Original OG Kush / Alaskan Purple *AUTO*

1) Still the most vigorous of the group, took LST well, nice one! 2) Super-cropped (HST) 65% main stem above second node, LST started at end of week. 3) Took LST well, made a great recovery from the nitrogen surplus, its eating it up now! 4) Small growth stun from defoliation, made a strong recovery within 1-1 ½ days, loved the LST. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Overall thoughts: LST was absolutely crucial into being able to have so many new bud sites. If you look at 2 (which received minor LST, due to recovering from super-cropping) compared to 1, you can see the noticeable difference just from daily LST. The goal is to expose those baby leaves that are near the main stem (ex. 3 Day 24). I used some Garden Flexi Ties and some wood/bamboo skewers to spread the leaves apart and at the same time start bending over the main stem into a singular direction until the top reaches the edge of your container. From there you just make the top of the plant follow a circular shape around the container like the shape of a spring, except you want to keep the surface area of the top as consistent as possible. This consistency is easier to achieve by filling parts of the canopy with the baby leaves that the LST is exposing, which will eventually grow into bud sites themselves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At Day 21, I used .5 Gal of distilled water per plant. The total amount of water and nutrients used was, 2 Gal with 3 tsp of FoxFarm’s Big Bloom, 3 tsp of FoxFarm’s Grow Big pH'ed at 6.2. At Day 23, I gave the plants a .5 Gal watering each of distilled watered pH’ed at 6.2. For the entirety of the grow so far, my tent clip on fans have been running at low, and at 1:30pm I switched them to high (the only other setting lol). Same day super-cropping was applied to 2 at 7:30pm. Once 2 had been snapped, I applied a small amount of electrical tape enough to wrap around the main stem 1 ½ times and one Garden Flexi Tie to just help hold the main stem upright to ensure for a nice recovery. At Day 24, Defoliation occurred from a top 7 leaf on 4 (indicated by the red Day 24) being lost from improper LST practices (being abit too rough). The blue indicates the sister leaf of the missing one. Besides this, the light was dropped from 35” to 32”, I was waiting for abit more leaves to be present to absorb the amount of light that I was exposing them to. At Day 26, I gave the plants .5 Gal each of distilled water pH’ed at 6.1. The reason I skipped an interval of nutrients was because of the EC reading I was getting, but by the double cycle of water feedings, I brought the EC readings to a more stable number to ensure my plants are able to uptake the nutrients present in the substrate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alaskan Purple Notes: Not a fan of high-stress defoliation at this stage but not much of a difference in terms of development. OG Kush Notes: Ok with more stressful training than expected. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If I had to take something from this week, it would be that LST is absolutely important to the expedited growth and yield potential of a plant. The process of LST should be implemented as soon as the plant has produced a second node (ex. Day 21). The Garden Ties are to tie down large fan leaves and the change the growth direction of the main stem. If you have ever heard of Bonsai, then you can have an idea of the concept of what this process is achieving. For the remaining smaller leaves that are still too small or fragile for this method of LST, you can apply a lower stress training which is when you layer the different leaves on top of each other based on the growth development that you want to have. Basically, it is just a gentle movement of the plant using your fingers or a stick to pull larger leaves down and push the small leaves up above them. You are looking for the larger leaves to be lower than the small leaves and by tucking the plant under itself. This can be done in a healthy and natural way that occurs in nature all the time from wind. The result should look like 1 at Day 27, notice how the lower small leaves have almost appeared to have busted out from the bottom, that did not occur without the leaves being directly exposed to the light. You can also use wooden/bamboo stakes that you would attach the Garden Ties to, you can bend their leaves around the stakes to open more light into the canopy to reach the lower sites. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Side note* Do not be afraid to start LST early on because of fear of hurting the plant. If you move slow and make every adjustment one step at a time, it makes it difficult to deviate from correct procedures. If the plant should be adjusted in any way, try do so when the substrate is near watering time. The less water that the plant has inside it, the better when it comes to LST. The plant will be more flexible and willing to bend versus when fully hydrated. But it is ok to LST every day, just adjust your intensity to your plant’s current health. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=zojCw8_AdRg&feature=share