scroging - When

Hello all. I want to scrog but ive never built or used one. Wanted to know the best and least expensive way to do so. If anyone has some methods they use and are relatively cheap. Please do tell.
Also, when should I put this up. During veg, flowering?, right before flowering?

Ive attached some pics and the plants I see are all bare right till they reach the screen. why is this ?

http://www.growweedeasy.com/scrog-tutorial

All questions answered here...^^^^^

A lot of people use pvc, but I've found it's cheaper to build something out of wood. I used some basic string this round and it works pretty well, I'm having difficulty with it but it's my fault. If you don't tie the string as tightly as you can then the plants will just move the damn string

Doesn't have to be string; however you need something gentle enough to not snap or break branches, yet firm enough to hold them in place.

Design is simple enough and can be tailored to pretty much any grow/light footprint. Just make a wood frame, stick some hooks in it, and tie string into the hooks to form a "grid".

Put them up as soon as you've made your first top, allowing it to grow into 4 main branches with LST. Let those 4 main branches hit your screen and start tucking until 75% full if you're limited by space (flower stretch), 100% full if you have lots of room, light, and airflow to work with. Put the screen about 6-8 inches above the plant, you want them to hit the screen fairly quickly but also want the 6-8 inches of extra growth as this will end up being the support for the canopy.

One thing I will say about SCROG is that it's one of the best methods for getting the maximum potential out of pretty much any light, however I've also found that you really have to know your strain with this method. If you can't tell exactly how much the plant will or will not stretch, how much they do or don't veg, yield, etc, then your results will be somewhat of a crapshoot. Then again, I suppose this is true of pretty much any method lol

I started with seeds, all of which I had no experience with and was essentially growing in the dark with them and in a single plant per light scrog that can make it difficult to hit max yield. Some strains did much better than others when it came to filling the screens, but some strains have me wishing I put more plants under the light. My Cluster Bomb looks like it's going to throw off some of the biggest nugs I've ever seen in my life, however it fills half of the 4x4 screen I built for it. All I had to go by was the breeders description (which I usually take with a grain of salt for this reason) and it said it was perfect for a SCROG. However, it is so focused on building massive buds that it didn't branch nearly as much as the others I've got. My yields under that light will suffer, because if I had the experience with this strain I would have known to throw 4 of that strain under that light instead of just one.

Don't get me wrong, I'll pretty much SCROG exclusively to maximize yields with my plant count, but you definitely need to have a decent knowledge of how the strain is going to grow to have things 100% dialed in. Once you get that going though you can pretty much push the limits of whatever space you're in from that point on.

Hope that helps.

plastic chicken wire does the trick just fine. I didnt grow this in veg long enough which is why it didnt reach full screens potential.

How do you know what height to put the screen at.

Nugachino said:

How do you know what height to put the screen at.

Click to expand...

Thats a great question

kratos015 said:

A lot of people use pvc, but I've found it's cheaper to build something out of wood. I used some basic string this round and it works pretty well, I'm having difficulty with it but it's my fault. If you don't tie the string as tightly as you can then the plants will just move the damn string

Doesn't have to be string; however you need something gentle enough to not snap or break branches, yet firm enough to hold them in place.

Design is simple enough and can be tailored to pretty much any grow/light footprint. Just make a wood frame, stick some hooks in it, and tie string into the hooks to form a "grid".

Put them up as soon as you've made your first top, allowing it to grow into 4 main branches with LST. Let those 4 main branches hit your screen and start tucking until 75% full if you're limited by space (flower stretch), 100% full if you have lots of room, light, and airflow to work with. Put the screen about 6-8 inches above the plant, you want them to hit the screen fairly quickly but also want the 6-8 inches of extra growth as this will end up being the support for the canopy.

One thing I will say about SCROG is that it's one of the best methods for getting the maximum potential out of pretty much any light, however I've also found that you really have to know your strain with this method. If you can't tell exactly how much the plant will or will not stretch, how much they do or don't veg, yield, etc, then your results will be somewhat of a crapshoot. Then again, I suppose this is true of pretty much any method lol

I started with seeds, all of which I had no experience with and was essentially growing in the dark with them and in a single plant per light scrog that can make it difficult to hit max yield. Some strains did much better than others when it came to filling the screens, but some strains have me wishing I put more plants under the light. My Cluster Bomb looks like it's going to throw off some of the biggest nugs I've ever seen in my life, however it fills half of the 4x4 screen I built for it. All I had to go by was the breeders description (which I usually take with a grain of salt for this reason) and it said it was perfect for a SCROG. However, it is so focused on building massive buds that it didn't branch nearly as much as the others I've got. My yields under that light will suffer, because if I had the experience with this strain I would have known to throw 4 of that strain under that light instead of just one.

Don't get me wrong, I'll pretty much SCROG exclusively to maximize yields with my plant count, but you definitely need to have a decent knowledge of how the strain is going to grow to have things 100% dialed in. Once you get that going though you can pretty much push the limits of whatever space you're in from that point on.

Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

Its a pretty easy grow strain " black indica "

Thanks for the info !

Nugachino said:

How do you know what height to put the screen at.

Click to expand...

Always high enough to allow access to the base of the plant. 10 inches to a foot is where most folks I know run it.

I've seen some folks run them WAY the hell up...but that defeats the purpose, really. The goal is to get the plant going horizontal as soon as possible.

Most I've eve gotten out of a one plant scrog was just short of 9 ounces. Considering how little I actually use, I simply started growing two plants at once and not bothering with a scrog at all.

Was just curious that's all. I've tried mainlining. But not scrog or sog.

