Growing Chemdawg with LST
Low-stress training tames Chemdawg's tall, stretchy structure into an even canopy that fits indoor tents and yields better.
Chemdawg is a stretchy, vigorous plant that punishes lazy training. LST — bending and tying branches down without cutting — is the lowest-risk way to keep it manageable indoors and to even out colas. It genuinely helps with light distribution and canopy height. The 'LST doubles your yield' claims you see on grow forums are folklore; the realistic gain over an untrained plant is more modest but consistent, especially in small tents.
What LST is
Low-stress training (LST) is the practice of gently bending branches outward and downward and securing them, instead of cutting them off. The goal is to break apical dominance — the hormonal preference plants have for growing one tall central stem — so that lower branches rise to the same height and receive comparable light [1][2]. Unlike topping, FIMing, or super-cropping, LST does not wound the plant, so there is no recovery period and no significant stress response Strong evidence.
Chemdawg is a notoriously tall, lanky cultivar with a strong central cola and pronounced flowering stretch [3][4]. Left untrained in a 4x4 tent, it will commonly hit the light before flower is half done. LST is the standard, low-risk fix.
Why growers use LST on Chemdawg
Three concrete reasons:
- Height control. Chemdawg phenotypes can stretch 2–3x their pre-flower size [4] Weak / limited. Bending the main stem horizontally early buys you headroom you cannot get back later.
- Even canopy = even light. Cannabis yield correlates strongly with intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) [1] Strong evidence. A flat canopy puts more bud sites in the high-intensity zone directly under the light.
- No wound, no setback. Unlike topping, LST does not pause vegetative growth, which matters with a slow-to-finish cultivar like Chemdawg (typically 9–10 weeks of flower) [3].
What LST does not do: it does not change cannabinoid content, terpene profile, or potency. Claims that training 'stresses the plant into more THC' are folklore No data.
When to start and stop
Start when the plant has 3–5 nodes and the main stem is still flexible — usually 2–3 weeks from seed or 1–2 weeks after a clone has rooted. Young stems bend without snapping; older, woody stems do not.
Continue throughout veg, retying every few days as new growth lifts upward. Chemdawg responds well to a long veg with progressive bending.
Stop new aggressive bends around the end of the stretch phase, typically week 2–3 of 12/12 Weak / limited. After that, branches become brittle and buds are heavy enough that bending risks breakage. You can still add gentle support ties to hold colas up.
How to do it, step by step
- Wait for the right stage. 3rd or 4th node, stem slightly flexible, not yet woody.
- Identify the main stem. This is your first bend target.
- Anchor your tie point. Use the rim of a fabric pot (push a tie through the fabric), a stake in soil, or holes in a plastic pot. Avoid tying to the stem of the same plant — it pulls roots.
- Bend gently and horizontally. Push the top of the main stem sideways and down until it is roughly level with the lower branches. Secure with a soft plant tie (coated garden wire or velcro plant tape). Never use bare wire on stems.
- Wait 1–3 days. The tip will turn upward toward the light. This is the desired response.
- Repeat on side branches. As lower branches grow up, bend them outward to create a wheel-spoke shape. The goal is a flat, even canopy.
- Tuck and retie every 2–4 days during veg.
- Defoliate sparingly. Remove only fan leaves that are clearly shading bud sites. Heavy defoliation is a separate, more controversial practice Disputed.
- Transition to flower with the canopy already flat. Add a SCROG net at this point if you want to lock everything in place [2].
A single Chemdawg plant trained this way will typically fill a 2x2 or half of a 4x4 footprint with 8–15 evenly-sized colas instead of one dominant top.
Common mistakes
- Bending too late. Once the stem is woody, you will hear a crack. At that point you are super-cropping, not LST.
- Using thin wire or twist ties directly on the stem. It cuts in as the stem thickens. Use soft, wide ties and check them weekly.
- Tying to the plant itself. Pulling on one branch with another transmits force to the root ball.
- Over-defoliating to 'help' LST. LST works because of light geometry, not because of leaf removal. Strip too much and you slow the plant down Weak / limited.
- Bending during flower stretch and then stopping. Chemdawg keeps stretching for ~2 weeks of 12/12; if you tie it flat on day 1 of flower and walk away, you will be retying frantically on day 14. Plan for continued growth.
- Assuming LST fixes a bad environment. If your VPD, light intensity, or nutrients are off, training will not save the grow.
Related techniques
LST is one tool in a family of canopy-management techniques. Combinations worth knowing:
- Topping / FIM: Cutting the apical tip to force two (or more) main colas. Higher stress, but pairs well with LST on vigorous cultivars like Chemdawg.
- SCROG (Screen of Green): A horizontal net that mechanically enforces a flat canopy. Essentially LST at scale.
- Super-cropping: Pinching and bending stems until the inner tissue collapses, then letting them heal in the new position. Higher risk, useful late in veg when stems are woody.
- Mainlining / manifolding: A structured topping-plus-LST protocol that produces a symmetrical 8- or 16-cola plant.
For Chemdawg specifically, the most common pairing is top once + LST throughout veg, which controls height without sacrificing the long flowering window the cultivar needs to finish.
Sources
- Peer-reviewed Chandra, S., Lata, H., ElSohly, M. A. (eds). (2017). Cannabis sativa L. - Botany and Biotechnology. Springer. Chapters on cultivation and light interception.
- Peer-reviewed Danziger, N., Bernstein, N. (2021). Plant architecture manipulation increases cannabis crop yield via a reduction in apical dominance. Industrial Crops and Products, 167, 113528.
- Reported Leafly Strain Database. 'Chemdawg' strain profile, including grower notes on height, stretch, and flowering time.
- Book Cervantes, J. (2015). The Cannabis Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to Cultivation & Consumption of Medical Marijuana. Van Patten Publishing. Sections on training and Chemdawg-family genetics.
- Peer-reviewed Eaves, J., Eaves, S., Morphy, C., Murray, C. (2020). The relationship between light intensity, cannabis yields, and profitability. Agronomy Journal, 112(2), 1466–1470.
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