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Boulderheads

Well-Known Member
If you check woodsman's journal.. he pre-trains for a while before the screen... really limits the amount of time needed to train into the screen.. which is the hardest part. User preference though
 
cheers for input peeps! I'll give her 1 more day b4 fimm. I'll stick to what i know. Got a few guinny piggs to play with. one i'll top the other fimm. see what mother nature has to say.....
 

woodsmantoker

Well-Known Member
Home Again,

Wont go under the knife until Feb.
Kinda nice, cause I will see the Jacks Cleaner 2 Scrog out, and have meds ready for me when I return from surgery.

Well thanks to all who wish me well. I also wanted to thank those who are actively participating in helping others. Thats what this thread is all about!

I see that there have been many questions and answers. I will spend some time reading through and find some things that I think should be capped on.
 

woodsmantoker

Well-Known Member
Cannabis grows with symetry as do most plant species. This means to me that I can train with this natural symmetry to achive a design. I choose to create a circle shape that graduates outward from center using the first bend of the plant to train the plant into having no "top". from the top of the plant to 90 degrees or better. I keep the bending of this main stalk so as to allow the lowest branches to catch up to the height of the main "top" internode. As the plant grows, the middle branches will begin to grow more rapidly than the rest of the plant. Those branches are then bent downward and secured at an even distance from one another (imagine lines on a dart board leading outward). While the side branches are being held outward the tops are being held at th same height as the rest of the plants now tops. As time goes on the branches grow branches and the training becomes more complex. This training goes on for as long as it takes to achive a plant thats diameter is that of the scrog or just shy. The plant is then introduced to the scrog and helped through the screen. (note: screen 2" x 3" hole size) Flowering is then done above the screen and additional support may be needed to hold the weight of tall buds. Some foliage removal is done to expose smaller bud sites and allow light to reach the bottoms of the colas. This leaf harvest is then dried and saved for hash making. A Larger mesh screen (6" or larger) can be used to support the cola/buds from falling over on to each other.
 

woodsmantoker

Well-Known Member
The training of plants for scrog in my opinion is an enjoyable artistic form of creating a living sculpture. It can be done with countless tools, countless ideas in mind, and no way is wrong, making it enjoyable for anyone with a creative mind. The results? Well thats the beauty that not only the beholder can see.
 

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woodsmantoker

Well-Known Member
Pertaining to concerns of: HOW TO

These photos are of different plants, however they have been posted in order of training steps. The first bend you will see is done after the plant produces lower branching that has grown outward from the main stem.
 

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woodsmantoker

Well-Known Member
As some of you may have experienced. Once the scrog is filled there is need to remove veg growth below the screen due to lack of lighting and thus waisted energy. This can be depressing considering the time spent creating this material. The amount of material needing to be removed can also be limited if when you place the plant under the screen, you adjust the distance between the screen and pot to be close. Keeping in mind that if you have to little room, removal of anything will be a challenge. Watering or checking roots in a reservoir must be thought out prior as well, or these too can become problems. As you can see in the design of this wooden scrog, a simple watering line was used to avoid the need to water from above or below. This could be adapted to any set up. A watering can set up with a long hose works well too for slipping down through the screen to reach the pots. For the folks using hydroponics/areo/DWC etc. I suggest that you design the whole scrog as a movable unit. Building a tray under the screen for the root reservoir attaches the pot to the scrog system making it all one item to move. The legs of the scrog can then have wheels for rolling out of the lighted space. I have also seen folks create a support for a DWC res that allowed enough room below the screen to remove it for cleaning. The bucket would be removed allowing the roots to hang and then a new clean bucket was immediately put into place and the system turned back on....
 

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GreatwhiteNorth

Global Moderator
Staff member
You do very nice work my friend !
Oddly enough I think there are more simularities in our grow styles than differences. In addition to the obvious Scrog/soil/etc I too use a moveable watering hose to eliminate the kneeling/bending & also have a wet dry vac with a hose on the pickup to remove runoff from the tubs that solve the same issue.
I have noticed the occasional rogue male flower so I recently gave them a third shot of Reverse/Penetrator & I'm pretty sure they didn't like it, some leaf curl & yellowing. It may simply be from the liquid on the leaves when the lights came on a 1/2 hour later that burned them (my best guess to date, but I did a flush yesterday and will do another on Thurs to try & perk them up.
Hadn't heard you were headed for some body work. Nothing serious I hope. Keep us posted buddy.
GWN
 

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Hobbes

Well-Known Member
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Hey folks!

I do a screenless SCROG that uses the bucket to hold the stem horizontal and trained in a circle. As with a scrog only the branches and end colas stick up. It's simple low stress training but I haven't seen other people tying the stem to the bucket rim on this forum so I took the liberty of naming it Crop Circle Of Bud (CCOB). It's less effecient than a SCROG but I like the portability and the ability to easily run a perpetual grow.

