LST pictures....

Gosh, if I took off everything outside of 14" from the bulb it doesn't seem like there'd be much left. I'm not sure I have the guts to do that. One philosophy that's seemed to help me get this far is to avoid doing too much and risk doing something I shouldn't. I don't want to misunderstand the intent of someone's instructions and screw it up.

Is the idea that you'll make up for lost weight (by sacrificing all lower and maybe even "mid-level" buds) by concentrating only on the very top bud sites? I wish I could get in my cab right now to see exactly where 14" from the bulb would be. I'm guessing I'd have to cut off a lot of places that seem (to my inexperienced eye) to be bud sites that will produce.

Well, the amount the plant stretches determines, to an extent, how much you would want to chop. If you are worried I would only take a bit off the bottom and go from there. That's what I did my first grow and now that I have firsthand experience I know a bit better what I want to do with my current grow. Also, I also know how much my current plants will stretch (practically none - Sensi Star) so I know how much to veg and how much to prune.

If you are not comfortable I'd just not do it. Easy enough to figure it out once the grow is done and you can look back and see what you could have done better. Not pruning isn't going to hurt anything, and if you choose not to take off much I wouldn't worry about it.

Hawk said:

Gosh, if I took off everything outside of 14" from the bulb it doesn't seem like there'd be much left. I'm not sure I have the guts to do that. One philosophy that's seemed to help me get this far is to avoid doing too much and risk doing something I shouldn't. I don't want to misunderstand the intent of someone's instructions and screw it up.

Is the idea that you'll make up for lost weight (by sacrificing all lower and maybe even "mid-level" buds) by concentrating only on the very top bud sites? I wish I could get in my cab right now to see exactly where 14" from the bulb would be. I'm guessing I'd have to cut off a lot of places that seem (to my inexperienced eye) to be bud sites that will produce.

Click to expand...

Oh, and yes, that is the idea.

Hawk said:

Is the idea that you'll make up for lost weight (by sacrificing all lower and maybe even "mid-level" buds) by concentrating only on the very top bud sites? I wish I could get in my cab right now to see exactly where 14" from the bulb would be. I'm guessing I'd have to cut off a lot of places that seem (to my inexperienced eye) to be bud sites that will produce.

Click to expand...

I took a bit more off. We'll see what happens....

Looking really good man! I'd leave it at that since you're already a pretty good bit into flowering. Use this grow to get a handle for the pruning. Next grow you'll remember how the plants reacted and be able to better plan how you want them to grow. That's what I am finding now on my second grow. I learned so much on the first just from hands on. I researched growing my own medicine for over a year and the first hand experience still made a huge difference.

Hawk said:

I took a bit more off. We'll see what happens....

Click to expand...

Here's a photo update how how they're doing....

24 days into 12/12






It's been a lot of fun to watch them grow. It just keeps getting better and better.

Daamn, the plants are lookin' real good man. What's the size of your grow space? Are you happy with the 250HPS? I'm doing my first grow soon and am debating whether to get a 150 or 250..

Again, beautiful plants!

Thanks!

The cab is 22" deep x 39" wide x ~59" tall



I've been happy with the 250. I wasn't for sure if I'd be able to harvest a damn thing on my first try. So I'm tickled pink.

However, I am thinking of adding a second lamp to my hood at some point. Stronger light would allow me to raise my hood a bit and get more even coverage at the left and right (mostly left) margin of the space. I figure an additional lamp will let me raise the hood a bit for better coverage AND still penetrate deeper. Sometimes I wonder if I should have just gotten a 400w from the get-go. Light vs. heat is a balancing act though.

We'll see what happens with this grow. I'm not sure what to expect as far as how large the buds will be and how deeply into the canopy buds grew vigorously. Maybe I'll find I want more light or maybe I'll find it wouldn't be worth the extra cost and effort [shrug].

So no takers on a yield guess, eh? I'd even settle for a broad min/max range!

Ah, that's a lot bigger than what I intend to have. Maybe I will go with the 150.. I also decided to LST my first time (as opposed to the more complicated scrog) thanks to this thread. I'd give you rep, but I think I need more posts or something

The next time around, I'll have a much better sense of what shape to try and train them into. You can see how each plant is kinda crammed into one end of "its box". I didn't have the foresight to try and keep them more rectangular in shape. Maybe I could have gotten closer to a wall-to-wall canopy. Not that I'm complaining....just saying live and learn.

