Plant training techniques reshape how a plant grows so more of its energy and light exposure goes toward developing flowers rather than wasted vegetative mass. Left untrained, a plant grows in a natural pyramid shape, with the top receiving most of the light while lower branches sit in shade and produce little. Training flattens and restructures the canopy so more bud sites get direct light. This guide covers four popular techniques — lollipopping, mainlining, SCROG and LST — and where each one sits on the stress scale.
🌿 Low-stress vs high-stress training
Plant training techniques generally fall into one of two categories. Low-stress training (LST) bends and ties down branches without cutting anything, so the plant barely notices and recovers within a day or two. High-stress training (HST) involves cutting, pruning or deliberately damaging plant tissue — topping, lollipopping and super cropping are all HST techniques, and each one needs a proper recovery window before you train again.
Some popular methods, like mainlining and SCROG, combine both: a topping cut (HST) early on to split the plant into multiple main stems, followed by bending and tying (LST) to spread those stems out flat. Super cropping — pinching and bending a branch until the inner tissue is damaged without breaking the outer skin — is another common HST method, used to make stems more pliable for weaving into a screen. Knowing which parts of a technique are HST helps you time your training correctly and avoid stacking stress-inducing cuts too close together.
As a general rule, HST techniques belong in the vegetative stage, where the plant has time to recover before it needs to put its energy into flowering. LST adjustments can continue safely into flower, since there’s no open wound or cut tissue to heal.
✂️ Lollipopping
Lollipopping is a defoliation technique that removes the lower branches and foliage that sit in shade and would only produce small, underdeveloped buds. Stripping this growth back leaves the plant looking like a lollipop — bare stem below, dense foliage and bud sites above — and redirects the plant’s energy to the flowers that will actually get harvested.
Because it involves cutting live growth, lollipopping is classed as a high-stress technique. It’s typically done once the plant has moved into flowering and its bud sites are established, so you’re removing genuinely unproductive growth rather than potential yield.
💡 A-Grade Tip: Use a clean, sharp pair of pruning scissors and sterilise the blades between cuts — a ragged cut heals more slowly and gives pathogens an easier entry point into the stem.
🌳 Mainlining and manifolding
Mainlining (also called manifolding) uses a series of topping cuts early in the vegetative stage to split a single main stem into a symmetrical set of main branches — commonly 4, 8 or 16 — each roughly equal in size. Because every branch originates from the same point, nutrient and water distribution ends up more even across the whole plant, which supports uniform bud development at harvest.
The technique was developed and named by a grower known online as Nugbuckets, and combines topping (HST) with tie-downs (LST) to hold the resulting branches flat and level. Training takes place during veg, since a younger plant recovers from topping faster and is easier to shape than an established one. The trade-off for the larger, more uniform yield is a longer vegetative period before flipping to flower.
🕸️ SCROG (Screen of Green)
SCROG involves stretching a horizontal trellis net above a vegging plant and weaving new branches through the squares as they grow, keeping the canopy flat and at a consistent height. Many growers top the plant first to encourage more branches to fill the screen, combining an HST cut with the LST weaving that follows.
Once the screen is full, growth underneath the canopy is shaded and won’t develop properly, so it’s cleared out — thin stems and weak growth in the shade layer are removed to focus the plant’s resources on what’s above the net. SCROG is particularly effective in height-restricted spaces, since it caps vertical growth while maximising the useable canopy area.
💡 A-Grade Tip: Install your trellis net 20–30cm above the growing medium so you have room to weave branches as they lengthen, rather than retrofitting a screen onto plants that have already outgrown the gap.
🪢 LST: bending and tying down
Low-stress training is the simplest technique on this list — gently bending branches and tying them down (to the pot rim, stakes or a trellis) to keep the plant short and encourage lateral growth instead of vertical. Because nothing is cut, recovery is minimal and it’s a good starting point for growers new to plant training.
LST is also the technique underlying both SCROG (weaving branches through a screen) and the final shaping stage of mainlining, so learning it well pays off even if you move on to a more involved method later.
🤔 Which Plant Training Technique Should You Use?
Lollipopping, mainlining and the topping stage of SCROG are high-stress techniques that need a genuine recovery period, while LST on its own is low-risk and beginner-friendly. Most experienced growers combine methods — mainlining or topping early in veg, then LST and SCROG to shape the canopy, and lollipopping once flowering is underway. Browse A-Grade Hydroponics’ range of trellis netting, plant supports and pruning tools to get started on your next training cycle.
