How to Conduct High Stress Training (HST)

This article covers high-stress training. Learn how HST can help you increase yields and improve efficiency in your growing area.

It can be challenging to manipulate your plants if you’ve never done it before. Although it may seem counterproductive to stress a healthy plant, doing so can actually help your grow. This book explains why and demonstrates safe ways for you to begin stressing your plants.

You may have noticed certain oddly shaped cultivars before and questioned why producers decide to dramatically alter the structure of their plants when there is a possible risk. If you play your cards well, the outcomes can be more than pleasing because high risk equals big profit.

Fortunately, you don’t have to experience the same tension from high stress training methods. Even though certain plants can withstand a lot of abuse, it’s crucial to move slowly and not have unrealistic expectations. You should take additional care when modifying the shape of your plants to prevent severe damage from occurring.

1. High Stress Training (HST): What Is It?

Similar to low stress training (LST), high stress training (HST) entails more intense manipulation. To obtain the appropriate plant shape and size, HST can be carried out in a variety of methods and is frequently combined with LST procedures. When using high stress procedures, we frequently need to repeatedly cut, bend, or shatter plant parts while allowing recuperation time between each treatment.

The goal of high stress tactics is to undermine the plant’s apical dominance by making it aware of its own height. The topmost bloom is where a plant concentrates its energy. This is how it reproduces since it has easier access to light and it enhances the chance that pollen will land.

A canna bis plant will naturally have a single long main stem from which alternating branches will sprout. We enable hormones to be delivered more uniformly across the tops of a plant by inhibiting the main cola from extending higher and managing the lower branches to catch up in height. As a result, the canopy is even, and the buds are around the same size. Because the top buds receive more light and have higher chemical activity, they can create more resinous goodness.

2. The Advantages of Herb and HST

You might be aware of how effectively your plants are able to mend themselves if you’ve ever unintentionally twisted a branch on one of them. A herb plant’s response mechanism works assiduously to repair any damage, just like the human body does. Wounds frequently become stronger after they have healed. In the afflicted areas, new, stronger cells proliferate, typically leaving a scar or deformity.

Similar to humans, plants operate in a similar manner and constantly strive to maintain homeostasis, or balance. Any stress they experience may lead them to adjust in an effort to solve the issue as quickly as feasible. When applied in a controlled manner, stress can actually strengthen and harden a plant.

There are many benefits to experimenting with high stress training, aside from the fact that it makes your plants stronger. Without some very good justifications, we wouldn’t be employing this method. Let’s discuss the rationale behind a grower’s use of HST to canna bis plants.

More T H C, Greater Yield, More Top Buds, Greater Space Utilisation, Size Control, and Increased Yield

3. Are my plants safe from HST?

Keep in mind that we are stressing the plants here, so anything might go wrong. It is advised that HST be administered gradually in the most hygienic way possible because too much stress might harm a plant. The plant is particularly vulnerable to infection when a large amount of foliage is removed all at once or when too many branches are bent. If the grow environment is not totally clean and pest-free, open wounds may pose a health concern.

In order for the plant to concentrate its energy on expanding and healing itself, the environment must also be kept in good condition. While using training approaches, temperature or humidity imbalances could hinder the process and cause growth to be severely stunted due to other issues. The majority of growers train their plants during the vegetative and pre-flowering stages so that they have plenty of time to recover before they fully bloom.

With the majority of strains, it is safe to apply LST and HST, but you must adhere to a few straightforward rules to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible.

• Determine whether your strains can withstand stress procedures.
• After each training session, sterilise your equipment.
• Wait until the plant has recovered before adding further stress.
• Maintain consistent growing conditions.

4. How to Carry Out High Stress Exercise

We’ll talk about how to train a canna bis plant under extreme stress in the following part. The method you use to apply stress will depend on your goal and the available space. There isn’t a single right technique to do it. Maybe you’re just attempting to keep your plant from growing too tall, or maybe you want to make more sticky top buds.

