First SCROG grow.. Help!!

Hi everyone!
I want to SCROG my current grow and have some questions.
I am growing 8 Northernlight/ G13 clones in vermafire (going to keep best 6) in a 3x3 tray under a 600W HPS.
They have been on an 18/6 cycle for only 2 days now.

Now the questions!
1. When scrogging is LST, topping or FIM advisable, or just tucking under the screen?
2. How long should I veg?
3. At what height/week should I place the screen and start filling?
4. How hight above the screen should i keep the light? still around 18"?
Thanks for any input! I'm sure I will inevitably have more questions soon...

I'm more of a SOG guy than a SCROG guy but I've been around the block to see my share of trellis grows. (Pro SCROgers will explain better and please tell me if I am wrong about anything)

Topping is for sure advisable. You can top or FIM or both, more tops the better, you want many branches to be able to completely fill your screen to your liking. LST I'd guess is kind of the same as pulling the branches through - do what you must (within reason) to pull the branches through tp create a spread out, even canopy. Even canopy is very important as some attempt SCROG without evening the canopy. This is more of a "skelatal" system of holding your plants up than a SCROG. The even canopy is what makes nice uniform colas as the light is distributed equally.

Screen goes in at beginning a few inches above plants. Grow plant straight up through the screen. When reaching desired height, pull the branches through.

18" sounds good to me. Whatever the distance recommended for your wattage is what should always be used for full grown adult plants - no matter the system. This is the distance from like to canopy, not to screen itself. There's a handy chart you can find via google about HPS distances from Cannabis.

Others may help you further! Hope that helps a bit!

If you're growing 8 plants in a 3x3, why are you even using a screen? Just use whatever topping method you want and you'll soon have a 3x3 canopy with 8 plants. SCrogging a 3x3 would be more like using 1 plant. good luck

Thank you guys for the advice!
Antman15- Interesting, ive spoken with a couple people and they haven't implied scrogging 6-8 plants would be an issue? Though from what i know/seen about scrogging your comment makes sense. hmmm.. Do you think that many plants would over load the screen? Or have any benefit over no screen and just topping/fim?

yeah, i am with antman. No scrog. If you top when it has like 3 -4 nodes, train the leading new growth, and you would get 6-8 colas at about the same height...on each plant. And easier to prune and water without the screen and that many plants. no to mention, they may finish at different times. Hard to trim one plant out of a scrog

Im glad I asked, saved me from figuring out how to get the screen in my grow space!
They are clones that came rooted and have about 3-4 nodes now so I was planning on topping/fim tomorrow!
How long do you guys normally veg for when topping/fimming?

depends on how much height you have to deal with and power of your light. What are the dimensions of your room? I like topping at the fourth node. Then in a couple weeks if there is a straggler or 2 you can snip them and still have plenty of top colas. Say you top tomorrow, In a give or take a week, you will start to see new growth at the nodes. normally the top 2 and maybe the next ones grow faster (and are already taller). At that point, tie them...your goal is to get their grow tips below the heads of the lower branches (May take a few extra days, tieing newer growth down). Once all grow heads are about at the same height, let them all grow vertically again. You can flower immediately, or wait as long as you want to flower...The plant will normally double to triple in height in the first 3 weeks of flower. So make sure you will have enough space in height for your light and that early flower growth spurt. cheers

The room is 4X4 and has a 8ft ceiling, I have the 8 Northern light/G13 clones in a 3X3 tray. Using a 600w HPS.
Tie down like LST?
Is there a big difference between just topping/fim vs. topping/fim and tie downs?

Sorry for all the questions, have never done any training!

FIM ing stands for "Fuck I Missed" when topping. Basically they are the same thing. Tieing down is essentially a form of LST or "Low Stress Training". You can do a ton of different training method to a plant while it is in in veg stage...Once in flower, you can't mess with it much. So really, the final look of your plant can be determined completely by you if you want to do a bunch of training. First pic is topped plant (With a tieing down for a week or so) , second plant is untopped plant

Those pics are really helpful!