during the blossoming stage…
We are over the 10 week mark already and in my opinion they look like they could go well into July fattening up on those sugar laden leaves until they yellow and show the last of the last of strength is gone and then she is harvested…
What do you think? @latewood I appreciate your opinion too…
Let me know what you think…These above are all the NL’s from side shots to a couple looking down from above so you can get a good idea…They stand about 3’ tall…
Thanks
The rest below are the Gold leafs in their vegetative stage. They have a couple of months to go to fill out and grow taller before they go into blossoming as they are only 21/2 months old and will grow well into October…
I am anticipating that at least according to what I grew last year as clones turned out SO fat and delish!
So here are some pictures of those growing so healthy and happy…!
Thanks everybody for your comments and advice…
The best way is to look at your trichrome with a jewelers loop as described in this article.
Looks like you have a bit to go yet
Lookin good…
The nla’s still look young in my opinion… I would let them go for a few more weeks for sure…
This is the time that they really start to put on weight…
Thanks, yes they are totally putting on weight and pistils are still mostly white with new ones coming in…Leaves are still turning yellow ever so slowly…
Very big leaves too, so she has a lot of sugar still to process and use up to get to the end…
OMG…It is so stinky in our backyard…But I just tell people a skunk comes around…
Which is the truth! At night a little baby skunk meanders in our backyard at dark and eats some of the cats food for our cats that live outside…
The cats eat earlier and then split to their places they have to rest outside our yard…That is when the skunk comes…Lol
So he is our excuse…Lol
But wow…This is my first time growing a full plant to the fullest flowering…
Last year I had the green house in another location that didn’t get as much sun and its buds were considerably smaller…and not as potent…But I did take two lower branches off earlier and cloned the plant to see how all that works…
It worked excellent unfortunately it was too late in the season to let them get very tall…
Lol…They were only 8" tall…Lol
But Man o Man that 8" Kicked our asses…
So watching the nl’s grow and glisten and stink as they do,
I salivate in anticipation!!!
Thanks for listening…
More to come…
The Gold leafs are getting very full…Boy what a healthy plant!!!
The leaves are so broad and beautiful green!..
The LST is going along nicely…I am letting the plant grow the way she wants at this point since my access to their growing is difficult because of being grown too close to each other…But still the LST is producing some nice branches coming up from below and they are all growing at the same height…It will be nice to see those when the colas appear!! They will all be as One! There are bunches of tops growing close to each other! I topped only one plant at this time…but may do some topping on the other ones…Not sure yet…
I am ever so vigilant on pests…Watching closely lower leaves for signs of mites since last year I was massively infested and it took a couple months to get rid of them…
I started early this year…I sprayed in the beginning with Azamax…To get the area where I was to grow cleared out…
Then once every 2 months I spray a solution of water, 2 drops peppermint essential oil, Tblsp garlic oil, and 1-2 small drops of liquid dish soap in spray bottle on them…
I had some white flies coming around because right outside the green house I am growing tomatoes and white flies love those…but the they hate the spraying…
Other prevention I do once in awhile is to spray the Azamax to doubly enforce the pest control…
Keeping the mites and other plant suckers from establishing themselves in any way on my plants…
It really works and the plants have no adverse reaction to the spray…In fact I think they like it…It leaves a small residue on the leaves…probably the oil from the garlic…
But it keeps those vampire suckers away!! Lol!!
Yes the Gold leafs are bushing up and getting very bushy and crowding each other…But no problems with that…They have plenty of room for roots to branch out in the ground so the branches can grow into each other if they want…It just might make it more difficult to tend to the plants as you have to be careful which branch or leaf you’re cutting…Making sure it is the same plant you’re tending to…Lol
Anyway I could have giving them more room but I wanted more plants in there to grow…
Now we have 7 growing on one side…I should have grown 5 on that one side…But hey, the results will be wonderful…I mean having buds wrapped together and growing into each other and making massive buds will be the outcome…YES!!!
I don’t care if that is the result, would you?
The Gold leafs will all be harvested at the same time so no problem there…
So we will have a NL ready here to harvest by the end of July at least that is what I am hoping for. But I watch closely…
I have a jewelers magnifier to watch the Trichomes(Sounds like a alien on the old Star Trek series) “We are the Trichomes!”
Lol…Ok time to smoke a load…
Peace every body!!
HA HA, after all my talk about pests…I noticed on the lower leaves of the NL’s a few small mites and a small bug that looked like a thrip…So what did I do?
I got out my arsenal (Azamax, and my pepper spray) and sprayed them down two days in a row and they are gone…
So enough of that…
I sprayed all plants to be sure…it leaves a residue( from the garlic and peppermint oils) on the leaves to help continue to repel them from coming back…
I also noticed the Gold Leafs had small branches on the bottom of plant that were lying on the ground…So I cut them off and I started doing some more bending of the Gold Leafs with continued LST…
I will look at them tonight to see how they are adjusting…
The things about LST is the plant adjusts rather quickly to it…Usually 24 hours to see how the branches are adjusting…
I took a lot of fan leaves off that will get in the way of the branches turning up to grow vertically off the main horizontal stem…
These Gold leafs are growing so fast…It seems they are progressing by almost a foot a week…I am serious…They are now at present 4 1/2 feet tall and almost as wide…
The LST is causing all side branches to shoot up and act like a topped plant…Than after they get established I top the actual top of the plant causing further side branch activity…I am going to have a bundle of love in October…Yum!! More picture coming…
Peace!