Scrog

I wanted to know how tall the plant should be when it go's under the net?
How high off of the floor should the net be?
How high the light is off of the top of the net with a 250watt hps?
I am trying to build a new cab and just need to know the in's and out's to Scrog. Any help would be great.

Any help is better than no help

hunt4pot1 said:

I wanted to know how tall the plant should be when it go's under the net?
How high off of the floor should the net be?
How high the light is off of the top of the net with a 250watt hps?
I am trying to build a new cab and just need to know the in's and out's to Scrog. Any help would be great.

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If you just search the forum these answers are VERY easy to find, but because I am lazy too, I will tell you.

On the first question you will get a lot of different answers. The shortest height you will see people recommend is 8" to 10" above the top of the pot or medium or whatever. The highest is around 18". From what I understand about this the reasoning for going higher is to have access to the bottoms of the plants for trimming. So 8" will work but you can't have man hands, or you have to be very gentle and careful.

Second question. If you hang out here for any amount of time you will hear over and over and over. Put your hand under the light. If it is too hot for you then it is too hot for your plant. With the information provided there is no real answer. Do you have a reflector? Do you have a cool tube? How much air are you pulling through the grow box?

And the third question, I am too lazy to answer this for you. Google: Scrog Grow, or Scrog Bible, or just Scrog. Read until it hurts.

Dont use a net. Use chicken wire or fencing. 1" holes or a tad larger would work well. And yes 8" to 1.5' is a good number . Good luck and make sure that its a very stable netting / fencing. You dont want to be able to move it much otherwise you might just chop all their head off!!

Madhadda said:

Dont use a net. Use chicken wire or fencing. 1" holes or a tad larger would work well. And yes 8" to 1.5' is a good number . Good luck and make sure that its a very stable netting / fencing. You dont want to be able to move it much otherwise you might just chop all their head off!!

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Thanks for the reply.

Ichi said:

If you just search the forum these answers are VERY easy to find, but because I am lazy too, I will tell you.

On the first question you will get a lot of different answers. The shortest height you will see people recommend is 8" to 10" above the top of the pot or medium or whatever. The highest is around 18". From what I understand about this the reasoning for going higher is to have access to the bottoms of the plants for trimming. So 8" will work but you can't have man hands, or you have to be very gentle and careful.

Second question. If you hang out here for any amount of time you will hear over and over and over. Put your hand under the light. If it is too hot for you then it is too hot for your plant. With the information provided there is no real answer. Do you have a reflector? Do you have a cool tube? How much air are you pulling through the grow box?

And the third question, I am too lazy to answer this for you. Google: Scrog Grow, or Scrog Bible, or just Scrog. Read until it hurts.

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I did search and didn't come up with the results I wanted so that is way I asked.
Thanks for your input.

hunt4pot1 said:

Thanks for the reply.

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yah dude definitely

NEED TO KNKOW MORE!!!!!!! lol sorry for caps but i have been having some qquestions on scrog also and has been hard to find usefull tips... find a lot ofpics of scrog but no details on setup when the tops reach net do they stop growing till flower and the buds poke through or do you have to prune.... also what strains are best suited for scrog ... i kno probly 100 % indica or indica dominent BUT what do you guys grow and had success with... please just take a hit and let your expertise on scrog flow onto this thred... I NEED TO LEARN thanks PEACE toke one

GroDro420 said:

NEED TO KNKOW MORE!!!!!!! lol sorry for caps but i have been having some qquestions on scrog also and has been hard to find usefull tips... find a lot ofpics of scrog but no details on setup when the tops reach net do they stop growing till flower and the buds poke through or do you have to prune.... also what strains are best suited for scrog ... i kno probly 100 % indica or indica dominent BUT what do you guys grow and had success with... please just take a hit and let your expertise on scrog flow onto this thred... I NEED TO LEARN thanks PEACE toke one

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I hope more people will get on this thread that grow scrog style and give us the low down on it... I have started a sog type of grow right now and I am doing ok. I hope to put the screen in on the next grow if I dont like the sog grow.. So try to hang around and see if we can get more answers soon from scrog growers.

adding other posts to help.... hopefully get people on the right track expandfrom here


marijuana plants are very plyable if you use tender tlc.... you can literally set a screen on the top of your plants then only train while flowering carfully either tucking/weaving the tops throughout the screen, or totally train to keep the plant underneath... when a shoot sprouts through the screen carefully put it back through the same hole it came from and guide it underneath. when the stretch stops only the budsights will continue to grow vertically leaving all vegetative growth under the screen and thus out of the canopy.

does anything think it'll be possible to scrog in a pc grow box?

