Scrog and my confusion

Mornin RIU.

Disclaimer. I have never scroged before. Please excuse my noobness on the subject.

My understanding of scrog is I am trying to fill as many of the squares as possible with colas.

I have folks telling me to flip and scrog at the same time. I have others telling me to wait to flip until its almost full.

None of these folks are from RIU btw.

How exactly should this work?

I am considering putting in the net today. Thanks.

Scrog is a way to keep the top of the plant flat. Growth is allowed to grow through the net and any taller branches then the rest, are tied down to the net.

After the stretch. The goal is to have all the colas the same height off the net.

Its trial and error on how long you let it veg. My net is 12" above the soil. Once they hit the net. A few more days for the side branches to reach the net.

Flip.

Understood. So part of why I want to scrog this is height restrictions.

I have about 10 inches of stretch space left before I would need to Supercrop anything.

I guess I somehow thought I could use the net to restrict upward growth by continuing to weave and tuck through the net. Hence why I was confused on before or after flip.

Wizzlebiz said:

Understood. So part of why I want to scrog this is height restrictions.

I have about 10 inches of stretch space left before I would need to Supercrop anything.

I guess I somehow thought I could use the net to restrict upward growth by continuing to weave and tuck through the net. Hence why I was confused on before or after flip.

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Don't weave or tuck it. Any growth above the net. Tie it gently to the net. Fuzzy pipe cleaners or the twisty plants wire that looks like the wire thing on a loaf of bread.

Beehive said:

Don't weave or tuck it. Any growth above the net. Tie it gently to the net. Fuzzy pipe cleaners or the twisty plants wire that looks like the wire thing on a loaf of bread.

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Don't tuck it? I know I'm the one looking for advise. And I appreciate your input. But the only thing I have seen that is a constant is retucking when they pop through.

Can you elaborate further on why not to tuck please?

I just scrogged and messed up some, here is what I learned:

During Veg, the idea is to have all the tops even below the net and ready to come up through the net. This is where you do a lot of tucking. As you tuck it exposes more bud sites that will grow up from the horizontally tucked branch.
If you have a lower plant, raise the whole plant to be more even with the other plants. (add something under the pot), this or prune them down, I prefer LST.
Once you flip let the buds start coming up through during stretch, and during the first week add another net, use this to prevent any of the colas from getting massively taller than the others (and right now they are just starting to flower a bit)
After you even out the second net which should be around a week and a half into flip let them go and add a third net for support of the colas but don't tuck on this one Just let the colas grow, since you restricted and tucked and LST'd on the previous two you should end up with a fairly even canopy height and a decent bit of support for the buds.

Just ime.

Thank you.

So I can see its becoming more evident it is personal preference on tucking or not on the 1st net.

I'm going to set up the net and then il update this with some pics so we can figure out the best practice for what I'm working with.

Thank you both.

@Beehive and @dbz

Wizzlebiz said:

Mornin RIU.

Disclaimer. I have never scroged before. Please excuse my noobness on the subject.

My understanding of scrog is I am trying to fill as many of the squares as possible with colas.

I have folks telling me to flip and scrog at the same time. I have others telling me to wait to flip until its almost full.

None of these folks are from RIU btw.

How exactly should this work?

I am considering putting in the net today. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Disclaimer: I have never done scrogging either, but have been watching and reading tons of stuff about it so I'll just try to pass on the knowledge I have learned to apply when I'll be starting to scrog hopefully in a few weeks.

It is said that if the plant you're growing is known to be a stretcher, better start scrogging early and wait until 80% of the net is filled, because once you flip to flowering, it will still continue to stretch and fill the remaining 20%...

Another reason why it is advised to start early is because it is easier to bend the stems without breaking them during veg, however, you might just crack those hardened branches during flowering if you try something too extreme (which you might have to), and your plant will spend its valuable energy for recovery.

The advised net height is around 8 to 12 inches, but the lower the better... and once your plant hits that, just start bending it.

Here's my plan:

• I will do a topping once I see 4 nodes, LST 2 lower stems... Once the new 2 growth becomes strong from topping, I'll LST those too...
• I might or might not choose to FIM those new growers at this stage.
• Install the trellis net at around 10 inches.
• Start bending the girls once they grow 2-2.5 inches above the net and continue till 80% gets filled.
• Do a lollipopping session and wait 2-3 days.
• Flip...
• Continue bending for the first 2 weeks at most.

The strain I'll be starting is Incredible Bulk, which is known to be a huge stretcher. And I'll be using an rdwc system so it'll relatively be a fast growth, all the above shouldn't take more than 8 weeks imo.

But then again, this is just a plan yet... anything might go wrong or not as planned. I'll be learning on the way. Hope all goes well... for you also

Hey there, long time reader, figured I'd start commenting.

