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SCROG
Published at
2006-06-13 in
Growguides »
Indoor growing
The screen of green (SCROG) method is also used when height and wattage are a consideration. A screen, usually of netting, screenwire or chickenwire, is attached at a desired height above the plants. This allows the growing marijuana plants to begin to grow horizontally after reaching the height limit, thus keeping the canopy, or height, at an even level, which allows consistent light penetration into the growing plants. Many growers have a consistent high yield using this method.
ScrOG is like a SOG grow except that fewer plants are used in conjunction with a screen to fill the grow area with heavy top colas � hence its name, ScrOG or Screen of Green. The screen is simply a large wire mesh placed between your light and the plants. Again, clones from a female plant are used, but we allow at least one square foot per flowering plant in the ScrOG method. The plants aren’t flowered until they have covered the entire mesh with green. As the plants grow up through the wire mesh they’re trained and worked around the netting to form a very even canopy. The top colas and side branches are all trained under the screen.
There are many variations of the above two methods, yet they all utilize the same principles. SOGs and ScrOGs were originally developed to get the most out of poor quality fluorescent lights. The grower would line the roof of the shelf or box with fluorescent tubes to try and get the most out of their grow. Today’s growers, using good HID bulbs, have taken these setups to a new level: pushing their buds to the limit. Some people even grow top colas that are the size of large corncobs or soda bottles! ScrOG Growing by Real High Real High is a ScrOG lover and has been growing ScrOG style for some years. He has added a bit to the ScrOG method through his experience with the process. This should help you understand more about the ScrOG method and what people have learned with this new technique.
My setup is like a SOG growing, but a screen is used to train the plant to grow horizontally, creating a canopy of buds beneath the light. The screen is simply made from chicken wire or nylon poultry fencing, or you can use hooks and 20 Ib. fishing line to make the net. This picture shows a ScrOG variation. II Is a small SerOG setup for a cabinet growing. Tins picture also contains a homemade octagonal vented hood for a 250-watl HPS light. Picture by foi.
The screen is installed at a fixed height above the plant medium. For Indica varieties the screen does not need to be much more than 8 inches above the pots. Indica Saliva hybrids need about 12 inches white Sativa plants tend to have longer internodes so you may have to use a screen that is about 18 inches above the pots. If your strain is a pure Sativa variety, like Haze or Thai, you may have to raise your screen to around 24 inches. This space allows the base of the plant a certain amount of vertical growth before branching occurs on the clone. The clone should start to branch just under the screen but if it does not do not worry because you are going to be training them anyway. The light should be suspended by adjustable chains so that it can be raised if necessary.
ScrOG growing doesn’t require as many plants as SOG (allow at least one square foot per flowering plant), but takes anywhere from one to three weeks longer per grow because we will be in the vegetative growth stage longer than a SOG grow to allow the plants to fill out.
The plants are trained to grow horizontally under the screen until they’re two weeks into the flowering cycle, at which point you let the tops grow vertically through the screen. You should always train the main growing tops from the outside of the screen moving inwards so that the colas are focused as closely as possible on the light dispersed from the bulb. You will not be able to get all of them centered under the light, but you should aim for this shape. As the tops grow vertically, push the large fan leaves down under the screen, allowing the light to get to all the developing bud sites.
If leaf growth is excessive, you can first cut fan leaves in half making a shorter leaf and allowing light to get to the bud site. Leaving half the leaf on the plant still allows it to make energy for the plant to grow. Taking a whole fan leaf away in one go can stunt growth. In about a week, you can take off the rest of the leaf. Some people don’t remove the leaf at all, but I do it to help with air movement, reduce the chance of mold or fungus and to allow more light to penetrate the bud sites. Just remember to remove a little at a time if you do remove leaf mass.
At this point flowers are forming and growing vertically, creating a carpet of bud above the screen. Now we go below the screen and remove all the lateral branches and stray bud sites. The canopy has thickened enough that light is blocked from reaching this lower growth. It’s only diverting your plants’ energy away from the buds. You can remove all branches that haven’t made it to the screen and the stray bud sites but you may experience stunting. Although you want the plant to concentrate all of it�s grow energy on the developing flowers above the canopy, removing too much leaf mass and branching can prevent additional flowering.
The three main differences between a SOG and ScrOG grow are the number of plants grown, the use of a screen and the slightly longer grow cycle of the ScrOG. Both methods can be done under the same light and in soil or with hydroponics. There are many variations of the ScrOG grow � including V-ScrOG, Stadium ScrOG, Flat ScrOG and Cylinder ScrOG � but they are all based on the same principles. They work essentially the same way but use different shapes.
One of the best strains available for your ScrOG garden is C99. You will find that a pure Indica or Indica dominant cross will produce the best in a ScrOG grow. A good ScrOG grow will average two ounces of bud per square foot of screen, but you can’t expect this the first few grows, because it takes proper timing and the correct strain to accomplish this.
ScrOG was originally designed for grow areas limited in height and lit by fluo-rescents. Today’s growers are using HID lights for growing ScrOG. They’ve taken it to the next level with these lights and are generating far greater results. Today’s grower is always trying something new to improve the production of their favorite plant. So there we have Real High explaining how he has worked with the ScrOG system. As you can see, he’s added more to the basic ScrOG grow. With experience, practice and experimentation, you too can create your own customized grow.
Some Notes on SOG and ScrOG Growing
Even though M H and H PS lights can be used in conjunction with ScrOG and SOG grows, most ScrOG and SOG growers will use HPS because of the short vegetative period before flowering. Sometimes growers use smaller wattage HPS lights like the 250W and 400W series to keep the cost of electricity down and bud production within an acceptable range. In fact, ScrOG grows are so dense that smaller lights are sometimes more cost-effective than lights in the 600 to 1000W range, but again this depends on your strain and level of experience. If you get it right you can effectively direct 95% of available light onto your bud. The end result is like a canopy of pure bud with the light belting down on top of it all for 12 hours a day.
Some ScrOG growers like to tie the center of the screen down to avoid it being pushed up by the center of the bud production, which should be the most vigorous since it is directly under the light. If the plants were to push the screen up it would affect the overall results because the light would not be able to reach all the bud areas. The pushing effect could also cause stems and branches to break.
You should not leave your plants growing in vegetative growth for too long because this causes more leaf matter to develop than bud which will make our SOG or ScrOG grow less effective. Also watch out that you do not crush or pinch the stems as this will cause branches to develop at those areas or close to them. Branch development means that plant energy is being used in leaf and branch promotion rather than bud production.
You can experiment with different shapes of ScrOG to see how it affects your overall yield. Some ScrOG growers even advocate a dome shaped screen to match the curvature of light dispersal patterns � however it must also be said that the differences between shapes in the final yields is not always significant and the overall effect is more exciting looking than anything else.”
