Plant Training is Effective and Productive Technique

    Simple and Easy Plan Training in the Exact Size and Shap

plastic support net on vertical
Apply the plant training to your crops you will get more benefits to your harvest.

 

The primary goal of every breeder or gardener is to increase the production and use the maximum of available space. Plant training is an ideal solution in all the cases where space is limited. The greatest advantage is that there’s no need for upgrading light, the setting or air circulation. The process is simple and easy but it has several stages one should pay attention to. As a final result, the yield could be up to 40% bigger in compare with untrained plants. During the plant training, the breeder bends stems gently and ties them in place. In this way, multiple buds have been created that use the light efficiently. The setting remains unchanged in general but the yield is higher. The procedure is not at all heavy and you can do it all alone. Size and shape of your plants are not predetermined, and you can train your plants in any wanted shape or size. You can also grow your plants flat or along the net. In both cases, side buds will be exposed to the equal quantity of light. With only main bud exposed to light, the productivity of your crop will be limited. More buds growing in the same environment lead consequently to the higher production. Producing plants of the exact size and shape provides a standard for the yield. Especially indoor crops show excellent results of the plant training without additional space and light.

Complete Control over Your Crop

support net providing vertical support to eggplant
With the support net your crops improve the quality and the health of the crops.

 

Whether your crop is outdoor or indoor, plant training enables a lot of manipulation. If you apply this technique you prevent the plants grow bigger than they should. Stems remain even and you get more buds from the light. No changes to your set up are necessary. Having a complete control over your crop reduces risks. Much better distribution of light and air around the plant is possible through the proper distance between stems. For that reason, sides of the plant can produce large and numerous buds. To implement plant training on your crop, you will need garden wire or soft twine. They will hold the plants in place without doing any harm. Shorter plants catch the growing light or the sun faster and easier. Tomato ring or bamboo stake can also be implemented with this technique as an additional support. Pinching off the tops of the plants is not necessary but it is helpful. On the other side, any kind of cutting is stressful for the plants so you can simply bend the tops as you have done with the side branches.

bird barrier installed on beach
The bird net can protect the crops and avoid that the birds destroy your harvest.

After you have trained the plants, you should take their protection into consideration and apply bird netting. It is the reliable system in making a safe environment for your plants. Sometimes, only one small bite is enough to lower the quality of the fruits. Usually, far more than only one plant has been ruined. If your crop doesn’t meet the required standards, the overall productivity comes into question. Bird netting prevents birds from picking the plants. Complete control over your crop includes optimal growing conditions and protection from pests at the same time.

Trellis netting is the sophisticated procedure of acquiring optimal environment for training vertically growing plants. It is adjustable to a different size and space, and it can be made in the largest variety of shapes in accordance with breeder’s requirements. Vine vegetables, such as cucumbers and tomatoes need trellis netting to grow off the ground. Serving as a supporter, it is more stable than supporters for single plants. The implementation is simple and easy and it is reusable in the next season. It is recommended to install it just after the seeding when stems are small and only a couple of centimeters high.

Techniques that Pay off

Plant training is affordable and it is a small investment of your time that will certainly pay off. You should think about the type of your crop to know exactly up to which height you want to train it. The procedure varies from basic options that require no time and almost no technique to the more complicated procedures for larger spaces. In any case, lower side branches should be able to grow and flourish with enough light. Plants that are too tall to bend need to undergo the procedure of softening before they bend at a sharp angle. This technique of the plant training is called super-cropping. Sometimes, it is implemented by the plants that have gone out of the control. The screen of green is also one technique that includes screen over the plants. Most of the trainers are suitable to support heavy plants and buds. If you want the buds to grow as big as possible, you can apply defoliation – a method of strategically removing leaves on indoor-grown plants.

Smaller Plants are More Productive

trellis net installed on cropfield
The net is a resistant net able to provide to yuor crops the best support for that they can get the best growth.

The main idea of plant training is to grow numerous small plants instead of several big ones. This method shortens the time of the growth for few weeks. That means you can get more than one harvest per year with certain sorts. Enabling your crop optimal environment is not enough to acquire higher productivity. Keep in mind protection of bird pests and the fact that not all plants are growing in the same way. Some of them give the best results if trained flat while others are to be grown vertically using different kinds of nets. Grow lights or the sun often distribute unequally producing uneven growth of the plants. Training prevents the unequal distribution of light by spreading plants over the available space so they can have a necessary light on the top and on the sides. Side light increases the productivity supporting the growth of side buds instead of only the top ones.


