SCROG 600w LED Hydrofarm Set up

Hello,

I just finished setting up a small two plant grow with two hydrofarm all in one buckets. I am planning on doing a scrog set up following SCOTTYBALLS method.

Looking for recommendations on how to set up the screen. I have seen set ups that suspend pvc pipes around the perimeter of the tent and then string is set up as a grid. I want to understand how you can lift the water farm bucket to change the nutrients while the plant is intertwined with the screen. Ideally, do you move both up at the same time?

Open to any other methods. Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Ganjasauruz

my waterfarms have drain hoses you just sit them on something like a milk crate &a drain them into a 2 gal bucket I made up a flower waterer with a short length of hose on the end of the spout & dump the nutrients right in the hydroton once my Scrog is in place I don't lift the bucket now I use a remote reservoir with a lid & a drain hose you just kinda use your imagination

do you have any pics?

Hey thanks for your reply! Yes I'll attach pics tonight. So once the scrog is set, do you use two pumps for each reservoir? Like one to pump out and another to pump in?

This is how I rig a simple screen to do ScroGs. It "floats" so as the plant grows the screen can rise and it'll end up 4" higher by the time it's done.

To bridge gaps I just tie in some twist tie for the grow tips to get across. The twist tie stuff on a roll works great.

Definitely going to be watching this thread as I'm starting a very similar run right now and have many of the same questions. @ganjasauruz Are you going to do a grow journal for this?

@OldMedUser that's a great idea, so you have it loosely attached to the metal support beams? And do the plants push up the screen as they grow?

@NanoGadget glad to hear other people are doing the same thing and can benefit from some discussion. I've been thinking of doing a grow journal since I haven't been able to find one quite like my set up. The plants are just a week old so now would be the time to start.

ganjasauruz said:

@OldMedUser that's a great idea, so you have it loosely attached to the metal support beams? And do the plants push up the screen as they grow?.

Click to expand...

The main stem continues to grow in height and width as you are vegging the plant and tying the growing branches to the screen as they grow in length. It will push up on the screen as it grows so if the screen is firmly fixed in place you can have branches split where they attach to the main stem. I found out the hard way by having the main 4-point junction of the plant that was grown in that pic I posted above split open. At first I freaked out but it didn't seem to hurt anything and I got 8oz of bud and almost the same in sugar trim off that plant.



After that I re-rigged the screen as you see it above so it can float and the plant can lift it up as it grows. Suspending the screen from the ceiling will work too tho the chains or whatever you hang it with may get in the way a bit. Probably won't be any more bother than having a PVC frame around the plants I bet.

When you do a ScroG up properly you will at least double your yield tho you may be vegging an extra month or more. As soon as the tops are thru the screen you use twist ties to loosely tie the growing ends to the screen and keep tying as they grow along horizontally. Don't weave them in and out of the screen because they keep growing in length too and can jamb side branches up against the screen and break them off. You also might want to re-position a branch to better fill in an open area and if it's in and out of the screen you can't do that. It's only the first few inches of each branch that need to be tied down and ties further back can be removed and re-used to tie the side branches that will be wanting to grow straight up and should be trained to stay horizontal too.

Once the screen is about 75% full then you flip to flower and continue to tie for the first couple weeks of the stretch then let the last 3 inches or so stand up and become colas. For the setup you got it'll just take 10 min/day to fuss with the tying and is quite relaxing and good for the plants as you breathe CO2 all over them.

You were wondering about draining the buckets and what I did for that as once in the ScroG you can't really move them and I don't like having any holes below the water line as something eventually starts leaking. I went and bought a drill pump. Just a small pump that you attach to a power drill to suck the water out into a 5gal pail or the sink if one is close. Toilet for that matter. They use garden hose fittings so it's easy to buy fittings anywhere. If sucking out of the pails where roots are like with my tubs I just wrapped the end that goes into the tub with mosquito screen and tied it on with a small stainless steel hose clamp. Only takes a couple minutes for me to drain 50L/12.5USG out of a big tub. Then you can use it to refill but I bought a big funnel at the auto supply to pour lots of water fast back into the tub. About 10 - $15 for the pump at most hardware stores. Have to hold the pump firmly when it first starts or the torque will spin it around. Another lesson I learned the hard way.

