Hi all. A friend of mine just wrote this article. Thought I would share it with you all. It’s an intriguing system and one that can greatly increase your yield.
Sativa
The Scrog Method
The Concept
SCROG stands for Screen of Green. The concept behind it is that by training your plant(s) to grow through a horizontal screen you enable all the budding points to receive an equal amount of light, as opposed to the normal upright method where the light is concentrated only on the topmost buds.
A SCROG requires you to train your plant(s) so that it forms a flat canopy along the plane of the screen. In a similar way to supercropping or LST, by exposing the lower limbs to the light you turn the lesser buds into big fat kolas. SCROGS are quite often used with small scale CFL or LED set ups where the light doesn’t have as much power as a HID.
scrog.jpg
The Screen
The most essential bit of equipment in a SCROG is the screen. This is what the system is all about. Your screen should be made from thick wire or something similarly sturdy. Some people use a lattice of strings but if you do this be sure that they are suitably tightened so that they can bear the weight of your buds without sagging. The best set up is to have heavy chicken wire stretched over a timber frame. This means you can attach the whole unit to legs/wall/closet interior and it will remain safe and sturdy.
Ideally the holes in your screen will be around 2” square. That’s about 50mm. That gives enough room for the plant to weave in and out of the screen in a serpentine way. The screen should be placed high enough above the plant medium to enable the plant to grow up and through the screen before being bent back under. Around 8” is a good starting point but there is leeway here, some people use as little as 4”.
Remember that you will need to work around the screen. You will need to be able to water the soil, if that is what you are using, and get in to trim and train and treat. Make sure you leave yourself enough room around the screen to do what you need to.
Training
OK. So your seeds have cracked or your clones are ready, they have become established and are just about to start stretching their legs and you have them in place beneath your screen. As the growing tip passes through the screen you will allow it to grow 3-4 above the level of the screen (you can pinch out the tip here if you like to create two growing tips per plant) then tuck it back under the screen and up through an adjacent hole. You may need to use ties to keep the growing tip up through the hole until becomes established in that hole, although this is not normally necessary.
Sometimes branches will break when manipulating them. Do not worry too much. If you can splint and support the break then do so. Otherwise just leave it. Cannabis is a very robust plant, wound sites often produce new budding sites, as with supercropping.
Keep repeating the process. What you are looking for is to roughly fill the whole screen at about 75% density during the veg stage. Try and direct the main tips towards empty areas where they can spread. Use uniform patterns such as ZigZags and CrissCross. Bear in mind that the plant(s), depending on strain, will increase dramatically in size during flowering. You should continue training for a few days after commencing flowering as you set the budding points into their final postions.
It is also worth mentioning leaf trimming. A SCROG is all about maximum light penetration and this should be always uppermost in your mind when maintaining a SCROG. If a leaf comes between a bud site and the light, remove it. If you can tuck it out of the way then do that, but this is quite a brutal techniques so don’t be shy. If it’s in the way, it has to go!
Lighting
You want to get your lights as close to the screen as possible without burning the plants. In reality, the size of the screen you go for will depend on the size of lights you have (or vice versa). A rough guide to screen size:light size would be...
150hps for a screen that is 1.75ft x 1.75ft
250hps for a screen that is 2.25ft x 2.25ft
400hps for a screen that is 2.91ft x 2.75ft
600hps for a screen that is 3.45ft x 3.45ft
1000hps for a screen that is 4.4ft x 4.5ft
Similarly, the proximity of your lamps to your screen will be dependent to the heat given off. LEDs, CFLs and air cooled HIDs will be able to get a bit closer and this is the ideal. If not then a steady stream of air from a fan across the top of the canopy will help. Here is a rough guide, but remember, as close as you can is the general rule.
150hps - 10”-12” above the canopy
250hps – 12”-15” above the canopy
400hps – 16”-20” above the canopy
600hps - 20” or more above the canopy
1000hps -24” or more above the canopy
scrog2.jpg
The Plants
People often want to know which strain grow the best in a SCROG set up. Most cannabis plants work well. Good lateral branching is a desired trait. A nice bushy indica will perform well, but equally a rambling rambunctious sativa can fill a bigger screen and will reward patience during the veg phase with some tremendous yields. Do some strain research (there is some good information here and some strains are even recommended for SCROG grows Try typing scrog in the search bar).
How many plants can you put under the screen? A good rule to start with is one plant per square foot, but theoretically you could fill a massive screen with just one plant if you kept it vegging for long enough. If you live in a country where the sentence for growing weed is dependent on the number of plants rather than the weight, using the SCROG technique is an excellent way of minimizing legislative risks whilst maximizing yield!
When to Flower?
You should veg your plant until you think that the stretch of flowering will completely fill the screen. As stated above, a good starting point for switching to 12/12 is when around 75% of the screen is covered, but different plants expand at different rates. A big stretchy sativa might more than triple in size whereas a short indica may only stretch by half so make sure you have left enough space for the plant(s) to grow into.
Getting the timing exactly right is something that will come with experience. A screen with empty space is inefficient, as is a big messy screen that is overcrowded. Make notes of the screen size, plant strain, lighting etc. Learn from your mistakes as you go.