Produce Certain Results with Help of Plant Training

            Plant training to produce higher yields, reduce the incidence of disease and make caring and harvesting the plants easier

Plant training is a technique used by agriculturalists to produce certain results. Often the purpose is for bigger and better yields, but plant training is not limited to this aspect. It involves the physical manipulation of the plant for a purpose. The plant training technique is directly related to that certain purpose. Plants can be propped up, the buds can be pinched, the stems can be twisted or tied to change the shape of the plant, sections of the plant can be cut or pruned, and the plants can be thinned or spread apart. In industrial or in larger garden applications two other training techniques maximize the production of the plant. Horticulture netting can support plants off the ground or a scrog net can be used.

 

What it is Not?

It does not involve genetically modifying the plant. It has nothing to do with types of fertilizers or improving environmental conditions for the plants such as adding grow lights.

 

Common Examples of Plant Training Techniques

Look in almost any backyard garden and you can see the tomato cages cradling this very common plant. The support serves many purposes. It holds the leaves up to the light while supporting the delicate stems. But most importantly, it keeps the fruit up off the ground where it may otherwise rot. Often cucumber buds are pinched so that the plant grows bushier, thereby producing more buds and ultimately more fruit.

 

In the flower garden, the trellis provides support for the climbing flowering plants such as the clematis. The gardener ties or twists the stem around sections of the trellis for a pleasing result.

Pruning of the hedge has several results. It allows the pruner to achieve the desired shape while it promotes the growth of more stems so that the hedge is now thicker. Sometimes pruning is done in order that the fruit can be accessed easier. Routinely apple orchards prune their trees to assist in the harvesting of the fruit.

 

The tiny seeds of many vegetables such as beans are started in a bed with each plant close to its neighbor. But as the plants expand, it is prudent to spread them apart or thin them so that they have the proper space in which to grow.

 

Industrial Applications

Scrog nets and horticulture netting are often used in industrial or larger garden situations. A scrog net is a grid of stiff open weaved wire that is placed just above the young plant. As the plant grows, it pokes through this grid work. From that point, the worker or care taker is able to tie the stem so the plant will grow horizontally. As the plant matures, from the one stem now more branches will develop. And with the more branches, the one plant produces more flowers, fruit and seeds. Note that the production of the buds from the screen level results in a similar height for all of the buds.

 

If you are growing plants using an artificial light source, the additional benefit is that all of the buds receive the same amount of light. Thus more control of environmental conditions is achieved. This scrog net is easy to build, doesn’t require any special skills from the workers and needs only a minimum of tools. It also has the benefit of a very open hexagonal weave which provides aeration for the plants thus reducing the likelihood of mold production. Serrano pepper, roma & cherry tomato and tamarillo plants produce fruit very well with this method.

 

Horticulture netting has many pluses as well. It too has an open weave but it is made of polypropylene and is hung vertically. One of the biggest advantages over tying the stem is that with the net since the fruit or flowers just lean on the net for support, the growth of the delicate stem is not constricted at all. Squash, pumpkin, watermelon, and cucumber benefit from using the netting. In addition, the fruit is up off the ground which means less rot and easy harvesting.

 

Bonsai

A very specialized group of plant training techniques is involved in producing the beautiful and artistic bonsai. Branches are pruned to enhance the plant’s appearance. Stems are held in place by a wire structure to achieve a variety of fantastic shapes. Later the wire is removed, once the bonsai has been trained to remain in that shape. Often it takes years to achieve the desired results.

 

Cannabis

A renewed interest in plant training techniques has taken place in the cannabis industry. An Internet search of the term results in several top articles about growing these plants. Specifically, the plant can be trained to produce more buds in several ways. One very easy way is to tie the stem of the very young plant so that it grows almost horizontally. From this one stem many more branches grow.  In appearance the plant resembles more of a cannabis bush, however when left alone, the plant will produce only one stem per plant. With the addition of a scrog net, the stem can be secured in several places thus allowing the growers to control the height of all the buds, making the use of grow lights more effective for every plant. Pinching the top bud to produce more stems and buds is common as well.

 

Scientific evidence supports the use of plant training. Studies around the world show that plant training methods produce higher yields while reducing the incidence of disease and as an added bonus often make caring for the plants and harvesting the plants easier for the workers. In industrial applications, the use of scrog nets and horticulture netting is utilized with great results. Since plants are used in a myriad of ways, people have developed many other training methods to enhance their growth.