I got into the method out of necessity, my first grow I vegged 12 sativas about 5 months and before I found out that they needed 12/12 to produce buds I had 6'-8' giants. Over 2 or 3 weeks I bent the stems horizontal and around the bucket rim in spirals to get the plants short enough that my 400W HPS could get to all the buds. I ended up with about 5 gallons (pickle jars) of bud, a nice save for my first grow.

These are two Strawberry Diesel grown with less than 6" height over the bucket rim. They each produced about 2 liters of cured bud.



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Top view. The buds seem to be bulging, about to explode.



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Sativa Pheno from the side, 18" colas



Sativa pheno, tallest colas 18".



I harvested a small Kali Mist tonight and wanted to have a picture before I chopped it. This one had two 18" colas, the main cola and the very bottom branch. I find that the bottom branches are often the best producers with CCOB. I bent these colas over because it the other plants were all 12" and less - it was giving me heat / light height problems. The bottom of the colas are suspended above the bucket rim, the plant can be grown less than 4" above the bucket rim. I doubt this little plant will produce more than 4 cups of cured bud, but it was fun and I got some Bubblegum out of the bucket too.



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From the top. It wasn't ripening, as soon as I bent the colas horizontal it started to turn amber. Perhaps coincidence.



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The Kali Mist from above was a small clone I threw in the bucket with a small Bubblegum clone, it didn't develop well. Here's a great Kali Mist about 4 weeks into flower, the ripe one from above is to the right.





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The Kali Mist (left) from above and a Bubblegum about 3 weeks into flower. The Bubblegum's branches didn't grow as tall as usual, I transplanted into flower from a 20 oz cup to a 5 gallon bucket. I usually do an transplant into 6" pots during veg, I find the better root ball gives a better harvest.



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A Flo (left) and a Bubblegum. The Flo has another week or three, the Bubblegum should harvest in the next week. The Flo is a knarly plant, twisty leaves, small hard buds. This is my second time around for the Flo, the last hermied and I burnt it with Dutch Passion Penetrator. The smoke was so beautiful I had to run it again, this time just a few pre flower pods and bananas on the lower nodes. I picked them off and the plant has been perfect since.



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The Bubblegum (right) is going to be my best producer ever, of Bubblegum. I should get 12+ cups of cured bud.



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A long and side view of my garden (8' x 3'), 11 x 5 gallon pots and 2 x 6" pots.





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I'm running a test with these two Pandora's Boxes, they're at 16" and 19". The pic is a few weeks old, I've got the taller PB's stem almost trained and the shorter is almost 20".




The topped plant will have stems that are bowed like a cowboys legs, cross the stems so they follow their natural curves when you bend them - right side stem circles the bucket rim counter clockwise, left clockwise.

This Bubblegum's stems weren't crossed and took over a week to train. If crossed I could have done it in a few hours.





This is a 1 stem Kali Mist at 35" and a 2 stem Flo (18" & 19"). The stem is much thicker and more difficult to bend and train. We need to get the stem around the 38" of the bucket rim to get as many branches as possible, so two thinner, shorter stems are much easier. The stems virtually stop growth and stretch when bent horizontal, many more branches than a vertical plant of the same stem length. The Flo trained in about 15 minutes and the Kali Mist took days.

Flo - Kali Mist


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Flo


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Kali Mist



You need holes drilled in your bucket just below the rim, to anchor your stem tie downs. I drill a hole every 1", 38 around the bucket. Use 1' of twist tie and make a loose loop around a stiff part of the stem, probably 3"-6" from the end. Gently bend the stem in a semi circle - experience will tell you how far you can go each day, you are going to snap a few stems and will have to repair them. I use silicon tubing to protect the stem and duct tape around the tubing. When I started I snapped stems in two that were only held together with the skin and the stems healed. Tough plant. You'll find it easiest to use 3 or 4 training twist ties along the length of each stem, taking the slack off each after one is tightened.

This is a technique you should use out of desperation (my plants were too tall for my secret 4' room when I started growing) or on plants you can afford to throw away. If you don't have any extra clones around use your male plants for experimenting and learning, just put them back in veg so they don't mess up your females in flower. Great use for something you were going to chop and toss out, now you just toss them when you're done training and you know how far you can push your females.



It'll take a few days to train a mature plant, a skinny stemmed plant from a 20 oz cup can be trainned in about 15 minutes but the yield will be low. If you force the plant, or tighten more than once a day, you will crease or snap stems - tighten the twist ties once per day only even though they will feel loose hours after tightening. This is a procedure where you really need patience. Immediately after trainning your plants they'll look like these Jack The Ripper, Pandora's Box and Chemdog, it's normal.



After the stem is trained and held in place with twist ties you have to train the branches on long branched strains. On short branched strains you have an easier time, they almost train themselves, just need a little help. I start at the base of each stem and match branches from each node, connecting them in the middle by a short piece of twist tie. The idea now is to bring eveything towards the middle and to get the branches in order. After the branches of each node are connected with twist ties start from the bottom of the stems and line up each set of branches like a deck of cards that are fanned out - the branches will pull up towards the light. Give them a week or so for the branches to settle in that position and take the twist ties off. The branches have to be twisted slightly and arranged so the branch stems aren't crossed. In the end you should have the two sides of the nodes making a V with the branches that follows the stems like circular track. After a couple of weeks and some training you're plants will look like this Jilly Bean.



