It is amazing what can be accomplished using plant bondage (Low Stress Training or LST, see “Super Cropping”) and canopy management. This can be very useful in medical marijuana gardens where the number of plants is limited, but everyone can benefit by achieving larger yield per plant from using this technique. I get amazing results with much larger plants using simple topping and spreading the plant open and using string or floral wire to tie her down. This method can help in many areas.
First, we want to top our plants very early and close to the soil so they have multiple heads. They are left in the vegetative phase for long enough to form a large bush with a height of about 24-36”. Once the plants leave the veg area and enter the flowering room, tie them down so that their overall height is much shorter and the plants are wider. This allows your lights to be a bit lower, maximizing lumen efficiency. With taller grows, sometimes the lights can be so high that the overall lumens reaching the shorter parts of the plants have is so diminished that plants end up with poor yields. This method also allows you to fill a rather large area with far fewer plants and requires fewer plants to be cloned.
The second thing this training of the plant allows for is more light to the second level buds or “lower shelf,” as I like to call it. Before we employed this method, our tops were huge but the lowers were airy and mainly fluff. This trick ensures large buds even at the lower levels.
Last, and most importantly, it increases yields per plant when the number of plants is limited.
Using a small drill, I make four holes directly beside each main branch.
I use floral wire and secure the branch about halfway up…
…and then gently pull that branch down opening and exposing the center of the plant and allowing more light to penetrate the canopy.
As we have discussed, this also makes the plant shorter, which can allow more veg time and a larger base stem. These are all things that can increase your yields. Don’t be so quick to bud your plants; a few extra days can make a huge difference in how long your medicine holds out.
