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Now lets talk about the scrog for a little bit here. What is a scrog? What is
screen of green? Well, it is just that. A screen is the main character of scrog.
It is usually made of wire or something sturdy enough to hold back the growing
canopy. This wire should have some holes in it about 2x2inches in size so that
the plant mater can easily grow up through the wire and be supported by it. The
wire is secured between the grow medium and the lamp at a distance determined by
the size of your lamp. We will get into that later. The plants grow through the
screen about 3-4 inches and then are pulled back under and spread out where YOU
want them to grow. Its as easy as that folks. Its a great way to grow. Let me
put it this way. I have tried untrained methods like SOG and have never come
close to the yeild I get with a scrog. Okay, sounds easy right? So, what are you
waiting for?
Getting Started
This is the hard part. Getting started. Damned if it ain't for me man. I spend
hours thinkin of shit before I do it. lol Anyway, this isnt rocket science. If
you've already got an area where you established plants growing you are halfway
there.
The SCREEN
Remember at least 2x2inch squares. You can use chicken wire as well or even some
tightly strug rope but I would suggest wire. You need something strong to
support the buds and hold back the canopy growth. The screen needs to be cut to
size. The size of the screen is determined by the size of your lamp. Remember
that to get the good bud formation you want from 50 watts per square foot so
your screen size should not exceed that. Check the examples below.
150hps screen size 1.75ft x 1.75ft
250hps screen size 2.25ft x 2.25ft
400hps screen size 2.91ft x 2.75ft
600hps screen size 3.45ft x 3.45ft
1000hps screen size 4.4ft x 4.5ft
If your screen exceeds the 50wpsf thing alittle. Thats perfectly okay. Just dont
overdoit. lol Now once you've determined the size of your screen and cut it to
size. Situate it over your grow area and secure it into place. Just a few screws
will hold it in place. Your mounting a screen. Not a twenty pound wall painting.
lol.....Wait just a minute! You need to figure out where to set the screen.
First, a few questions to ask. Is your lamp air cooled and what size is your
lamp? These two questions determine how close you can get to your canopy. This
is very important stuff. The closer you get the better off you are. If you do
not have air cooled lamps then a simple fan blowing between the canopy and the
the lamp should do the trick. Okay, now lets set that screen. Here's some
examples of screen settings for hps's. These are not exact settings. They are
just a baseline idea. If you can get your lamp closer. Good for you. If you
can't. Thats okay too. Dont worry. If you've got the right watts per footage
they will produce.
150hps 10-12 inches
250hps 12-15 inches
400hps 16-20 inches
600hps 20+
1000hps 24+
Your Plants
How Many Will I Need Under The Screen? Usually the rule is one plant per square
foot of screen. I go with as few plants as I can whenever possible. One side of
my flower chamber is almost 3x3ft. Thats almost 9 sqft. I only have 6 plants
under there and the screens are pretty full. So, the rule does not always need
to be followed. Having less plants can be a good thing if they happen to
discover your illegal activity..lol.....Remember with fewer plants you will have
to veg a bit longer but be patient and hang in there. Its well worth the wait.
Spacing Lets talk about the spacing between the plant medium and the screen.
This space will need to be large enough to allow you room to manipulate your
plants during the training phase. I usually use around 8 inches. Some people use
more/less. Eight seems to be just enough for me but when working in a 3x3ft
space it is still a tight space for a big guy. lol.....
What Is The Best Strain To Grow In A Scrog? Now lets talk about your plants
alittle bit. What kind should you be growing in a scrog you ask? Hmmmmm. Well,
any kind your heart desires my friend. That's right. Most any plant strain can
be grown without much difficulty using a scrog. The secret is in the screen.
Some strains require more training than others but that is the only difference.
Heavy yeild indica's are excellent scrog candidates but the unruley sativa can
really shine with proper training and timing.
Hydro or Soil?
So, how are you going to do this scrog? Is it going to bubble, flow or just sit
there? Here's some things you may consider before your plants get tangled up in
the screen.
Hydro: No real problem here. I prefer to scrog with a bubbler system over soil
anyday. The problem lies in the flush. I explain below.
Soil: Soil grows and scrogs are a wonderful thing. Orgainc buds rule. One
problem I ran into when scroging with soil was the flushing of the medium at the
end of the grow. Well, with the plants tangled in the screen. One can not just
transport to the sink and flush. My soil buckets drain into catch pans. Then I
have to drain the catch pans. Takes a while but it works. Hydro is much easier
though.
Okay man, you just did something that will almost double your yeild in the next
sixty days. So, how do you feel about that? The screen is set. Now its time to
move on to other things. Lets take a look at whats going to happen when these
babies start to grow through the screen.
