How do SCroG's Work??

[J.C.grower]

hey guys so i'm new to the whole "growing" culture, and i am on my second grow and want to make it better than the first one as i want to improve my mistakes. I've been reading and seeing on some of the other pages; people using SCroG as a way of training the pant. my question is do i have have to top the plant while using the SCroG, or does the SCroG just do the "trick" and makes the branches start growing laterally?

 

[thcrefugee]

topping will help the more even branches.
even when training a non-"topped" top, it will still try to be dominant, and will end up growing like a vine.

 

[J.C.grower]

topping will help the more even branches.
even when training a non-"topped" top, it will still try to be dominant, and will end up growing like a vine.

thanks thcrefugee i appreciate it.. so to get it strait, you recommend topping and training with the SCroG?

 

[rollinmachine]

screen is meant to keep the canopy level and a way to spread the plant out so each site gets anough light. let it grow and when a branch grows above the screen tuck it back under the screen in an opening. you make the plant grow under the screen and let the buds grow threw the screen. no topping is necessary with a scrog although some recomend it.

 

[rives]

I usually top at least once, sometimes twice, while LSTing. I try to keep from installing the screen as long as possible because it limits your access to the plants so much, and if you stay on top of the LSTing, you will get all of the same benefits until it just gets too unwieldy. Topping will give you additional fill for the screen.

 

[señorsloth]

i have always said there is no need to top your plant, topping stunts growth for several days, up to a week, if you were to take two identical plants, top one, and bend over and tie down the second one the tied down one will make just as bushy a plant but will be a little ahead of the topped one because tying a plant down is low stress training vs cutting your plants up which is high stress training...high stress training stunts growth.

 

[Terpene]

Hack those puppies up!

Running untopped plants in a scrog is a pain. By topping at least once, you spread the auxins over the remaining branches, resulting in more even growth - even growth = even screen.

In addition to topping, I also "monster crop," aka beat the hell out of the branches to make the plant thicken up.

 

[el bee]

How do SCroGs work??

Great.

I've scrogged lots of plants and always top in veg to get better screen coverage. I scrog old moms that have been topped for
many rounds of clones lots of times.
I love scrogs and the ability to control light distance. I'll be applying the same concept to my new vert grow.

You certainly don't have to top, but I like the resulting square shape. I've never done anything else for comparison, but I
had great results despite crazy temp issues.

 

[FreezerBoy]

I would avoid topping til you get a solid ScrOG or three under the belt.

The top shoot tells the rest of the plant to get down and stay there. The plant obeys and leaves all the good stuff to the top shoot. Chop off it's head, the next two take over the same dictatorship. BUT, bend the tip over and the tip says the dictator is powerless, good stuff is up for grabs. Now every stem insists it's the main shoot and the big cola. Lower growth explodes.

I'd see what that does before adding other methods.

 

[rives]

FB, while I would agree that experience is the best teacher, what I have found is that an untopped plant in a scrog results in a V shape, whereas a plant that has been topped a time or two winds up with more of a rectangular shape. I've had better luck filling the screen with this morphology. Topping will certainly slow the plant development down, though.

 

[FreezerBoy]

A "V" shape suggests flipping too soon. Fill the screen and the footprints of the screen and plant are identical.



I've found ScrOG requires tossing growth out hand over fist. There's only so much room in the cab. It's as heartbreaking as it is productive but, being good for you doesn't keep it from hurting. I don't want to think of having twice as much to kull or doing it twice as fast.

NOT saying topping is bad. I do it myself on occasion. Just saying I was stunned at ScrOG's production.

 

[rives]

You may very well be right. I tend to move from one variety to the next, and find that I sometimes flip a bit early so that I don't get stung by the stretch. You are certainly correct about the production - I wander off to other styles occasionally, but damn I love my scrog!

 

[NIMBY]

The difference of opinions might actually have to do with training technique. SCW introduced SCROG to OG and was considered the real master of the technique. He always said the branches should be trained as nearly vertical as possible until they reached the horizontal screen. Then they just snake under it sending out their side growth. FreezerBoy's first photo is a perfect example.

But I constantly see SCROGs where the screen is really just creating separation between branches. There's lots of branches (topping would be good to encourage them) and they're all aimed in different directions--and each one has to grow long enough to reach a slightly more distant hole. They're getting more light and at the ends of the branches they're being bent under a little to control height, but I'm with SCW and think the real trick is in getting the branches to the screen and then snaking them around. So a single stalk works fine in that case.

I don't usually top my plants but I always think I should maybe do it once in veg. I normally have just one or two plants in a box so they're kind of centered and a few main branches hitting the screen and then heading in different directions would be good. I think maybe 3 or 4 branches would be better than just one main stem--even though the screen always seems to fill out just fine with one! I guess that's why I still don't top...there's no problem to solve!

SCROG will work either way. FreezerBoy and rives are showing two beautiful examples. One tops and the other doesn't. I'd take either!!!

 

[merlot]

Depends on how much time you veg for. I veg for 8 weeks, top 3+ times. Also do lots of LST and tie those babies down. Everything I flower gets scrogged in a trellis, you just have to know how much the plant is going to stretch. I do 1 plant per 1k, each in a 5x5 trellis.

Here are some Chem4 at the flip:

Then after stretching into the trellis:

Hope this helps ya... feel free to look through my albums to get a better idea w/pics

 

[NIMBY]

Hey, FreezerBoy or someone else... Sorry for the off topic question, but is there a way to communicate privately on this site? It was called Private Messages at OG. I'm a newbie and not finding it in "My IC"! Anything like that here? How would I access it?

I'd like to talk to FreezerBoy.

 

[mad librettist]

if you want all the benefits of scrog, don't top the plant.

when I have accidentally topped plants I still got great results from using the screen, but I also lost time.


If you are going to remove budsites, start by removing growth low on the plant that has no chance of making it to the screen. Some strains really like to bush out before they hit the screen, and if you don't remove some lower branches you wind up with the slowest veg period ever.


rather than topping, you can speed up the veg process by starting with more than one cutting.

 

[merlot]

NIMBY, you need 50 posts, then you can Private Message

 

[VerdantGreen]

first, if you are going to go to the trouble of using capitals in the word scrog - then the correct way to do it is ScrOG Screen Of Green

topping is not essential but is probably advisable if you are groing plants from seed as the apical dominance is harder to break in seed plants than it is in clones (i.e. clones throw sidebranches easier than seed plants.
also sativas tend to have more apical dominance than indicas.

scrog is a lot harder to explain than to actually do, and no two scrogs are ever the same so its about learning as you go and researching your genetics. knowing how much stretch to expect is useful.
kind of a dark art but very productive - even a badly done scrog will yield well.

my diaries may be useful - i do modular scrog where each plant has it's won screen - this makes it easier to examine plants (for herms etc) and makes it easier to run multiple strains as you can even up the canopy by raising or lowering individual pots

VG

 

[Marlo]

scrog is a lot harder to explain than to actually do, and no two scrogs are ever the same so its about learning as you go

Lot of different ways to scrog.... even vert scrog.
Experience is the best teacher. Keep reading, and get growing

 

[rives]

Pretty cool, Marlo. I may have to give vertical a try after seeing your pictures.