Hi everyone, I read a lot online about lst but its quite confusing. There are a lot of examples but i really want to get it as simply as possible, so:
So basically what ive been doing is seeing if any of the new growth is higher up than the rest, and if it is I use a pipe cleaner to hook it onto the side of the pot so it's level with the rest. At the same time I am tucking older leaves back so that all the new growth gets as much light as possible.
Does this sound correct? Im sort of doing it intuitively but id like some confirmation, as this my very first grow and I feel a bid like in driving blind! Haha
There are a few reasons to LST and it sounds like you've kind of got the gist of it. It's a great way to manage your plants in smaller spaces and gives you a little more control over the way they exhibit some of their growth.
I too use the fuzzy pipe cleaners; out of everything I've tried (wire, string, paper clips,) I found the pipe cleaners were the easiest to use, did the least amount of damage to my plants (if done carefully,) and were super easy to remove, add, and reuse.
One reason a lot of people LST is to keep a more even canopy level to allow more equal light dispersion to bud sites. Stick your hand straight up and down in front of you and take your other hand and place it on top of that to form a "T". Imagine your horizontal hand is the light and your vertical hand is the plant. When the light is coming down, it's having to penetrate through that spire/top level of buds. With LST, you can train the growth down to a more horizontal canopy (so instead of beaming down on that spire of bud, it shines down with less deflection.)
The same goes if you have a monster plant that is getting out of control. LST (especially when they are younger) can make larger plants much more manageable. It's also a great method to use if you're growing multiple strains and are worried about growth/height differences.
The idea is to take the main stalk (the meristem) and gradually bend it down over time (emphasis on "gradual" and "over time.") Bending the meristem downwards tends to release a flood of auxins, which are hormones that regulate plant growth and cell elongation in plant shoots. I have three stellar examples in my grow space right now that I can try to get pictures of later on; I have LST'd down all the main stems and the resulting side branching is VERY EVIDENT.
I like to recommend people LST'ing plants like you are bending copper tubing. If you take a copper pipe and put a straight 90 degree bend it in, you crimp the tube and destroy the integrity of the inside diameter. If you
gradually put the 90 degree bend in over the length of several inches, you maintain most of the integrity of the inside diameter and won't have reduced flow rate (correlate that to the stem of plants if you will haha!)
It's important to slowly and gradually pull the tips down though; too much at once and you'll be snapping limbs and stems. Too much slack and they'll perk right back up into the light (and tie those pipe cleaners tight enough, I've had plants pull my twists completely apart before in growth spurts.) It's also important that when tying down the main stem, you tie an anchor to the OPPOSITE end of where you tied the main shoot down too. This relieves some of the tension from the main stem being pulled down and will help prevent you from literally pulling your plant down on top of itself (not saying I've ever He-manned some LST before, buuuuuut.... accidents happen, right? Live and learn!)
Hope that helps bro; I'll try to get some pictures of my ladies tonight to show you how I do it. Everyone has their methods and hopefully you'll see there are actually a plethora of reasons to LST if that is what suits your grow.
Good luck and I'll try to get those pics up later!
