New Grower How Long to LST?

[Sunny747]

I want to LST as an alternative to topping. I know we're not supposed to train autos, but I'm going to anyway. I want to encourage my lower shoots to kick in. Later on I'll tie down the side shoots to evenly spread light throughout my plant.

As I understand it, I just need to pin down the top shoot until the chemicals in the plant signal the side shoots to take over the role of growth. From what I have read this happens rather quickly. I just don't know exactly how long. I'm not trying to permanently deform my plant as in mainlining. I think 12-24 hours should do it. Then I can untie the main stem and let nature do its thing.

Is this accurate?


Top shoot pinned down.

 

[Grey Bear]

I want to LST as an alternative to topping. I know we're not supposed to train autos, but I'm going to anyway. I want to encourage my lower shoots to kick in. Later on I'll tie down the side shoots to evenly spread light throughout my plant.

As I understand it, I just need to pin down the top shoot until the chemicals in the plant signal the side shoots to take over the role of growth. From what I have read this happens rather quickly. I just don't know exactly how long. I'm not trying to permanently deform my plant as in mainlining. I think 12-24 hours should do it. Then I can untie the main stem and let nature do its thing.

Is this accurate?


Top shoot pinned down.

View attachment 345044

That doesn't match my experiences.
Photo or Auto if you are going to train it, you will have to keep it trained for a few weeks at the very least.
I have found that when I lst, I usually have to have something tied down until the stretch is over.
The main will always try to re-establish its dominance once it is untied if there is still vertical growth going on.
and if you keep it tied or supercrop it, the others will fight for dominance and one or two will prevail unless you work to keep the canopy even.
My experience is half-hearted lst does not improve your yield.

PS I often lst autos, some varieties do not respond well to it especially the faster finishers and dominant cola types.

 

[Sunny747]

Great info. Thank you. That leads us to another topic. Selecting strains that fit our growing styles. I like to fiddle with my plants. Train them, top them etc to get an even canopy. I see single cola plants and I just don't have much interest in them. How do we select auto strains that we can scrog, lST, etc? Maybe it's just experience as the seed banks don't describe this feature in my experience.

 

[Grey Bear]

Do your research.
I will pour over grow logs of strains I am interested in or strains that I really like and want to see how and if others did it better.
Americans are not used to foreign language internet sites, but there are a ton of foreign language grow forums out there.
A huge underutilized resource.
Strains that have been around will plenty of grow logs.
Many of the new strains will at least have a record of a test grow or breeder grow. You just have to look around.
And sometimes a strain you thought would be a good candidate for it just doesn't respond well during the grow.
That's when experience kicks begins!
Good luck!