By using training techniques with your cannabis plant, it is possible to increase the yield significantly. Training cannabis is therefore effective; for knee-high, accurately bent down autoflowering varieties, but also for tall trees of 3 meters that you support with large racks, for example. But how do you best go about training cannabis so that your plants do better? First let’s take a look at the cannabis plant itself. Virulence is a characteristic of cannabis that never depends on the strain. Imagine that a cannabis plant has been eaten by grasshoppers. Some time later you come back and discover that the plant has started to grow healthily again. That does testify to the fact that cannabis is a strong plant.
TRAINING YOUR CANNABIS PLANTS: LST VERSUS HST
So the cannabis plant is strong. However, a little loving torture often has a positive impact in various ways. For example, low-stress training or LST ensures that as much leaf area as practical is exposed. During the flowering phase you then make sure that the largest possible part of the buds receives direct light. Indoors and outdoors, a plant grows best that way. As the name suggests, LST is less stressful for plants. However, these techniques do cause a plant to take a little longer. High-stress training may seem traumatic and counterproductive. However, by giving plants certain stresses, you sometimes do stimulate strong growth. In a purely practical sense, it is also possible to save space with training. Many strains continue to grow unchecked if you let them. With HST you extend the growth period, depending on the method used and the frequency. After all, the plants need time to redistribute growth hormones to the relevant parts. With marijuana, there is no one preferred training method. So one method is not so much better than another. What matters is that the technique you choose is appropriate for your particular situation. Weed finds the sometimes counterintuitive attention quite enjoyable. In the process, she often rewards the grower with delicious weed, which we all love so much.
LST: LOW-STRESS TRAINING TECHNIQUES
SIMPLE LST
Are you a grower with little time or a beginner who wants to discover the nature of the cannabis plant? Then bending a young plant so that it has a horizontal position is the way to go. In doing so, all the side branches will grow to the same height and the main cola will reach up to join them. Going a step further, we bend all new growth so that everything is as flat as possible. This disrupts the apical dominance of the cannabis and ensures even growth from all nodes. As a result, the buds are homogeneous in size during flowering. So there is no dominant cola with smaller satellite buds. The plants hereby look flat and wide and do not take up much space. At the same time you make optimal use of the light. Plant Clips For LST (Royal Queen Seeds) (17) View
SUPERCROPES
Outdoor growers know that cannabis plants that are slightly damaged by a storm sometimes make a spectacular recovery. Twisted branches and bent colas re erect themselves in the process and you can see them seeking the sun again. When you supercropping indoor plants you mimic such slight damage. You bend the tips of the upper branches to 90°. This has a twofold effect. Firstly, the lower lying buds become larger, as they receive more light. In addition, the bent buds react more vigorously, as the plant works hard to recover from the damage. To do this you hold a branch between your thumb and forefinger and press lightly on it. In doing so, you bend it backwards and forwards slightly. Once the branch is softer, you bend it horizontally. So you do not snap it. Within a few days the plant will form an impressive knuckle of scar tissue.
SCREEN OF GREEN
Screen of green or ScrOG is the epitome of low-stress training. By topping and training at an early stage, this creates bushy plants. For this technique you attach a metal or plastic grid just above the canopy. All new growth stays below this. This gives you a longer vegetation time and you top and train the plants so that they form a flat layer of cannabis. All growth under the canopy is removed, allowing good air circulation and making optimum use of the light. The flat canopy makes optimum use of the available light, the buds are uniform and a bud grows from each node. ScrOG Netting (Royal Queen Seeds) (5) View
HST: HIGH STRESS TRAINING TECHNIQUES
TOPPING AND FIMMING
In both topping and fimming you remove plant material to create a bushier plant. She forms more buds closer to the light source. In the case of topping you remove all new growth at the top and later on the side branches. The two branches below the pruned area become longer and form the main buds. The lower-lying stems are therefore able to grow more towards the canopy. The same thing happens when you top side branches. In this way, you create a bushier plant instead of getting the traditional Christmas tree silhouette. When you top, you remove all new growth at the ends. With fimming (Fuck, I Missed), however, you cut the new growth in half. This inhibits new growth because there is less leaf material to absorb light. As a result, the branches become longer and grow more toward the canopy.
MAINLINKS
Want to grow just big buds, without secondary popcorn buds? Then you should try mainlining. This involves topping the plants several times so that you get a number of main branches. If you do this 3 times you will get 8 main branches (4 times = 16, 5 times = 32). You bend these downwards, making sure they have enough room. All new growth under the primary buds, you remove. By doing so, the plant puts all its energy into making only large colas. If you do this outdoors then mainlining ensures that your plants form a large canopy. All growth on the inside is taken away. The plants produce only large, evenly spaced colas. So you get no secondary growth. This makes harvesting and trimming relatively simple.
DEFOLIATING
Defoliating is without doubt the most controversial method of high-stress training. However, this method varies in intensity from grower to grower. When defoliating, you remove leaf material at least once during the growth phase. You also do this one or more times in the early flowering phase. Removing large fan leaves in the growth phase stimulates stronger growth. Then you remove even more large leaves just before you switch to the 12/12 light cycle of flowering. You then do this again in the first few weeks of the flowering phase. As the plant expands explosively during flowering, it responds with more calyxes to compensate for the reduced opportunity for photosynthesis. Both indoor and outdoor training of cannabis plants gives satisfactory results. Thus, you get better quality buds with fewer to almost no undersized nuggets. In the process, you use the growing space more efficiently, as you obtain more buds and better weed per watt. People today grow almost no high-quality cannabis naturally. All cannabis plants are often given a training technique or a combination of several. This ensures that a plant performs better and produces more. Therefore, with high- or low-stress training you bring out the best in cannabis plants.