Pruning/Defoliation

Defoliation is a process in which a lot of leaves that are grown at the branch internodes are removed. The purpose of this is to minimise the energy used to maintain lower leaves on the plant that don’t get enough light. The plant’s vitality can be directed to the tops, where light is available in the greatest amounts, by removing leaves that are not fulfilling their function well.

Fan leaves frequently obstruct locations where additional exposure might be beneficial. We can increase the amount of light reaching lower-level bud locations on the plant by removing some of the foliage. Because the plant doesn’t have to work as hard to ‘search’ for light, this can prevent excessive stretching. Additionally, the airflow will be significantly boosted, enabling you to more effectively control the humidity levels around the plant.

Performing Defoliation:

1. Begin during the vegetative phase and progress gradually.
2. Make use of sterile, razor-sharp clippers or scissors.
3. Avoid trimming the tops of the leaves. begin at the base.
4. Start by removing the bottom 20% of the leaves, which includes fan leaves.
5. Attend to the plant’s recovery.
6. After that, prune plant parts that could need more light and ventilation. Make sure not to remove an excessive number of leaves.

     5. Topping

To manage plant height in indoor cultivation, the topping method is frequently utilised. Cutting off the new growth at the top of the main stem or lateral branches is known as topping. As a result, the side shoots directly below the cut can mature into primary colas. You can top off those two new colas once more to make four colas. As long as you give the plant enough time to recover between each topping, you are free to repeat this procedure as many times as you desire.

A plant with topping develops a short, bushy, and wide structure. LST is typically applied after topping to help lower branches grow to the same height and eventually flatten the canopy.

Performing a topping:

1. Don’t top the plant until it has five or six nodes.
2. Sanitise your scissors or clippers.
3. Remove the fresh growth just above the two newest shoots, leaving a tiny stump.
4. After the plant has displayed consistent growth for 1–2 weeks, top it once again. If desired, you can also top lateral branches.
5. Continue until you have the required number of colas.

6. FIMing

The FIM technique, also known as “Fuck I Missed,” is essentially topping gone bad with an unexpectedly good result. The procedure for FIMing is the same as for topping, except that the leaves are removed from the top of the main stem rather than the entire top shoot of new growth. Due to the fact that we are not cutting off a part of the body’s primary circulation, recovering from FIMing is significantly quicker than recovering from topping.

When part of the top is removed, the plant’s upward development is stopped, and the stress causes it to grow outward by producing new shoots. From the FIMmed site, this procedure can generate 2, and if you’re lucky, 4 branches.

Performing FIMing:

1. Use your thumb and forefinger to pinch the top of your plant so you can quickly and easily chop through the new growth.
2. With sterile clippers or scissors, remove between 70 and 80 percent of the fresh leaves in a single, precise cut. You should reserve 20% or such.
3. Watch for fresh growth for 3 to 5 days.
4. Repeat on additional branches to produce more colas

      7. Super cropping

If you’ve ever grown outdoors, you may have witnessed its amazing capacity to heal itself. Branch damage from strong winds can be quite severe, frequently bending the branches at odd angles. Canna bis plants can easily fix kinks and minor breakage thanks to their need to survive; you’ll be shocked at how quickly they recover.

Super cropping is the process of bending stems at a 90-degree angle to force the plant to grow horizontally rather than vertically. By doing this, the plant concentrates on healing, strengthening the branches for later, heavier bud formation. A branch that has been bent or twisted can heal entirely in a matter of days.

Affected portions can heal even stronger than they were before if the damage isn’t too severe, meaning the branch hasn’t totally broken off. The scar grows thick and knuckle-like, supporting and shielding the branch. Additionally, the horizontal development permits lower buds to get more light.