Here's a few pictures of the set up so far

I forgot to mention that the strain dream queen. Was happy to find it since it's relatively resilient and good yield. Hopefully, it will stretch well.

OldMedUser said:

. I found out the hard way by having the main 4-point junction of the plant that was grown in that pic I posted above split open.

Click to expand...

I haven't heard of that issue before when I was reading about it, thanks for the tip. I have a question related to this actually since this is my first scrog. I've read that 4-way LST method to get the 4 way junction like yours is not recommended for clones. It was on the grow weed easy website. (http://www.growweedeasy.com/scrog-tutorial) Did you use clones for your set up? There's a link in that tutorial for clones (https://www.rollitup.org/t/enter-the-scrog-scroggers-united-post-page.515987/) but it doesn't talk about how exactly you train the plant to spread. I have seen several different methods mentioned.

OldMedUser said:

After that I re-rigged the screen as you see it above so it can float and the plant can lift it up as it grows.

Click to expand...

I see, this might be best for my set up. I visited the hydro store and they actually sell netting that can just be attached to the 4 tent poles on the side. I'm thinking that might be a good option since it can easily be slid up the tent pole as needed. I have to put one in pretty soon as the plants are growing fast and that saves some time at the hardware store.

OldMedUser said:

As soon as the tops are thru the screen you use twist ties to loosely tie the growing ends to the screen and keep tying as they grow along horizontally. Don't weave them in and out of the screen because they keep growing in length too and can jamb side branches up against the screen and break them off.

Click to expand...

I was definitely about to weave it so good looking out. Using twisty ties would work best with metal wiring I would think so I'll look into making something like your set up.

OldMedUser said:

Once the screen is about 75% full then you flip to flower and continue to tie for the first couple weeks of the stretch then let the last 3 inches or so stand up and become

Click to expand...

Interesting, so how far away did the plants end up from your light? I have an LED so the plants wont get burned by getting close to the light like they would If it was an HID. Just curious to see how close yours got.

OldMedUser said:

. I went and bought a drill pump. Just a small pump that you attach to a power drill to suck the water out into a 5gal pail or the sink if one is close. Toilet for that matter. They use garden hose fittings so it's easy to buy fittings anywhere. If sucking out of the pails where roots are like with my tubs I just wrapped the end that goes into the tub with mosquito screen and tied it on with a small stainless steel hose clamp. Only takes a couple minutes for me to drain 50L/12.5USG out of a big tub. Then you can use it to refill but I bought a big funnel at the auto supply to pour lots of water fast back into the tub. About 10 - $15 for the pump at most hardware stores. Have to hold the pump firmly when it first starts or the torque will spin it around. Another lesson I learned the hard way.

Click to expand...

Nice, that sounds like a solid idea. I already have a drill so that might be the best bet.

It might be possible to use the existing watering line attached to the air pump to pump the water into a bucket. I would have to detach the circular hose with holes in and put in a hose that fits on one side and plug the opposite end. Also I have a tiny pump that was used for a previous small grow that could be used to pump fresh water from a five gallon bucket back into the reservoir. Will have to experiment to see if that works

So it's pretty much agreed that its not a good idea to move the top tray up when changing the water. You're saving me a ton of headaches thanks for the help!

First off it would be great if you could take some pics under more natural light. I hate looking at yellow or burple pot pics. Go in just before lights on or right after light's off and snap some shots under normal light or use the flash. The flash really makes buds "pop".

I use a 20mp Nikon CoolPix to take my pics. It has a manual white balance function so I can calibrate the camera to whatever light it's exposed to. I just took these. One under the grow light with no corrected white balance and the other in a dark grow room using the flash on Auto.


FLASH! Really shows the nute burn I spent half the day flushing them to stop. End of week 6 today 42 days since the flip.


This one is white balanced with no flash.



Lecture over.

ganjasauruz said:

I forgot to mention that the strain dream queen. Was happy to find it since it's relatively resilient and good yield. Hopefully, it will stretch well.

Not so great at getting those quotes all done up like your last post but will figure something out as I go along.

