Help! My SCROG is out of control

[NS775]

So this is my 2nd grow, and I need a little direction & some opinions. First grow was real small closet stuff, so I figured i'd get a 1000W and go a little bigger this time.

I decided to go with some sort of SOG SCROG hybrid (basically using lots of plants to shorten the screen filling time of typical SCROG grows, but unfortunately a number of things have gone wrong....

#1 plants were vegged too long and got too big.
#2 plants were packed to tightly in early veg which made em stretch
#3 plants were topped before I decided to go SCROG which made them WAY too big.
#4 the new aero setup has 4 plants per SqF which exascerbated the large plant problem
#5 new aero setup is working fantastic... and now the plants are growing incredibly fast making them even more unmanageable

Basically I'm trying to figure out if I can still salvage this SCROG or if I should ditch the screen... any thoughts on what to do with this mess???

 

[FreezerBoy]

Best you can hope for here is a SOG with a screen in the middle of it. The screen will serve no function other than get in your way. I'd lose it.

If you want the benefits of ScrOG, keep it to 1-4 plants. You'll be surprised how fast the screen fills up.

 

[cyberwax]

well atleast this is a positive problem

 

[Moneygrowonweed]

I would lose the screen at this point and keep notes on what goes right and what goes wrong so your next set up will benefit from this.
use it as a learning curve to always do better.
lower your light a bit to keep stretch down make sure you have grate air flow moving constant air to not burn your plants and flower sooner next time remember your plants can 2x or even 3x there size when you go into flowering so be prepared for that.

 

[Craven_au]

I don't like the screen i use a screen like this guy http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=148001 its not that bad i had some WR overgrow on me once and had to prune man that shit can grow.

 

[shawkmon]

i think it looks great, doesnt look over grown to me, looks ready to flower, peace

 

[KUSHT4TUS]

Lose the screen or get something bigger to set overtop.
If you wait much longer it looks like the canopy is going to
eat that chicken wire screen !

 

[Calimed]

What is the spacing for that screen? The squares look really small, like 1inch square?

Ditch the screen, carefully watch how they grow through stretch, and prune some of the lower branches that can't keep up. Other than that, these plants look healthy.

Keep it up and keep us posted!

 

[Standaman]

Mate you REALLY should cut bigger holes or get a new screen, as you can see they are pushing the screen up

 

[ThisBuds4You]

I agree with most of what everyone else said. Your screen holes are WAAAY too small. They SHOULD be about 2" squares. Ditch the screen and flower them.

--
TB4U

 

[whadeezlrg]

another one who agrees that the screen holes need to be more like 2-4"

 

[LessIsMore]

Yup screen size is way to small, 2" x 2" is perfect IMHO but 2x4 works well to.

 

[Mr.Meds]

I agree holes are too small...You could cut them but that could get tedious... Could replace it with a 2x2 a little higher up....Or ditch the screen entirely. You've got options, but I agree to note it and use it as a learning experience.

 

[FreezerBoy]

I use a 1 inch mesh and I love it but, it's plastic. I can cut a square larger on the rare occasion I need one.

 

[VerdantGreen]

the screen mesh looks more like 1/2 inch or something - too small to fit the shoots through to flower above. go for minimum 1" mesh

unless i missed it, you didnt mention the strain - which is crucial. if that was NL i would say flower it now (with a proper screen)
if its some stretchy strain then you may have gone to far.

fwiw, i think it's those times when you only just get away with overvegging that you can get the best yields

V.

also mate i would do some homework on scrog as you dont seem to have got the idea of what you are doing too well (or you would never have fitted that screen) check my gorw diary or search for scrog and look at some pics etc.

 

[NS775]

Thanks for all the input! Yea, I knew the screen had holes too small. Even the guy at home depot told me that, after I explained I was making a "horizontal trellis", I think he knew what was up.

My plan w/ the screen was to leave it as is so the plants would physically be forced to grow sideways, and I was going to cut it up & turn about 4 of those 1" square holes into 1 hole. I did it in a couple spots and it seems to work perfect

I suspected everyone was going to say ditch the screen, but I really wanted to use it to help organize things a bit. I guess I'm really trying to retrofit (or shoehorn) an outta control grow into a SCROG really.

