Hey there PAPA... great job with the new area... the new veg area looks like it s going to be a great success, the ScrOG looks ridiculous, i see your doin the Supportless type, but when do you think yu'll be tuckin her in or is she past that point... The SD is sooo mesmerizing, i jus wanna lay on that bed of buds...lol
oh and for the question you asked about keeping or trimming those lower leaves, i always keep them on as a first line of defense against possible over-fertilizing, because they are usually the first to take a hit so to speak... Anyway in all you have a superb system and i wish you great success with your future Dispensary... +reps if i can
Thanks!
All great questions and comments and are just the kick in the ass I need to get posting about that Scrog.
I don't have all the pics I'd like yet - so I'll make this a discussion post - then post some pics tonight when the lights come on.
So, what's different?
First: there are really two ways to do a scrog - veg it in the screen, or place the screen on top when veg has finished. I use the latter because I run a perpetual room, and I would have to make that particular area light tight to do a 18 hr day in there while the rest is in flower. So I veg them till they are about the size I want, then move them to flower - and scrog them.
What happened in the mean time was the delays in shipping - so all my plants had to stay in their respective areas an extra 10 days. This meant the plants were pretty large when they went in the scrog.
About 5 scrogs ago, I grew one where I let the plants grow more vertically above the scrog, and I got some very nice colas, as well as the expected nice buds from the rest of the plant. That scrog was not very dense, however.
Since then I have focused on density and getting the buds as flat and close to the scrog as possible. I believe the current SD scrog is about as good as that technique can be. It's basically solid bud across the entire scrog.
But as I do the math and make my guestimates - I am realizing that even solid like that - its still not gonna yield 1g/w I don't think (but that's because I haven't maxed out the spacing under the light). And more importantly, I don't think its gonna yield the breeder's suggested maximum/m2. And that is the part I wanna get better.
The more I look - the more it seems like 1K lights and penetration is the way to hit that magic 1g/w. But I know its not that straight forward. So I started thinking about whether I'm really maximizing the penetration of a 600 with a flat scrog.
Now jump down to the new Barney's scrog. It is 32"x52" = 1664 square inches 11.5 sq ft or 1.074 meters squared. I wanted it about 1m2 so I could use it for math. Its got a 600 HPS over it on a light mover. That should be about the right light for that space I think. And the average of these strains is about 500g/m2 yield. But if you combine all these numbers you will see that it means you're not getting 1 g/w from a 600 on a light mover.
But the USD says it should be able to yield 650. So something is amiss. Either I need to broaden the throw of the light to get more plants in the equation. I think they would be very poor buds - even at the tops. But it would be some weight. Or get them even denser, and my experience with the SD scrog says that this is about max density for me.
OR I can increase the thickness of the buds above the scrog. This is what this scrog is about. So not only have I let the plants get bigger pre-scrog, I wove them as tightly as I could, and then I have tried to time it so that their stretch ends right at about 8-12" inches above the scrog, and I have stadiumed them a little.
By doing this I hope to maximize the light both horizontally and vertically. I believe the first buds above the scrog should be within the penetration of the light, and the top most are certainly getting prime light.
So if this works as planned - I should end up not with a layer of buds about 3" thick across the screen, I am hoping for a layer of tops between 4-10" all of them. I think its gonna happen.
Then the final adjustment will be if the buds at the furthest edges are still nice - then I know I can add a few more plants under the light to maximize it for the next grow.
So basically I will be disappointed with anything less than 500g from this scrog. 600 would be surprising, but not impossible, and anything above that wins me plant of the month automatically.
In two hours I will go down and get last pics before their final trim. Then I will trim the hell out of the fan leaves and tie down any final shoots that look to be too tall or shading something else. Then I'll get pics after the trim.
I think I have timed this one pretty dang well, so I'm actually hoping not to weave too many tonight - if any. BTW - for those not familiar with a scrog - getting the timing may be the hardest part at first. Its very tricky to know which branches are gonna make it to what part of the scrog, and then account for stretch, and hopefully end up with over 100 branches all at the same height.
This post was longer than I intended as usual - but I think there's some good stuff in there. The clones in the veg room are being prepped for my 6th and 7th scrog, and I finally feel like I am finally starting to get a grip on the technique.
Now I'm gonna get my head right, then go get my head in the game. I always spend a few minutes just looking and mentally picturing where I'm gonna put the branches before I start moving them. I think this is key. YOU have to know where you want the plant to grow and MAKE it go there. And its gotta fit with all the others. So I always find a little pre-vis to be invaluable.
Done for now - check back in a few hours for pics.
