August 05, 2020
Whether your garden is big or small, outdoors or indoors, training your medicinal plants will greatly increase the quality and yield of your grow. Techniques are divided into two categories: LST (low stress training) and HST (high stress training). LST does not involve directly damaging your plant, while HST involves breaking or removing parts of the plant.
The goal of these training techniques is to alter the chemical balances in the plants. If left to grow naturally, medicinal plants will choose to produce one main cola (the topmost bud) that will reach as high as it can, but this is not optimal for yield and quality. In an indoor indoor grow tent, you can only bring the light(full spectrum Led grow lights) as close as the top cola allows. Buds found lower down on the plant receive less light.Training your plants properly, however, will allow for more even canopies.
Low Stress Training or LST for short involves bending a medicinal plant to grow in a way that will improve yields. You perform LST by gently bending plants, using low levels of stress to encourage the plant to grow laterally and form a bushy canopy. This improves canopy control and promotes the development of large, thick independant shoots with uniform buds. LST can increase harvests by up to 200%.
LST works by redistributing auxin, the hormone that is responsible for so called “apical dominance”, which is a scientific term to describe the “dominant” or “main” cola. By taking away the dominance of the main cola, a medicinal plants will develop side branches more rapidly. In practical terms this means the plant will focus its energy on growing a wide, bushy plant. Once the tied down primary branch becomes the highest point of the plant again, this hormone will start accumulating in the top and restart vertical growth.
This might sound complicated, but in reality LST is one of the easiest techniques you can use to massively increase your yield!
High-stress training (HST) also known as super cropping, is a method where the plant is deliberately wounded to achieve several potential benefits. HST is done by bending a flexible stem until it is perpendicular to the plant. Studies show that the application of this method can lead to an increase in cannabinoid (THC, CBD) levels present in the plant, increase their overall yield, etc. To derive the most results from HST, it's highly advisable that the process is conducted with healthy plants; weak or sick plants may not be able to endure the stress. HST should be done before your plants in fabric grow pot entering into the vegetative stage for best results and it is much more useful for large outdoor gardens and require less time and materials.
Every grower wants a bountiful harvest, and one of the surest ways to achieve this is using the combination of the Low-Stress Training (LST) and High-Stress Training (HST) on the medicinal plants. If using just one of these techniques can guarantee a maximum result, then why won't you try using both methods. You can apply the process of the HST for all your outdoor plants and immerse your indoor plants with the LST technique. What it will do is assure you a bumper harvest at the end. It is important to note that If you are planning to apply these methods to your plants, vegetative growth will be increased for about a month. And it is advisable to skip training methods during the flowering stage.
Combining different training methods offers several potential benefits, perhaps the most alluring of which is a bigger harvest. By manipulating the growth of your plant, it is possible to promote the creation of new bud sites and maximise the final result.
Another benefit of combining techniques is that you can more significantly control the size of your plants. For instance, if you wish to grow your favourite massive sativa strain in a small grow tent, the combination of different training techniques can help you shape and manage the tall heights of these medicinal plants monsters.
Last but not least, combining techniques can be an excellent and fun way to practice and improve your growing skills.
Training your medicinal plants doesn’t need to be overwhelming or extremely difficult. As a grower, you need to assess which techniques are worth applying in your situation, and be ready to intervene if things go south.