I was pretty damn tiring, but I bent all those bitches over last nite.... (the plants)... I just hope I didn't hurt 'em too bad cuz I was kinda rough on 'em. Really I only snapped 2 of 'em (1 was minor, and the other got duct taped & zip tied so we'll see if she recovers).

More importantly I think I have a better understanding of things. By bending 'em over, each of the little shoots of new growth along the major braches are starting to grow up instead of just the main tip, and as long as they are on the same horizontal plane they should grow about the same rate. Now I just need to direct each new growth shoot into its own little cut-out 4x4 hole on the screen, and if I do it right then I'll end up having every hole on the screen with it's own little growth shoot popping up thru the hole. Does that sound about rite?

I plan on lowering the light and flipping them to flower today. Is it OK to flip to 12/12 right after a heavily abusive round of training? I'm thinking they're gonna stay in veg for the 1st week of 12/12 anyways so it should be ok rite?

BTW Part of the reason I'm sticking to my guns on the SCROG thing is because I purchased that particular reflector with the intention of doing SCROG. It's a "heat buster max" reflector (the name makes no sense to me cuz it gets REAL hot being non air-cooled) and it has a REAL wide throw to it. I modified it with an HVAC register boot so its now air-cooled (but has no glass), so I plan on having it around 12" above the canopy. At 12" above the canopy, it just about covers the 4.5'x4.5' perfectly and the canopy temps never go above upper 70's as long as I have a fan blowing across em'.

On the other hand tho, the throw of the reflector is so wide that it seems like I can't do much else than SCROG w the light as close as possible to the canopy unless I were to do a heavy mylar job to get the light where I need it.

Yea about the genetics....the strains which I am running are... Dirtweed Bagseed A, Dirtweed Bagseed B, and Dirtweed Bagseed C, OK-weed Bagseed D. B & C are gonna be a PITA when stretching cuz they are probably sativa dom. (much thinner leaf fingers), but atleast A & D are probably indicas due to the stubby super fat 'n wide leaves (particularly the D plants). I do have a little experience w/ em from last grow so I know B&C are a little lankyier/strechier with thinner leaves. All strains yielded buds way above what I expected for bag seeds tho

Here are some new pics after I bent the bitches over... lemme know what ya'all think... if this is gonna werk out or if its gonna blowup and be a huge mess/PITA.

Look any better??? Or am I still doomed?

 

[NS775]

So now I just gotta clip the screen for bigger holes in the spots i need, pull the new shoots up thru and switch it over to 12/12, which hopefully I can get all done tonite... or should I let it veg a bit after I pull the shoots up thru the screen?


[EDIT]
I'm pretty sure they'll recover, but..... after looking at that 1st picture for a min, they kinda look like an elephant sat on my table or something.....

 

[RagnorokYoshi]

my scrog went crazy too. i just tied down branches to the screen. i made alot of room but it still looks like a mess.my white widow grew so big its bending under and over the screen

 

[Scrogerman]

Hey Buddy'
Get cutting 2x2" holes in that screen!!to get them shoots up through 'Sharpish/Quickly', or its gonna get so over grown in there you gonna be in trouble imo'
Should work out if you get to work. You aint left yourself alot of room to work under that screen either, you gonna need to strip all foliage from under there eventually, i try to work it to a 12"(H) screen, just because of room & airflow etc. Get Cutting away buddy'
Good-Luck!.............Scroger'

 

[Hydro-Soil]

At 12" above the canopy, it just about covers the 4.5'x4.5' perfectly and the canopy temps never go above upper 70's as long as I have a fan blowing across em'.

I would be extremely careful putting that 1K within 12".

It only takes one fan failure to create a dead air-flow spot in your garden. The humidity coming off your plant in that spot will get super-heated by the infra-red coming off the HPS that close. Your temp gauge may read 70F but you'll get 120F+ air in that pocket.


I would also be paying attention to leaf bleaching from the light being that close.

Stay Safe!