LST - Low Stress Training

LST - Low Stress Training

I have been asked to write a blog on my experiences within the ‘indoor gardening’ world for the purpose of these blogs my name is Star Dawg.  I hope these blogs will offer help and advice to beginners and or experienced growers

LST (low stress training) is a brilliant technique for training plants, the idea is to gently bend young plants and tie them down, this forces the plant to grow multiple flower sites meaning that you harvest much bigger yields (everyone likes bigger yields) this technique also allows you to force the plant to grow into a shape and size that you want, which is good for people who don’t have a lot of space.

LST involves the bending and tying down of branches with the use of twisty ties, the idea is to bend and pull branches away from the centre of the plant giving an almost star like shape when you look at it from above, and this allows the light to penetrate the entire plant. 

1 of my favourite strains to grow (a Dutch favourite I can’t say the name) will grow to 6ft if left to her own devices before I got into LST she was a nightmare to control, Now with the use on LST she grows 1m wide and 1m tall I use a 1 light (adjust a wing avenger) 1 plant setup and harvest between 500 and 600g of dried flowers per light depending on strain this is achieved by having maximum light penetration throughout the entire plant due to the LST

The idea is to bend and manipulate the young plant to create lots of new colas covered in flower sites, giving you a mass of fat flowers instead 1 main cola and lots of little flowers.

I like to drill a series of 4mm holes around the lip of the pot every 100mm and use these as anchor points to attach the twisty ties, you can also use canes to train the plants up a lot of growers insert the canes in to the pot itself.

The problem with doing this is that when the medium dries out the canes tend to move which allows the plants to move which we don’t want. I like to cut a slot into the lip of the pot and sit the cane into it and then use gaffer tape to tape the canes onto the outside of the pot , I’ve found that this provides a sturdy support system.

The 3 main benefits of using LST:

• plants produce multiple colas instead of 1
• Complete control over the height and shape of the plant
• Bigger yields from the same light source

LST gives the grower better distribution of light as all the parts of the plant form an even canopy at the same distance from the light rather than a Christmas tree shape where the light hits the top part and the sides and lower branches get less light, I will talk about light absorbsion in another blog.