I didn't see a section under advanced growing for "training" Maybe someone can start another category and move this thread to it.

I have read a lot on these ways to train your plant. Not so much HST "because 1st part I read and first video I watched showed someone cracking there branches" it hurt to watch it.

I have a few questions that I didn't read.

LST- I know mostly that it is used in scrog to fill the net and it also helps keep the plant short. Is there any other benefit to LST if height isn't an issue? Everything I have read and watched just shows how to LST, doesn't mention the pro's con's.

FIM- This is what I went with. It made the most since to me for what I am wanting to do. I don't mind having a tall plant and I want it to bush out.

Topping- This from what I understand just splits the top into 2 cola's instead of having one main cola. This is what I do when I grew my outdoor plant. "before I heard of FIM"

Can someone with experience with these type of training elaborate a bit more?

LST is not just for preparing for scrog.. it's good for getting an even canopy and get a bunch of similar sized nugs instead of 1 big cola and a bunch of smaller stuff..
i only have a 400 sodium. so for me LST is quite beneficial to bring more budsites into better lighting. just don't have the light penetration.

i was going to recommend this in your scrog post, as i think it's your best bet ;)


Fimming is a HST; LST = bending branches. HST = cutting/topping them.
the Fim is (i'm sure you know) kind of a hybrid topping; where someone screwed up topping, but discovered that the way they did it caused more growth than regular topping.

hope this helps
:)

i don't know how to edit here
but wanted to say OD (cause i don't have the room indoors ;) ) i super crop them..
basically i top them a couple of times, quite young.. then i start bending and tying branches down.. works well to get bushy plants ;)

I'll try the LST and see how it goes. Couple questions about it. Do you ever undo the tie down? Once one side is tied down and it starts growing more, do you take the tallest branch that grows and tie it down too and so on? Here is a couple of pics of what I just did.

yup, simple idea.. take whatever is tallest and bend it/tie down (if you're comfortable; you can lightly squeeze the stem to make it more pliable (this will also strengthen them)
that will cause the lower stuff to grow up.
*a softer wire (pipe cleaner is popular choice ) may be a better choice if possible though.. i've had bailing wire cut into my plants a bit before. that branch will pull against it pretty good, and try to be top again.

takes training, but you can get a nice shrubby looking plant with LST.

and no, i usually don't undo the tie down
:)

sometimes buds get so heavy later on that your tie downs must become tie up's...those are good problems to have though

Good idea on the pipe cleaners Kaotik. I run a lighter up and down the pipe cleaner to lightly burn off the fuzz so it doesn' get in the bud.

Found this, might help.

Quote: MR1 wrote in post #8

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Good idea on the pipe cleaners Kaotik. I run a lighter up and down the pipe cleaner to lightly burn off the fuzz so it doesn' get in the bud.

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Another very good benefit of LST is that when a plant gets shooting upwards too quickly, you can tie the branches over to open up the center of the plant. This not only creates many more bud sites, but it also allows more light into the center of the plant which would otherwise be buried by the increasingly dense canopy that is developing.

One thing to remember about training, regardless of it being low stress or high stress training, when it is done during the veg period to healthy plants, the stress doesn't affect them so long as they get the chance to recover before being put into flowering. I have had plants that were so hearty that I honestly believe that we could have taken a lawn mower to them(while in veg) without killing them or causing them to herm.

My favorite thing to do with plants that are connected to a watering system is to put a screen of "hog fence" over them and let them veg beneath that screen while I continue to push the branches under the screen as it tries to grow up through. This is known as the "Scrog method", and it is too easy to do. And it gives amazing results. The constant bending the branches beneath the screen causes the branches to produce more side branching that fills the whole underside of the screen which is a light gauge steel wire mesh that has either 2"x4" squares or 4"x4" squares. Once the screen is mostly filled below, I flip the lights to 12/12 and allow the newly growing buds to grow up through the screen rather than tucking those. Instead of a sea of green, I get a forest of buds With little or no tying needed as the stems below the screen are plenty strong while the buds are supported by the screen

Fim'ed this just four days ago... Look at the top view of all the new tops