Yo, what’s good fellow growers? It’s your boy, Dan, and today we’re talking about training your cannabis plants for maximum performance and yield. You know, getting those dank buds to pop off like fireworks on the Fourth of July.
Now, there’s two types of training techniques we’re gonna talk about: low-stress training (LST) and high-stress training (HST). LST is all about exposing as much of your plant to light during vegetation and flowering as possible, while HST is all about stimulating your plant to grow stronger in response to controlled stress.
Let’s start with LST because who doesn’t want to keep things chill, am I right? One simple LST technique is to bend a young plant horizontally to promote equal growth at every node. As the side branches grow to a similar height as the main cola, all new growth can be tied down as close to flat as possible. This creates a broad and flat plant that takes up less volume while making the most of your light source.
If you’re looking for something more advanced, check out the Screen of Green (ScrOG) method. By fitting a screen at canopy level and tucking all new growth under it, you can produce a manifold that promotes air circulation below the canopy and maximizes every square centimeter of available light area. The flat canopy makes the most efficient use of available light, resulting in buds that are uniform and grow from every node.
Now onto HST, where things get a little more intense. Topping and Fimming both remove plant material to create bushier plants with more flower sites closer to the light source. Topping involves fully removing new growth at the crown and later on the side branches, while fimming (or “Fuck, I Missed”) cuts new growth tips in half to slow down new growth and encourage longer branches below.
If you want to go even further with HST, try out Mainlining. This involves topping the plant several times to create multiple main branches that are tied down and kept well spaced. Any new growth below the primary bud sites is removed (called undershucking), so your plant concentrates all its energy into producing large colas only.
Finally, let’s talk about Defoliation – the most controversial HST method out there. This involves removing leaves at least once during veg and then once or multiple times during early flowering. Large fan leaves are removed during vegetation to encourage stronger growth throughout the plant, while more large leaves are removed just before the 12-12 flowering light switch, then again in the early weeks of flowering. It’s a tough love approach that can be highly effective in producing more calyxes during the explosive flowering stretch.
So there you have it, folks – some techniques for training your cannabis plants for improved performance and higher yields. Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach here; it’s all about finding what works best for your situation! Keep experimenting and pushing the limits – who knows what kind of dankness you might uncover!