A Brief Guide to LST

[NoDirtWeed4Me]

Low Stress Training (LST)​

There is little if any recovery time because you are not damaging the budsites of your plants. When you tie the top grow tip below the rest of the plant the plant has the same reaction as topping and the axial growth tips are redistributed. The key to LST is to create a horizontal plane of buds so that they all get the same light and grow at the same rate. You end up with a bush of many colas instead of the traditional christmas tree bud plant with one main cola.

There are many ways to LST using steaks, chicken wire screens are common, many other I probably dont know about.

First step is to get a large pot the final size you want your pot and put a bunch of screws arround the lip of the pot I used 8 screws. These are the tie points for your training

Second Step. This next step is CRITICAL!!! I cannot stress this enough. This is the countertie. It is used so that the bottom part of your plants stem stays straight and in place. Without a countertie you are likely to uproot your plant because training usually occurs when there about a month or so old and not extremely established. Its simple just tie a piece of twine from one of the screws arround the bottom of your plant. Make sure that your twine is tied above the first leaf pair so that it doesnt slip all the way down to the bottom of the plant.

Third Step. The next step is to tie the main growth tip down so that the plant will release hormones that cause all the other growth tips to start functioning like the main cola. I use a simple overhand knot and tie my twine UNDER the highest set of developed leafs. Once again you need to make sure that the knot doesnt slip off of your plant. Then i tie a slip knot arround a screw. I use slip knots so i can just tighten the string as the plant grows. You can retie it everytime but im super lazy and that wouldnt cut it.

One last comment....one thing that wasn't mentioned above was the ability to tie shade leaves out of the way to get more direct light to the budsites.


Pictures Below show the tie and counter tie as well as other branches being tied down.

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[Eyeless]

great post NDW

just to back up your counter tying...this is what happens if you don't counter tie properly on weaker plants

i tied her to one side...then the opposite side of the stem starting to crack open...so i gelled her up nicely and tied her the opposite way to close the wound and taped her for around 3 days
this is what she looked like after

surprisingly she didn't suffer much and with the extra care didn't stop growing

P.S. becareful when tying growers

 

[Akornpatch]

Also helps alot with scrog methods. Thanks NDW...you rock!

 

[vintner]

Nice informative thread NDW4M! Thankyou for all your hard work here on 420

 

[vintner]

This thread should be made into a sticky too IMHO.

 

[megrower]

gra8t info thanks

 

[HazeSeeker]

Just to fresh up this thread ... many of you guys ask about LST , so here you go !!!

 

[newcomer]

Awesome !!!

 

[Aussiebonger]

Thanks yall.........

 

[Man772]

thanks!

 

[hightimes4evr]

thanx man

 

[hightimes4evr]

great post NDW

P.S. becareful when tying growers

This happend to me when my lady got an LST

Hole top went off... sooo be careful!

 

[WizHigh]

You was pulling the ish out of that lol. Try tying it a little higher and then pull down more each day.

Heres my LST with Scrog

 

[Fluffy Haze]

Fluffy Bump for this thread!

Thank you to NoDirt, this is an absolutely brilliant guide and I have no doubt it will prove extremely useful to me for my second grow where I will be starting to learn techniques like this to improve my yield, quality, better use of space etc.

And thank you to everyone else who has contributed some great information and support as well.

 

[urmom]

I've got another method that I would like to share...you want me to start a different thread or just add my method to this thread?

 

[Muttt]

LST means Low Stress Training. If you are popping the tops of, I think you might be a little too HIGH with your stress.

 

[urmom]

LST means Low Stress Training. If you are popping the tops of, I think you might be a little too HIGH with your stress.

Hahaha, I know, I know. Topping and super cropping technically means HIgH stress but I wanted to show my version of LST. Just a different method than the screw method. I use binder clips and move my branches around based on light availability and structure/development of the canopy.

 

[Muttt]

I know ... I'm just poking fun.

 

[urmom]

here is my binder clip method of LST...Mutt, you'll just have to deal with my "high stress" LST...hahaha!!!

second bend on main stem at 3 weeks old (est)

same plant (I think) at 5 weeks old with alot of extra bending...

I have topped all the main branches (6 of them) on this plant in order to encourage lots of side shoots. This plant will get scrog'd Jan 1st...that means 3.5 months of vegging...I use alot of super cropping while they are young to kep them dense and strong (stems and branches) I try to prune the "long term" vegging plants to prep them for my 2 x 4 tent and screen. You can check out my journal (indoor) to see my screen and the 4 plants in flower right now. 2 of them are 4 weeks into flower and the other 2 are at 10 days...

an example of a deep side bend with the clips

 

[Muttt]

People get so scared to man handle the plants. But, after the first couple time you have to tuck a branch or cola, you see how simple it really is.