Question about Scrog

[Knife party]

After you filled your screen out how much vertical growth is best before flowering or can you flip it as soon as it's full with out effecting your harvest.

I have 9 ft of vertical space and a 600 watt lucagrow enhanced hps above it.

I'm thinking about what I need to do to do better in my next grow.


Thanks for any input

Kp

 

[Emilya Green]

scrog is all about growing horizontally and not letting the plants grow up vertically from the screen except for the height that the buds get up to... if you were more than 1 foot above the screen, you are not doing a scrog, you are doing a trellis.
Because of this, a scrog is usually worked until it is about 3/4 full and then the flip is made, so that during stretch the rest of the screen can be filled in. That first 2 weeks of flower are the busiest times tucking in the scrog because of the fast growth during stretch. If you time this right, the screen gets 100% filled right by the end of stretch, and then the grow goes vertical from there.

SCROG is usually used when you have inferior lights and you need to get right up on an even canopy so as to provide bright and even light to all the buds, and it is also used if in a cabinet with restricted vertical space. You don't have a weak light, and you have plenty of vertical space, so I am questioning the effectiveness of the scrog in your case as compared to simply training your plants for a vertical canopy.

 

[Knife party]

Thanks for your reply, I will have to look at some guides on vertical training and pruning.

Mostly all I've looked at was scrog and main line training because of the yields I've seen them get.

I was using Leds but the chips were burning out and because of where I live it takes a very long time to get replacements, and most led manufactures won't ship products here.

I can buy Hid off the shelf in most gardening stores so the decision was made to change to a dirty big Hps. The guy in the store was saying Hps is so popular still because you won't need to run heaters over winter with them.

Kp

 

[PE636]

A proper scrog will get you the highest proportion of nice top nugs of more consistent size /quality if that matters to you. Definitely more work and time but maximizes a small space. I have done a few and was impressed with the results. As @Emilya said about 3/4 full before flip then continue tucking through a good part of stretch. The precise timing kinda depends on the strain and your space I think, and how she's growing, but that's the general idea. If you don't flip til the screen is already full your space is going to too crowded.. You can remove mostly everything below the screen for airflow. Keep the screen low, a floppy net two feet inches above the plant does not make a scrog.. I am hopeful to get a new screen built for my tent this weekend for my current grow (last one got cut up last harvest) feel free to follow to see how it goes for me, will probably be starting the tucking etc in just a few days.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Since you're running a 600-watt HPS, which is a "point" light source - and a pretty intense one - instead of a lower intensity "flat-plane" light source, you can use a slightly modified SCROG setup. Instead of having a flat screen, make it more like a shallow bowl - higher around the perimeter where your light drops off a bit, lower in the center directly under the bulb where the light is most intense. If that makes sense.

No, I can't give you any tips on how to build a three dimensional SCROG screen, lol. Seems like it'd be a bit of a PITA to me.

Yes, you do end up with a relatively large harvest with a SCROG grow. On the other hand, it takes longer (start to finish) to complete. And if you're running multiple plants that aren't identical (in other words, plants of the same strain but different phenotypes, or multiple strains) in the same screen, it can be a RPITA when just one of them is ready for harvest and it's all tangled in with the other plants under the screen (like a cat's cradle made out of yarn, only not so civilized, lol).

If you keep a mother plant (or multiple ones) and cut/root clones, you can end up with the same yield by doing SOG grows. Multiple phenotypes/strains aren't really a problem, because each plant is just a "bud on a stick" in its own small container. If some are shorter than others, you can either move them to the center directly under your light or set those containers on something to effectively increase their height. If some are ready for harvest early, you can just remove them from the grow because they're not grown into/through a screen (and all tangled up with their tent-mates). Then, after having done so, you can either rearrange the remaining plants to give them a little more room or (recommended) simply add more rooted clones that are ready to flower to create perpetual bliss.

 

[Knife party]

Since you're running a 600-watt HPS, which is a "point" light source - and a pretty intense one - instead of a lower intensity "flat-plane" light source, you can use a slightly modified SCROG setup. Instead of having a flat screen, make it more like a shallow bowl - higher around the perimeter where your light drops off a bit, lower in the center directly under the bulb where the light is most intense. If that makes sense.

No, I can't give you any tips on how to build a three dimensional SCROG screen, lol. Seems like it'd be a bit of a PITA to me.

A big bowl shaped screen does sound like a real pita lol

I have two grow areas atm one for veg the other for flower so I won't lose more than 2 months playing with training techs till I find what works for me.

Thanks for the input to you all

Kp

 

[TorturedSoul]

A big bowl shaped screen does sound like a real pita lol

Yeah, you have to tie it down in the center area, otherwise when you pull it tight it's suddenly back to a flat-plane screen (only with way too much material). OR... you can construct it out of really stiff material that'll hold its shape. A combination of both might be even better, IDK.

It's been said that it can be worth the hassle if the grower is really wanting to maximize his/her light.

I have two grow areas atm one for veg the other for flower

That's good to know. It looks like you were reading my previous post while I was editing it (didn't expect you to be quite so quick ), so you might have missed the part I added about SOG vs. SCROG.

A knife party is probably almost as much fun as a chainsaw party, but far quieter. At least until the screaming begins .

 

[Knife party]

I did miss the sog vs scrog.

Cats knives and chainsaws what a laugh lol

I had some thought on sog but I do like the hands on approach of the other methods and the satisfaction of working towards proficiency training plants.

There is also the amount of bother I can find myself in with 16 flowering plants plus a closet with mum and all the kids chilling under the blue lights.

At the moment I have a lot of clones to fill jars and seedlings to find the pheno I like there is hundreds of seeds to work through of it comes too that.

Was only so quick because I was reading another thread to get ideas on other training methods I could try.

Kp