Hey Hawk

Those are some pretty girls there, nice job on getting an even canopy. I've always grown LST style also, with the occasional topping. I am trying to decide whether I should SCROG or not next time though. I grow with a 1k, so LST has always worked fine with good light penetration.. so I'm not sure a screen would boos my yield that dramatically to mak it worth the trouble. Anyhow.. I kind of got off topic there, haha. I just stopped in to say nice plants!

My guess is about 2oz of (Tops) per plant. No leaves counted.
My grow cab is about the same but I use a 400watt lamp aircooled.

I got about 3oz per plant of tops. No leaves counted as weight.
Your plants are looking GREAT!

2 oz per? Someone please concur!! That kind of result will easily exceed my goal. In fact, I will be jumping with joy if this turns out that well. I was prepared to be "satisfied" with just 1 oz of bud total on my first go-around. Although, as they've grown I must admit to raising my expectations.

How old are those plants? How big are the pots? Are those X gallon pots resting in 5 gallon buckets? Your plants look similar to mine so my fingers are crossed that your experience allows an accurate guess. Thanks!

Heck, if I could get 6 oz of good bud in one grow, I'd be hard pressed to justify adding a second lamp (either 250 or 400, probably CMH is what I was thinking).

Here's another pic. The plant on the right is the tallest at about 18" to it's tallest bud. That puts that bud about 3" under the glass with most of the others between 4.5" and 8" under. Although I do change the light's height sometimes and I do rotate the plants' positions. Then there's a few that are deeper down. I've been hesitant to trim too deeply. I think part of it is I want to learn what kind of production occurs at a lower level. Everybody seems to loathe "popcorn" bud but I almost feel like I need to experience it to really know what it's about. And there's one or two lower buds I've tagged as possible pre-harvest tasters.

Still, your pic makes me wonder if I really should just cut off everything below a certain level (especially since my light is weaker).

Anyway, a pic with an imaginary trim line...

Here's another update on these plants. Wasn't really trying to take LST pictures but one shot showed it well and I thought of this thread.

All seems well at day 50 of 12/12. Still kinda taking a wait-n-see on when they'll be done. I watered with nutes yesterday. I figure I'll just go with straight water from here on out....









I'm generally quite pleased with how LST'ing has worked out. The buds are a bit crowded in some spots and there's unused "good light" in others (although having round shaped plants does helps with rotating). And the three plants didn't all grow to the same heights. Two of them are the same/similar strain (i.e. to my eye, indistinguishable) and one is definitely different. But all in all, shit--I ain't complaining.

One thing this might have taught me [when growing in my particular conditions] is a bud can only get so large when there are 15+ other primary buds on the same plant (one plant has that many although the pics hide many of them). 3 gals of soil and 250w of shared light...there's only so much to go around. I say that because among the two same/similar strain, the one with more branches and more lower fluff that I left on (first pic, left side) seems to have smaller buds and is shorter. Makes sense I guess.

If I could do it again I might shoot for having fewer colas so I can get more of the bigger ones. The larger ones feel denser and I sense those are the ones that will really add up in weight. Also, I'd prolly trim more or at least earlier. The little fluff at the bottoms makes for an alright "I've got nothing else to smoke" type high. But it might be better to just trim more, grow bigger colas, and then sacrifice an early cola if ya want (which I've done ).

BTW, I think the closer-up pics make them look a bit bigger than they are. For scale, the bud in the third pic and top right of the second is something like 4"-5" by maybe 1.25". It's the tallest, although the one different strain has the fattest looking colas. Really, on that one all the budsites are more well developed. I might dare try and re-veg it and turn it into a mom.

First off great work on the LST. That is definitely how it is done right. I think you will yield at least an ounce per plant. My last grow was under a 250w HPS aircooled with a bunch of Mandala Hashberries. I had about five plants from seed and a two clones and ended up at around .5 g/W. I grew the plants tree style and trimmed off the lower offshoots. This was in a DR80 tent so things were tight in there. Nonetheless it paid off at harvest. Best of luck to you

-Funk

Im in it right with you, but i got 5 gallon buckets in a homebox original, Two plants out of 8 turned female.... w/e... but the two i got in are lst'd from two weeks after "birth"... i dont have to do much trimming cuz two plants in this space is letting alot of light get away so ill let them stretch out and do there thing... good luck with yours and cant wait for an update....

Here they are at day 62 of flowering.



Still waiting on amber trichs.

This is probably the best single cola from the middle plant.

I used curtain pins, but these flder clips look like a better idea, as they don't put a hole in the pots. Nice idea.

My guestimate is 1.479 per plant