I keep weaving the shoots for about two weeks but this depends on strain some have more stretch than others.I use a plastic net I bought at the Hydroponic store it's called a horti-trellis.And you want to chop off like 1/3 of all the bottom foliage little by little start a week or two before you start flowering to give your plants time to recover.All the bottom branches don't receive much light resulting in wasted energy that could be focused on all the tops to make fatter colas.

there are lots of ways of doing scrogs, here's my recent 4x23 watt cfl grow. one plant, net gives 4 inches of clearance between soil and screen. it was trained through the first month of flowering also, as i wanted to keep it super short and this is a pretty sativa strain (bagseed tho)

the biggest thing I had to figure out was when to let the plant take over and grow through the screen instead of getting tucked under and this will vary greatly on the strain. I let the plant go once the tops of the plants were showing white hairs, allowing for about 6 inches of growth above the screen.

Hey all,

The following questions/answers are based on my own ScrOG experiences and research…not definitive by any means…

First off, there are many variables to consider. You really need to know the characteristics of your particular strain to plan for a ScrOG, so it’s probably not a good idea for your first grow. That being said…

1. What strain is best for ScrOG? You can grow most strains using ScrOG, you just have to vary some things based on strain (more later).

2. Hydro or soil? Both can be used successfully. You need to consider 3 below, though (for example, if I’m growing in soil, how am I going to flush the soil if the plant is tangled in a screen?)

3. Will I be able to move my plants once under the screen? Depends. If you fix the frame of the screen to your growing container then you will be able to move the container, plant, and screen as one. If you fix the screen to something else (like a wall) you won’t.

4. How big should I make the screen? Depends on your light. You want about 50-70 watts per square foot. So if you have a 250 watt HPS, you can have about 4-5 square feet…say a 2’ X 2’ screen area.

5. What kind of screen should I use? You can use netting, chickenwire, DIY using string, etc. The important thing is to have at LEAST 2” squares to make it easier to feed the branches/leaves through. I made my own netting with 3” squares.

6. How high should I place the screen? Depends on your strain. You’re looking to get some branching going before you reach the screen. With pure Indicas you tend to get bushy plants with tight nodes and you can set the screen at 8” from the base (12” if you want some room to work under the screen). Pure Sativas are less bushy and airier and you would probably set the screen at 18” – 24”. Set the screen between 12” – 18” for Indica/Sativa strains, depending on how bushy/tall it grows.


7. Can I grow from seed? You can…so long as you’re able to sex the plants before you put them in the screen. It’s best to grow from known females. It's easiest to grow from clones that you're familiar with.

8. How many plants should I grow? Depends. For example, you could fill up a 3’ X 3’ screen with one Indica plant; but it would take several toppings and a long veg period to do it. Two plants would take fewer toppings and less veg time, and so on. Generally, you don’t want to exceed one plant per square foot, might as well do a SOG then.

9. How high should the light be? It should be as close as you can get it without burning the plant, same as any grow.

10. Should I do any kind of training (topping, LST, etc.) before the plant reaches the screen? Again, depends on the characteristics of the plant and how much screen it needs to fill. Is it a bushy, stunted Indica? Or a stringy, tall Sativa? Is the plant going to fill a 1’ X 1’ or 2’ X 2’ area? And so on.

11. How much of the screen should be filled up before I initiate flowering? This is a key point and it depends on the strain and how much it stretches once you start flowering. You will continue to train the plant under the screen for 1 – 3 weeks after initiating flowering, until the stretch phase is over and flowering begins. You really need to know your plant, but the following are general guidelines: for a bushy Indica that has little stretching, you can start 12/12 when about 80% of the screen is filled. For a Sativa that stretches a lot you may only want 50% of your screen filled. For Indica/Sativas maybe 60-70%.

12. Should I trim fan leaves so that bud sites get light? Touchy subject…I personally will tuck or tie back a leaf first; if it’s still in the way I’ll cut it in half; but if that don’t work I won’t hesitate to snip it off it it’s still in the way of a bud site – bud sites take priority over fan leaves for me.

13. How should I deal with the under screen growth? It’s best to cut away any fan leaves and underdeveloped branches from underneath the screen to allow for better ventilation.

14. How do I deal with ventilation? The leaves and branches are going to be packed in tight and humid, an invitation for molds and bugs. I run two oscillating fans, one underneath blowing up at the leaves and one directed over the canopy.