The Best Way To Super crop:

1. Thoroughly wash your hands.
2. Pick out the highest branches. Usually, the main stem is super cropped first to give the lesser branches a chance to catch up.
3. Gently rub or roll the portion of the stem you intend to bend using your thumb and forefinger. By working out the outside fibres, this warms and softens the interior.
4. Bend or fold the stem or branch in the desired direction and position at the soft spot.
5. Until the bent part has healed, support the branch.
6. The branch will want to grow vertically again after two to three days, so you might need to tie it down.

Advice: After the first two or three weeks of flowering, supercropping techniques should not be used.

8. Mainlining

In mainlining, the majority of a plant’s lower growth is removed, leaving only the upper buds. All of the lower leaves, branches, popcorn buds, and other little blooms that are not a part of the canopy are included in this.

Applying this method gradually is very crucial to prevent plants from becoming overly stressed or from having too many open wounds at once.

Typically, mainlining is combined with additional training methods like topping. LST can also be utilised on its own. Growers frequently top their plants, apply LST, and wait for them to recover before mainlining. By removing foliage in this way, the plant’s energy is directed upward, producing only primary buds. Harvesting is made incredibly simple by it.

Performing Mainlining:

1. Hold off until your plant develops five to six nodes.
2. Sanitise your scissors or clippers.
3. Trim down the plant to the third node.
4. Starting at the bottom, remove all foliage and branching that extends up to the third node. Ensure that 1 or 2 sets of fan leaves are left.
5. Secure the third node’s two remaining branches.
6. New branches can be topped once the plant has healed and recovered. It is best to top in a symmetrical pattern.
7. Continue until you have as many tops as you want.

Advice: You don’t necessary need to dispose of the cut-off shoots. Any stems that have been chopped should be kept in case you want to use them for clones.

9. Lollipopping

Even though it’s advised to use as little stress as possible while your plants are in bloom, occasionally a little bit can help. It has been demonstrated that a little stress during flowering can actually increase a plant’s productivity. Lollipopping accomplishes this. It makes sense to eliminate them so the parts of the plant getting light can function even more effectively and ultimately create bigger buds rather than wasting energy on leaves and flowers that will never fully mature anyhow.

It’s crucial to avoid removing too many popcorn buds from your plants in order to properly lollipop them. It is advisable not to eliminate more than 50% of the growth because doing so can put too much stress on your plant. This method is typically used in the second or third week of flowering. If the popcorn buds are applied too early in veg, they can just come back before blooming.

How to Lollipop:

1. Clean or sterilise scissors or clippers.
2. You can either get rid of growth all at once or progressively each day.
3. Take out 30% of the lowest leaves and popcorn buds, working your way up from the bottom. Remove no more than 50%.
4. Wait until your plant has recovered before stressing it once again (adding stress during flowering is not advised).

10. Associated Risks With HST

Of course, there are dangers associated with HST. Be mindful that overtraining your plants during flowering, especially late flowering, may produce stress from which they are unable to fully recover. By the time the stretch period during the pre-flowering stage is concluded, the majority of training need to be finished. Your plants should be in peak condition so they can concentrate on developing buds.

Make sure to use extra caution when doing HST to prevent several bothersome issues:

• Hermaphrodites are an issue, especially if a plant experiences stress too late in the flowering process. Keep in mind that certain plants are more resilient to stress than others. Select hardy types that are resistant to pests and mould.
• Mould – If things are not kept hygienic, manipulating your plant too vigorously too frequently raises the risk of mould because wounds become the ideal breeding ground for harmful germs.
• Broken Stems – While using stress management strategies, it’s easy to unintentionally snap off a whole branch or bud. Although MaryJane can withstand some rough and tumble, be careful not to overdo it.

Conclusion

If you’ve grown MaryJane before, stress management techniques are absolutely worth researching. Although accepting it can be challenging, after you’ve tried HST, you’ll have a greater understanding of your strains and their capabilities. If you persevere, you’ll get bigger harvests and be able to produce more herbs in a smaller area.

Credit to: JoshuaHolt