Managing the Scrog Grow
You have done some things that are a little out of the ordinary from your usual
grow regiem. Things look a little different. A wire screen has invaded your grow
space and it looks weird in there. Maybe you even have a few inches growth
through the screen. What in the fuck am I gonna do now? lol.......Be cool man.
Here's where the real fun begins and were the beauty of scrog growing starts.
Vegging: Here is where alot of people make mistakes. They get in a fired up
hurry and get confused somehow. Flip their shit over to 12/12 way to soon and
wonder why their screen never filled up. At that point the screen is nothing
more than a support system for the plant. Normally one would veg a plant till
the screen is 70-80 percent full before switching over to the flowering cycle.
Having knowlege of how much your strain stretches is helpful when determining
when to switch to flowering. For example: If one had a very stretchy sativa. You
would want to start flowering her with much less of the screen filled. Just the
opposite for a nice stunted indica. Timing has alot to do with scrog. We go over
that soon.
Pulling It Back Through: Okay, so you've got some growth through the screen.
Should have about 3-4 inches aye? Don't be a pussy here. lol....... If it
breaks. I'll explain what to do later. Reach under the screen and pull that
branch back under the screen and place it where you want it to be. Even if it
takes tying it in place with the plastic twisty ties. Now I could really get
technical and shit and start with the be sure there is an internode in each hole
of the screen but it really doesnt matter man. Just get the growth under the
screen first. In the next few weeks. You will see were to guide the new growth
to best suit your needs.
Training: This can seem brutal to some. lol........ Scrog is not natural growth
for the cannabis plant. I am sure of that. It must stress the shit out of them
the whole cycle of life. Imagine taking a plant that usually grows anywhere from
3-12 feet and making it grow in a space no larger than 2 foot. Training begings
in the pulling it back through section. Try to situate your main branches
towards the barest parts of your screen. They will branch out the most and
usually be the largest bud in the bunch. Use some kind of uniformity to your
laying out of the branches. Crisscross/ zigzag whatever you use. Remember theres
are going to be alot more branching when flowering kicks in high gear. So allow
some room for that as well. Lesser buds that are now exposed to more light are
then encouraged to grow upwards toward the screen through some leaf triming. An
often debated subject but one I feel that is usefull in the scrog method.
Leaf Trimming: Now we need to chat about a touchy subject. Leaf triming. Like I
said above. Scrog aint natural for cannabis. At least I dont think it is.
Crammed in such a small area with all those leaves. Well, somethings gotta give
and its not going to be bud. lol......Here's my rule on trimming. If the leaf is
in the way of light for a bud site. Then it needs to be removed. Sometimes I
tuck the leaf instead of removing it but most of the time I remove it. Now, when
do I do this? Usually when I do a training session. Right afterwards. This trims
away leaves and allows the new sites to get light. You will be surprised at how
fast they will respond. Use good judgement when trimming. To much is not a good
thing here.
Trimming continues into flowering ending during the later stages of flowering. I
have found it not to be harmful at all to remove large fan leaves from buds
during flowering. If they are blocking light to other bud sites near by. Its all
about light penetration and bud sites in a scrog.
Timing: Timing is critical when it comes to a scrog grow. You must be paying
attention to the progress of your grow in order to know when to induce
flowering. Knowing what strain you are dealing with and what the growing
characteristices of the plant are is very helpful when it comes to timing. I
cant express the importance of having a good clone base for this purpose. As
mentioned above if you induce flowering to early. You will have alot less of a
yield. However, if one was to wait to long. The same can happen as well. An
overcrowed canopy is just as much a mess. An out of control scrog is just that.
A mess. Not something you want to deal with. Remember, the plants you start to
flower are probably going to double in size. Stand back and get a visual picture
of that in your head. Ask yourself some questions. If I start flowering now. Can
I visualize how big they will get? Do I have enough veggative growth to start
flowering? Do I have to much? Is it time? Time to start flowering?
Okay, so you've decided to start. Bravo! You are going to be amazed at the buds
that come out of this grow. lol....... So, you have turned back the timer to
12/12 and it has been 4 days now. The growth from the stretch is starting to
show. You get in there and pull all those new shoots back under your screen and
put them where you want them to be. A few more days pass. More growth. Now the
decision part comes into play. Just how far over the screen do you want your
buds to be? If you stop training them early in the stretch. They will grow
alittle above the screen (maybe 3-6inches depending on the strian). If you
continue trianing them until they start to top out. They will grow only alittle
more and most of the bud will form right in the screen. This technique is great
for those stetchy sativa's. However when doing this method keep an eye out for
mold and try to have as much air flow between the buds as possible. I have done
it both ways and they are both awsome. It may take you a grow or two to get the
timing down to where you want it but once you do. I am sure you will be pleased
with the results.