15. How do you keep the canopy growth even? The whole purpose of a ScrOG is to get an even canopy of buds. If some branches grow taller faster than I’ll supercrop (pinch) them to slow them down. If others are lagging, then I’ll tuck, tie, or trim the fan leaves around them so they get more light, and so on.

That’s about all I can think of off the top of my head. Use at your own risk.

Damn HOZ! nice cfl grow i like lol ...... and thank you Bush your help was etrememly helpfull ! here is some more i found on SCROG on this site.... some of it or most is what bush just said but can still help


You need something strong to support the buds and hold back the canopy growth. The screen needs to be cut to size. The size of the screen is determined by the size of your lamp. Remember that to get the good bud formation you want 50 watts per square foot of screen size . Check the examples below.

150hps screen size 1.75ft x 1.75ft

250hps screen size 2.25ft x 2.25ft

400hps screen size 2.91ft x 2.75ft

600hps screen size 3.45ft x 3.45ft

1000hps screen size 4.4ft x 4.5ft

If your screen exceeds the 50 wpsf thing a little. Thats perfectly okay. Now once you've determined the size of your screen and cut it to size. Situate it over your grow area and secure it into place. Just a few screws will hold it in place.

You need to figure out where to set the screen. First, a few questions to ask. Is your lamp air cooled and what size is your lamp? These two questions determine how close you can get to your canopy. This is very important stuff. The closer you get the better off you are. If you do not have air cooled lamps then a simple fan blowing between the canopy and the the lamp should do the trick.

Okay, now lets set that screen. Here's some examples of screen settings for hps's. These are not exact settings.

150hps 10-12 inches
250hps 12-15 inches
400hps 16-20 inches
600hps 20+
1000hps 24+

Your Plants
How Many Will I Need Under The Screen? Usually the rule is one plant per square foot of screen. I go with as few plants as I can whenever possible. One side of my flower chamber is almost 3x3ft. Thats almost 9 sqft.

Spacing
Lets talk about the spacing between the plant medium and the screen. This space will need to be large enough to allow you room to manipulate your plants during the training phase, around 8 inches.

What Is The Best Strain To Grow In A Scrog?
Most any plant strain can be grown without much difficulty using a scrog. The secret is in the screen. Some strains require more training than others but that is the only difference. Heavy yeild indica's are excellent scrog candidates but the unruley sativa can really shine with proper training and timing.

Hydro or Soil?

So, how are you going to do this scrog? Is it going to bubble, flow or just sit there? Here's some things you may consider before your plants get tangled up in the screen.

Hydro:
No real problem here. I prefer to scrog with a bubbler system over soil anyday. The problem lies in the flush. I explain below.

Soil:
Soil grows and scrogs are a wonderful thing. Orgainc buds rule. One problem I ran into when scroging with soil was the flushing of the medium at the end of the grow. Well, with the plants tangled in the screen. One can not just transport to the sink and flush.


Managing the Scrog Grow

Vegging:
Here is where alot of people make mistakes. Flip their shit over to 12/12 way to soon and wonder why their screen never filled up. Normally one would veg a plant till the screen is 70-80 percent full before switching over to the flowering cycle. Having knowlege of how much your strain stretches is helpful when determining when to switch to flowering. For example: If one had a very stretchy sativa. You would want to start flowering her with much less of the screen filled.

Pulling It Back Through:
Reach under the screen and pull that branch back under the screen and place it where you want it to be. Even if it takes tying it in place with the plastic twisty ties. Now I could really get technical and shit and start with the be sure there is an internode in each hole of the screen but it really doesnt matter man. Just get the growth under the screen first. In the next few weeks. You will see were to guide the new growth to best suit your needs.

Training: Scrog is not natural growth for the cannabis plant. Training begings in the pulling it back through section. Try to situate your main branches towards the barest parts of your screen. They will branch out the most and usually be the largest bud in the bunch. Use some kind of uniformity to your laying out of the branches. Crisscross/ zigzag whatever you use. Remember theres are going to be alot more branching when flowering kicks in high gear. So allow some room for that as well. Lesser buds that are now exposed to more light are then encouraged to grow upwards toward the screen through some leaf triming. An often debated subject but one I feel that is useful in the scrog method.

Leaf Trimming:
Now we need to chat about a touchy subject. If the leaf is in the way of light for a bud site. Then it needs to be removed. Sometimes I tuck the leaf instead of removing it. This trims away leaves and allows the new sites to get light. You will be surprised at how fast they will respond. Too much is not a good thing here. Its all about light penetration and bud sites in a scrog.