Learning to SCROG is amazingly satisfying. It is a fun and productive growing method. I hope you have fun with it.
Sativa
The Scrog Method
The Concept
SCROG stands for Screen of Green. The concept behind it is that by training your plant(s) to grow through a horizontal screen you enable all the budding points to receive an equal amount of light, as opposed to the normal upright method where the light is concentrated only on the topmost buds.
A SCROG requires you to train your plant(s) so that it forms a flat canopy along the plane of the screen. In a similar way to supercropping or LST, by exposing the lower limbs to the light you turn the lesser buds into big fat kolas. SCROGS are quite often used with small scale CFL or LED set ups where the light doesn’t have as much power as a HID.
scrog.jpg
The Screen
The most essential bit of equipment in a SCROG is the screen. This is what the system is all about. Your screen should be made from thick wire or something similarly sturdy. Some people use a lattice of strings but if you do this be sure that they are suitably tightened so that they can bear the weight of your buds without sagging. The best set up is to have heavy chicken wire stretched over a timber frame. This means you can attach the whole unit to legs/wall/closet interior and it will remain safe and sturdy.
Ideally the holes in your screen will be around 2” square. That’s about 50mm. That gives enough room for the plant to weave in and out of the screen in a serpentine way. The screen should be placed high enough above the plant medium to enable the plant to grow up and through the screen before being bent back under. Around 8” is a good starting point but there is leeway here, some people use as little as 4”.
Remember that you will need to work around the screen. You will need to be able to water the soil, if that is what you are using, and get in to trim and train and treat. Make sure you leave yourself enough room around the screen to do what you need to.
Training
OK. So your seeds have cracked or your clones are ready, they have become established and are just about to start stretching their legs and you have them in place beneath your screen. As the growing tip passes through the screen you will allow it to grow 3-4 above the level of the screen (you can pinch out the tip here if you like to create two growing tips per plant) then tuck it back under the screen and up through an adjacent hole. You may need to use ties to keep the growing tip up through the hole until becomes established in that hole, although this is not normally necessary.
Sometimes branches will break when manipulating them. Do not worry too much. If you can splint and support the break then do so. Otherwise just leave it. Cannabis is a very robust plant, wound sites often produce new budding sites, as with supercropping.
Keep repeating the process. What you are looking for is to roughly fill the whole screen at about 75% density during the veg stage. Try and direct the main tips towards empty areas where they can spread. Use uniform patterns such as ZigZags and CrissCross. Bear in mind that the plant(s), depending on strain, will increase dramatically in size during flowering. You should continue training for a few days after commencing flowering as you set the budding points into their final postions.
It is also worth mentioning leaf trimming. A SCROG is all about maximum light penetration and this should be always uppermost in your mind when maintaining a SCROG. If a leaf comes between a bud site and the light, remove it. If you can tuck it out of the way then do that, but this is quite a brutal techniques so don’t be shy. If it’s in the way, it has to go!
Lighting
You want to get your lights as close to the screen as possible without burning the plants. In reality, the size of the screen you go for will depend on the size of lights you have (or vice versa). A rough guide to screen size:light size would be...
150hps for a screen that is 1.75ft x 1.75ft
250hps for a screen that is 2.25ft x 2.25ft
400hps for a screen that is 2.91ft x 2.75ft
600hps for a screen that is 3.45ft x 3.45ft
1000hps for a screen that is 4.4ft x 4.5ft
Similarly, the proximity of your lamps to your screen will be dependent to the heat given off. LEDs, CFLs and air cooled HIDs will be able to get a bit closer and this is the ideal. If not then a steady stream of air from a fan across the top of the canopy will help. Here is a rough guide, but remember, as close as you can is the general rule.
150hps - 10”-12” above the canopy
250hps – 12”-15” above the canopy
400hps – 16”-20” above the canopy
600hps - 20” or more above the canopy
1000hps -24” or more above the canopy
scrog2.jpg
The Plants
People often want to know which strain grow the best in a SCROG set up. Most cannabis plants work well. Good lateral branching is a desired trait. A nice bushy indica will perform well, but equally a rambling rambunctious sativa can fill a bigger screen and will reward patience during the veg phase with some tremendous yields. Do some strain research (there is some good information here and some strains are even recommended for SCROG grows Try typing scrog in the search bar).
How many plants can you put under the screen? A good rule to start with is one plant per square foot, but theoretically you could fill a massive screen with just one plant if you kept it vegging for long enough. If you live in a country where the sentence for growing weed is dependent on the number of plants rather than the weight, using the SCROG technique is an excellent way of minimizing legislative risks whilst maximizing yield!
When to Flower?
You should veg your plant until you think that the stretch of flowering will completely fill the screen. As stated above, a good starting point for switching to 12/12 is when around 75% of the screen is covered, but different plants expand at different rates. A big stretchy sativa might more than triple in size whereas a short indica may only stretch by half so make sure you have left enough space for the plant(s) to grow into.
Getting the timing exactly right is something that will come with experience. A screen with empty space is inefficient, as is a big messy screen that is overcrowded. Make notes of the screen size, plant strain, lighting etc. Learn from your mistakes as you go.
Learning to SCROG is amazingly satisfying. It is a fun and productive growing method. I hope you have fun with it.
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