Clones/Seed Grows: Here's an interesting topic that is sure to generate a few
questions. I suggest clones for scrog growing over seed anyday of the year. Why?
With clones you usually already know the characteristics of the plant and how it
will perform. With seed its usually a guessing game as to which pheno your going
to get unless they are true F1 seed. Plus with seed you dont know the sex yet.
Ever tried untangling a male from a screen? Not something I would suggest doing.
lol......Anyways, if you grow from seed. Be sure you have cloned the lot and
know who your girls are first before going under the screen. This will save you
alot of hassle later on.
Damage Control: If you move branches around and bend'em. Eventually somethings
gonna give. Dont freakout. Its not the end of the world man.....lol... Cannabis
is an amazing plant that can recover from alot of damage naturally without help
from humans but in this case ya want to help if ya can. First aid for the
injured cannabis plant is simple as pie man. Just support her wound and leave
her alone. She will take care of it on her own. Unless you break her completely
in half she can be saved usually. You can splint the wound or support it with
some heavy gauge wire around the stem. If the break is not that bad and the
branch can somewhat support itself. Leave it alone. In all cases. A knot will
form at the break and most times an explosion of growth will happen above the
damaged area. At times even new growth sometimes sprouts from the knuckle
formed.
Flowering Cycle: Once a few trimmings are done and all is set in place flowering
in a scrog is pretty uneventful. lol......Good time to start thinning out your
undergrowth. I take clones around 20 days 12/12. If all that I need root. I
clean out the undergrowth around day 35 12/12. Now if I need anymore clones. I
can tak'em at this time. All the rest. Its butter makin time........Oh
yeah.......churn dat budda........talk about a bonus for all your hard work.
Undergrowth: I mentioned it above but thought I should mention it again. The
undergrowth is not that big of an issue here. Its an area that should be kept
clear of dead leaves and you should also ensure that proper ventilation can get
through the canopy via the undergrowth. If it cant. Then thin out some growth.
This is an area that is dim and often humid. An open invitation for not so good
things to come visiting aye? Some people have mentioned putting a light down
there. Why? There's no need for a light down there. There are no buds to be
harvested there. Just stems that support the canopy. If one were to put a light
there they would just be adding to the congestion of leaves already growing. Not
good. It is a good idea to clear out your undergrowth as your scrog takes shape
and you have taken the clones that you need for the next grow. Trim all
remaining sprouts left on the stems and any other undergrowth. Now lets not get
to crazy here. Leave a little growth. Use some common sense here. Take out the
sites you know are not going to make it to maturity. This will help the plant
direct more energy towards the larger buds instead of wasting energy on the
smaller ones.
Ventilation: Here's an issue that can not be overlooked. Once a scrog has been
established it is a leafy sight to behold. Air circulation becomes critical as
the buds begin to form and things start to get packed in the box. 24hr air
movement is suggested 7 days a week. Better safe than sorry. Mold sucks.
Even Canopy: Maybe I should not put it in those words. Your canopy does not have
to be perfectly even. Just close. The idea behind this is even light
distribution. We are looking for a field of buds here not a forest like in SOG.
If a dominate bud is allowed to overtake the canopy. It is defeating the purpose
of the scrog. Tame that bitch. Bring her down to size with the rest. You want a
somewhat even field of buds to deal with. Not a forest of untamed trees. The
even canopy is easy to accomplish if you have been following the steps outlined
above.
TrickyTip: Occasionally you will have a stretcher that decides that she wants
more light than the rest of her friends. This often happens when the branches
are competing for light. If one gets out of hand there is a simple solution to
taming her back into the fold of the others and possibly giving her a burst of
growth. Reach under the screen and find her stem. Half way up her stem start to
pull her back through the canopy till she is even with the rest. Now where she
is bent. Crush her at the bend with your fingers. Dont smash it in half. Just
crush the stem so as it would not be able to support itself if it were to stand
alone. As mentioned above. It will heal with vigor and you have solved your
canopy problem.
The Beautiful and Productive SCROG
I cant express the joy I get from growing with this wonderful method. Through
the years I have tried many ways but have never found a more productive growing
method. I hope by passing on this information. Others will be more motivated to
start their own scrog grow. If done correctly. I can almost gaurentee you will
get more yield using the scrog than using the method you use right now.
Considering the cost of electricity today. Getting the most out of your grow is
the best way to go in my book. Good luck in all your goals and dreams. Give
scrog a try. I doubt you will be disappointed.