Don't know much about Dream Queen but leggy sativa dominant plants work much better for ScroG than squat indicas. You want something that you can top above the 4th node and will end up with 4 - 8 long side branches to use to fill the screen. Screen should be about a foot above pot level.

I haven't heard of that issue before when I was reading about it, thanks for the tip. I have a question related to this actually since this is my first scrog. I've read that 4-way LST method to get the 4 way junction like yours is not recommended for clones. It was on the grow weed easy website. (http://www.growweedeasy.com/scrog-tutorial) Did you use clones for your set up? There's a link in that tutorial for clones (https://www.rollitup.org/t/enter-the-scrog-scroggers-united-post-page.515987/) but it doesn't talk about how exactly you train the plant to spread. I have seen several different methods mentioned.

Checked out that GWE Scrog thing and it's not bad but the rigid frame for ScroG is totally wrong IMO. I downloaded their grow manual a while back and there is a lot of bad info in there. Get a grow bible by Jorge Cervantes if you want dead on guidance in almost every aspect of growing and harvesting your crop. I got two and many others I've used since the mid 70's to help me along. I have my own method of cloning that never fails but that's a page full of info.


I see, this might be best for my set up. I visited the hydro store and they actually sell netting that can just be attached to the 4 tent poles on the side. I'm thinking that might be a good option since it can easily be slid up the tent pole as needed. I have to put one in pretty soon as the plants are growing fast and that saves some time at the hardware store.

Sounds like a plan! We have a farm so the metal fencing I use is lying around in rolls so that's what I'm used to.

I was definitely about to weave it so good looking out. Using twisty ties would work best with metal wiring I would think so I'll look into making something like your set up.

The twist-tie thing should work fine with netting too. Mostly just need 2 -3" ones to hold down the tips. Don't need to twist them on tight.

Interesting, so how far away did the plants end up from your light? I have an LED so the plants wont get burned by getting close to the light like they would If it was an HID. Just curious to see how close yours got.

LEDs need to be higher up than an HID of the same light output. I run my 400W as close as 6" with a small fan blowing between it and the canopy. Any grower of experience knows that the only light better than HID is sunlight if you want the phatest colas for the least money. A lot of the LEDs like COB can do a good job but at a much larger outlay for enough lighting or a Linux-like knowledge of DIY lighting to do it cheaper.

Few more years and LED of some kind will be the bomb but not yet.

Nice, that sounds like a solid idea. I already have a drill so that might be the best bet.

It might be possible to use the existing watering line attached to the air pump to pump the water into a bucket. I would have to detach the circular hose with holes in and put in a hose that fits on one side and plug the opposite end. Also I have a tiny pump that was used for a previous small grow that could be used to pump fresh water from a five gallon bucket back into the reservoir. Will have to experiment to see if that works

You're going to have to figure that stuff out yourself unless you want to draw out plans and specs for me to see what's what.

So it's pretty much agreed that its not a good idea to move the top tray up when changing the water. You're saving me a ton of headaches thanks for the help!

Click to expand...

My reason for being is to help growers grow better or get nOObs up and running. If I don't know something from personal experience after 40 years of growing I can find out in one of my grow bibles or on the interweb fast enough. I'm still learning stuff every day and spend/have spent a lot of my life researching cannabis. Getting a diploma in chemistry in my mid 30s sure taught me a lot about researching things and how things actually work at the most basic levels.

I got major skills in DIY too and that is a huge advantage over lots. In all my piles of hoarder stuff I can always jerry-rig something to get the job done and tho it might not be pretty if it works, it stays. Money can better be spent on something I can't make. Jack of all trades with diplomas in two. Chemist and Webmaster.

Years working as a carpenter's helper, mechanics helper, machine shop and electrical with a full welding course helps a lot. I couldn't afford to pay people to keep my house running so I do it or we do without. Same with vehicles. Doing a tranny swap on my old Exploder this winter if I can get into the neighbour's shop for a week.

Have been building computers since '88 and still fix things for friends and family all the time and happily run this rig with the last great version of Windoze, XP Pro. Next rebuild will be some flavour of Linux.