Timing: Timing is critical when it comes to a scrog grow. You must be paying attention to the progress of your grow in order to know when to induce flowering. Knowing what strain you are dealing with and what the growing characteristices of the plant are is very helpful when it comes to timing. I cant express the importance of having a good clone base for this purpose. As mentioned above if you induce flowering to early. You will have a lot less of a yield. However, if one was to wait to long. The same can happen as well. An overcrowed canopy is just as much a mess. An out of control scrog is just that. A mess. Not something you want to deal with. Remember, the plants you start to flower are probably going to double in size. Stand back and get a visual picture of that in your head. Ask yourself some questions. If I start flowering now. Can I visualize how big they will get? Do I have enough veggative growth to start flowering? Do I have to much? Is it time? Time to start flowering?

Clones/Seed Grows I suggest clones for scrog growing over seed anyday of the year. With clones you usually already know the characteristics of the plant and how it will perform and know who the sex before going under the screen.

Damage Control: If you move branches around and bend'em. Eventually somethings gonna give. Dont freakout. Just support her wound and leave her alone. She will take care of it on her own. Unless you break her completely in half she can be saved usually. You can splint the wound or support it with some heavy gauge wire around the stem. If the break is not that bad and the branch can somewhat support itself. Leave it alone. In all cases. A knot will form at the break and most times an explosion of growth will happen above the damaged area. At times even new growth sometimes sprouts from the knuckle formed.

Undergrowth: Its an area that should be kept clear of dead leaves and you should also ensure that proper ventilation can get through the canopy via the undergrowth. If it cant. Then thin out some growth. This is an area that is dim and often humid. An open invitation for not so good things to come visiting aye? Some people have mentioned putting a light down there. Why? There's no need for a light down there. There are no buds to be harvested there. Just stems that support the canopy. If one were to put a light there they would just be adding to the congestion of leaves already growing. Not good. It is a good idea to clear out your undergrowth as your scrog takes shape and you have taken the clones that you need for the next grow. Trim all remaining sprouts left on the stems and any other undergrowth. Now lets not get to crazy here. Leave a little growth. Use some common sense here. Take out the sites you know are not going to make it to maturity. This will help the plant direct more energy towards the larger buds instead of wasting energy on the smaller ones.

Ventilation: Here's an issue that can not be overlooked. Once a scrog has been established it is a leafy sight to behold. Air circulation becomes critical as the buds begin to form and things start to get packed in the box. 24hr air movement is suggested 7 days a week. Better safe than sorry. Mold sucks.

Even Canopy: Maybe I should not put it in those words. Your canopy does not have to be perfectly even. Just close. The idea behind this is even light distribution. We are looking for a field of buds here not a forest like in SOG. If a dominate bud is allowed to overtake the canopy. It is defeating the purpose of the scrog. Tame that bitch.

TrickyTip: Occasionally you will have a stretcher that decides that she wants more light than the rest of her friends. This often happens when the branches are competing for light. Reach under the screen and find her stem. Half way up her stem start to pull her back through the canopy till she is even with the rest. Now where she is bent. Crush her at the bend with your fingers. Dont smash it in half. It will heal with vigor and you have solved your canopy problem.

Lots of great info.. Thank you very much that is going to help me and lots of others out.

yeah the screen should have 2'' holes and don't worry u don't have to b that careful when pulling them back through,,,the cannabis plant is very strong and u can do all types of bending with it...if u were to break it sum how don't trip it will mostlikly repair itself...i pulled (trained) my plant back under the screen up untill it was 3 weeks i to flowering, its kinda up to u, or the plant... ,i also tied it down with trash bag ties or bread ties to hold it down..if u just let it grow up through the screen and not train it back down ur screen will just b a plant holder....there r a lot of scrog guides on these sites, u gotta fish through them to find what u want...but good luck to u...here r sum pics from my grow early on until now...PEACE AND REAL MEDS

Well if everybody showing pics here is my scrog,It's kinda hard to see the screen but it's under there somewhere

this can become a pic journal for anyone growing SCROG ... as i am a visual learner it will give me and other more iddeas on setup and everything so if you have pics take a sec and post them here please !

GroDro420 said:

this can become a pic journal for anyone growing SCROG ... as i am a visual learner it will give me and other more iddeas on setup and everything so if you have pics take a sec and post them here please !

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I am with you on the pics man.