I don't mean to thread jack. But, do you have to cut the plant free of the net when done. Or does it just lift right off?

Nugachino said:

Was just curious that's all. I've tried mainlining. But not scrog or sog.

I don't mean to thread jack. But, do you have to cut the plant free of the net when done. Or does it just lift right off?

Click to expand...

Depends. My screen I made uses wire, not string, so I always just trimmed the stalks right at the screen line at harvest, hung them to dry and then lifted the screen right off when done, took off the legs and put it away. (Mine is made of PVC pipe and 18 gauge wire.) Then I take the pot outside, dump the soil in the yard and put the remainder of the plant in a garbage bag and chunk it in the can.

Those who use string normally just cut the string and get it out of the way to make things easier for them. After all, it's just string so it's cheap and they don't mind the time to restring the screen for the next grow.

It just depends on how you want to do it.

peracho said:

Ive attached some pics and the plants I see are all bare right till they reach the screen. why is this ?

Click to expand...

Removing the lower bud sites and leaves helps with airflow and since the canopy is so thick the light wouldn't reach the lower stuff so they wouldn't grow well. Removing it means the plant can focus its energy on the canopy.

I used some of the info from this Thread for my first DWC SCROG. Worked out Very Well!! https://www.420magazine.com/forums/do-it-yourself/254659-mobile-scrog-attachment-buckets.html

Nugachino said:

Was just curious that's all. I've tried mainlining. But not scrog or sog.

I don't mean to thread jack. But, do you have to cut the plant free of the net when done. Or does it just lift right off?

Click to expand...

Actually thats a great question as well

I'm just trying to figure out if I should go this route. Answers to my questions may even be helpful to others.

Nugachino said:

Was just curious that's all. I've tried mainlining. But not scrog or sog.

I don't mean to thread jack. But, do you have to cut the plant free of the net when done. Or does it just lift right off?

Click to expand...

You could actually mainline a plant in SCROG and get yourself some good results. You don't have to use single plant grows for scrog and they take a lot more vegging than normal, but there are so many benefits to doing this. You get much thicker branches from a single monster as opposed to 4+ plants, thicker branches = better support and an increased capacity for delivering nutrients and water and such. The goal of mainlining is to get an even distribution of numerous colas and this is pretty much similar to SCROG, if you incorporate mainlining into a SCROG you will have great results for sure.

As for what to do with the screen once you're finished, as with many things there is more than one viable way to go about it. Some people like to cut individual sections of the plants off so they can leave the screen in tact, they then dry the individual sections of the plants separately. Others like to cut the screen to free the plant so they're able to cut the plant at the base and dry the plant as a whole. There really isn't a "right" way to do it, just a matter of preference really. I prefer to keep the plant as in tact as possible as I feel I get a longer more even dry when the plant is together as opposed to in sections.

As for knowing what height to put the screen at, this also depends. I like to have the underside of my canopy to be around 1ft tall, this makes it so that the underside of the canopy is a lot stronger than if it were say 8 inches tall. The extra 4 inches allows my branches to get much taller and thicker, so my canopy has extra support and can deliver water and nutrients more efficiently which will translate into fatter buds.

The main thing that will dictate the distance of your screen will be the strain you're growing. Something like LA Confidential or any other pure indicas won't give you as much growth as something more on the sativa side, so be absolutely sure to account for the growth of your strains when you decide on this. If you're growing short and stout indica plants, I recommend the screen being placed 6-8 inches above your pots and I'd recommend going with more than one plant under the screen unless you're willing to veg for a long time. With sativa doms/pure sativas, you can place the screen 8-12 inches above. If veg isn't a limiting factor for you, then the height of the screen won't be of much concern. As others have said in this post though, having the screen 1ft+ over the pot kind of defeats the purpose of the SCROG.

SCROG is one of the most efficient ways to grow indoors if done properly, SOG is best if you don't have plant count limits, if you do then SCROG is your best bet. Your lights will ultimately dictate the sizes of your SCROGS.

For example

A 600w light gives 2ft of penetration on average and can cover a 3x3 sqft area, so with a 600w light you want to have a 3x3 sqft screen and ideally grow the plants to be 2ft tall. Any taller and not all of the plant is receiving enough light, any shorter and you aren't maximizing your lights coverage. The same principle applies with the size of your screen, anything more or less than 3x3sqft with a 600w is a waste.

For 1000w lights, you get 2.5-3ft penetration on average and can cover a 4x4sqft area. Anything more or less is a waste.

You want to shoot for 50 watts per sqft at a bare minimum. For example, 600w for a 3x3 sqft area. 600w divided by 9 (3x3) is 66.7w per sqft. However 600w divided by 16 (4x4) is 37.5w per sqft. This is why you want to do the math on your light and space, pretty much impossible to achieve maximum results otherwise.

Shoot any more questions my way and I'll do my best to help out, hope this helped you guys

Ive done some investigation into Scrog but im yet to complete one. I have a grow going atm that will be scroged.

If you have head room fill the screen and then flip. Approx 10inch colas

If you dont have head room then fill the screen 70 % and then flip, keep tucking for up to 2 weeks. Approx 5 inch colas.

Screen should be 8 to 14 inches above pot, You basically need room under neath to work. No point having lots of vegitive growth under the screen.

My screen is just metal rural type fencing and the frame is made out of conduit. All up cost me less than $10.


Sometimes the screen will lift away, sometimes you may need to spend more time freeing it. People who use string cut the string and restring for next grow,

Hope this may contribute.

Hmmm, this is all very interesting. Might peruse the scroggers section. And leave our mate Peracho to his thread. Sorry to hijack it once again.