Hey everyone, some of you may be unaware of what happens when you "top" a plant or use "LST" to bend over the top of a stem.
Plants have hormones named "Auxins". One of these Auxin is a hormone that is produced ONLY by the tallest growing tip of the plant. The plant "knows" which is the tallest, and studies have shown that they have a remarkable ability to recognize even a half inch difference between tip height.
This "top" Auxin makes that stem of the plant grow stronger and faster than any other stems on the plant.
When you "top" a plant, you've caused the plant to seek a new "top" stem. It takes a few days for the Auxin to reach maximum strength and be dedicated to a new "top". That's why the entire plant will start growing faster after being topped or LST has been performed on it.
Once the new "top" has been assigned by the plant, the rest of the plant will slow down while the new "top" will become the dominant stem.
When topped, two stems will usually come from the point at which you've topped the plant. The "dominant" Auxin will be split between these two stems until one becomes faster growing than the other. At that point, the tallest of the two stems will be the dominant stem.
This is all important, because the stem with this "dominant" Auxin will form the largest, most potent bud on the plant.
A MJ growers technique is to top the plant just after starting flowering so that the plant creates equal Auxins in each of the two forming buds. This will make both of the buds slightly larger than they would have been.
Using LST to boost side growth is just another way of using this "dominant" Auxin to make your plants have more stem tips to bud.
I hope this helped explain this phenomenon to each of you, and helps you improve your yields.
Just in case another person is aware of the other side of the story, about half of the scientists believe that this Auxin is an inhibitor to growth in any stem except the main and half believe as I do that the Auxin is a growth stimulator to the main.
Neither has been proven conclusively. I just choose to believe the latter.
A very good article about Plant Auxins is at:
CLICK HERE