This is a Super Strawberry Diesel after trimming the leaves during hang dry. The tomato care ring I tied it to is 18" in diameter, it yielded just over 2 liters (9 cups) of 4 week cured bud.




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I've been improving my technique - now I train the individual branches so they get the most light. Training with twist ties and stacking the branches like a fanned deck of cards. The branches on trained plants grow in a V channel that spreads the buds out.

Another thing I've been thinking about is building an individual 1/2 V-screen to help organize the branches and to fully use all the space in the plant's light footprint. I've MacGivered one using chicken screen and a tomato cage, I'll get a picture in a bit. I have 18" x 16" for each plant (2 rows of six 5 gallon buckets, 8'x3').

The one thing holding me back on this method is that I like to rotate the plants a couple of times a day so light gets to all parts of the buds. With a stationary 1/2 V-screen that can't be rotated some buds would stay in the shade all the time. I think it's something I'll have to try and compare against an equal clone grown on the other side of the grow floor.

This is just a mock up, when I do a trial I'll use better screen.





If you folks were doing a single bucket scrog, as part of a multi bucket grow, how would you set it up? Thanks.

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https://www.rollitup.org/seed-strain-reviews/211186-pics-my-garden-ssd-km.html

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bongsmilie
 

woodsmantoker

Well-Known Member
Hobbes,

Thank you for the share! I have seen you around a bit and am very pleased to see the effort that you put forth. As I am sure you have learned, time into your grow means sweet rewards. I also would like to take note of your strain choices. I see you have picked some of my personal favorites. You have also chosen some plants that are not the easiest to grow.

FYI- Jilly has a pheno that Subcool calls the Candy Store pheno. It took me a bit of searching before I found mine, however I think your Jilly looks like her. I promise you will know it when you smoke it. WAY sweet, VERY potent. There are a few others that produce more, however the quality of the smoke is nothing like the surpirse pheno "Candy Store". There is another one that grows large orange buds but she is the less potent.

Pandoras Box is one of the best most pleasent buzzes I have smoked to date.

JTR is rediculous as I am sure you already know. A looker! A few good, a few not as good, in the pheno line there too.

Regarding your training: I am a pure fan of LST over all other methods. If there is only one thing that I can do to a plant, it will be bending.
I think your on the right track to finding your nitch. I would also have to say, even judging by your post, that your on your way to learning why SCROG works so well and why the two go hand in hand.

As for your comment on moving the plant to better suit the light direction on bud sites: LSTing and being able to direct your point of stretch is a key element in ease of training that alot of folks dont pick up on right away. I train all of my plants this way.
Once your plant hit a scrog, it does not mean that you cant move them. If you do as you were suggesting, idividual scrog screens above the individual plants, you can still move them however, I have found that moving the lights can be less troubling if planned in advance. (*tip: CFL's in a clip on shop type light, can be used to direct growth. Also can be used to assist growth that is shaded or lagging in scrog.)

As for methods: A method tends to become known as such when it is set apart from others, if it gains an edge over another, and or if it adds an element to growing that can be proven as a benifit. It also must be searched and proven to have not been done before and called something else. I do think you might offend the LSTers if your method does not give credit however (though I know you as a good guy and a due creditor :)) I think your method is still within the LST group but your style is your own! Keep up the good work my friend! I LIKE IT!

I really hope you stick around Hobbes, you keep us tuned in buddy!
 

Hobbes

Well-Known Member
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"I do think you might offend the LSTers if your method does not give credit however (though I know you as a good guy and a due creditor :smile:) I think your method is still within the LST group but your style is your own! Keep up the good work my friend! I LIKE IT!"


LOL! I agree, it is simple LST and tying to the bucket.

The Crop Circle Of Green (CCOB) is sort of a joke, it's just bending and tying but it works! I literally had 6'-8' plants with incandescent lights my first grow and saved the grow with LST. Thanks for the thread, I'm going to be going over it again looking for instructions. I've picked up most things on my own, trial and error, slowly. I've no doubt I'll be able to improve my grow with the techniques and tips you guys use.

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bongsmilie
 

Durbanplaya

Well-Known Member
Wow finally finished reading all 11 pages.

Think I'm gonna make some space to do my first scrog. Currently using DWC 20ltr buckets and the results have been pleasing, however, I am wasting a huge amount of light that could be put to better use with scrog.

Thanks for all the info so far guys, just wondering if I should plan on my plants drinking more nutes to support the extra bud growth?

Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to change buckets when needed.
 

woodsmantoker

Well-Known Member
Not much happened.....LOL

Well Durban: Glad to hear it! Changing the buckets can be done by planing your scrog so that the buckets are not sitting on the floor but on something that allows you to remove the lid, the bucket, and slide another already clean one in place. As for nutrients, yes you will notice a need for more. This will not only be the case in flower, as you are growing a much larger plant with scrog.
 
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