The plant really stretches the first few weeks of bloom, so I like to try to anticipate the stretch. Pre-bloom I only let maybe an inch or 2 grow through the trellis. If they start to poke through more than an inch or 2 then I pull the offending branches further out towards the edges of the trellis to effectively reduce their height and allow the younger shorter branches time time to grow in. If they grow through the trellis too far before switching to bloom then your branches will be really long and skinny by the time of harvest and the trellis will be too far below to offer much support. Then come switch to bloom, during the stretch phase, I will still try to pull fast growing shoots off to the sides to maintain even canopy height, but after a week or so its a pain to try to re-route the fast growers and you can end up snapping branches ect, so I just use skissors and top the greedy ones to maintain even-ness. Imo having equal light intensity among every branch creates uniform bud sizes and maximizes your grow area. After week 3 they'll start to settle down on height growing typically and the topping stops. If the topping resulted in crowding then the weakest looking crowders get pulled. Yes you're cutting buds off, but they'll just cause mold or other issues if they are allowed to grow in too close of proximity.

The SCROG does 2 things for me. It spreads the plant out more horizontally allowing more light to strike the plant, and it provides support during bloom after the branches have grown through and become heavy. Changes the shape, and later helps support the long stems. I have to make sure the height is level in the beginning because any un-level-ness is amplified and compounded as it grows. If it's not level in the beginning, or certain areas are getting more light than others, then the branches with more light grow faster and bigger than the branches with less light and the un-level-ness exacerbates with time. I put a conscious effort to be meticulous early during the windows or times still available for possible manipulation, so that she's happy and optimized later.

I think pre-bloom you want to veg and spread your plant out under the trellis till you can't spread it anymore due to space ect, and then when you switch to bloom is when you allow the spread out tree to grow vertical and through the trellis.

Got the net in.

I have about a foot of space before I am at a place where space becomes an issue. I think I'm going to tuck for a couple days to fill it out more. Then flip. As they grow through il put another net in to help stabilize.

after the 1 foot of growth space it will leave me with 15 inches from the light. Plants are 1 foot tall each. So with stretch I should have plenty of space for flower.

Does this sound correct??

Hey, use the Net as a bunch of strings, used to LST and bend your branches.
Its not necessarily about having a cola in every hole, but having a perfectly flat canopy, so every cola theoretically gets the exact same ppfd, then they are all "top colas"
My experience, I was told to fill the net 80% during veg, and keep training the first week or two of 12/12
I regret that, I had enough head room where I should have filled the net in veg, and got myself some bigger, longer colas in flower.

Wizzlebiz said:

Got the net in.

I have about a foot of space before I am at a place where space becomes an issue. I think I'm going to tuck for a couple days to fill it out more. Then flip. As they grow through il put another net in to help stabilize.

after the 1 foot of growth space it will leave me with 15 inches from the light. Plants are 1 foot tall each. So with stretch I should have plenty of space for flower.

Does this sound correct??
View attachment 4794061View attachment 4794062

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Looks good! Good job with the lolli pop
Make sure your lower branches aren't covered by big fan leafs. They need all the light they can get, to get above the net and become main colas

ÒÒlegilizeitÒÒ said:

Looks good! Good job with the lolli pop
Make sure your lower branches aren't covered by big fan leafs. They need all the light they can get, to get above the net and become main colas

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Yep. It will be a double tuck system lol. Tuck colas. Tuck fans.

Would love some other opinions

Wizzlebiz said:

Would love some other opinions
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Tuck and tie branches , weaving until the stretch is complete right now you just have plants below a net

The idea is to get as many big colas all at the same height

This is one plant because in a scrog watering can be a real challenge

Herb & Suds said:

Tuck and tie branches , weaving until the stretch is complete right now you just have plants below a net

The idea is to get as many big colas all at the same height

This is one plant because in a scrog watering can be a real challenge
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K. So let me ask this. Seeing my pic above. Should I be flipping now vs in a couple of days if im going to tuck through stretch?

Pretty sure it has been answered but as i said right now you just have some plants under a net and they look indica leaning so I don't expect huge stretch

I would weave them a couple weeks then flip Once the stretch begins you can actually bring more than one bud through the trellis holes

And fill it
My biggest concern is trying to do three plants at once to many variables
I also don't do a scrog with a plant I haven't grown out, I have no idea the stretch otherwise

I have tried it few times and it has its own pros and cons. Not gonna talk about everthing because you gonna find it out alone soon. I left it behind because of the plants cannot be moved around the grow space. But it was quite nice experience, enjoy...

Bukvičák said:

I have tried it few times and it has its own pros and cons. Not gonna talk about everthing because you gonna find it out alone soon. I left it behind because of the plants cannot be moved around the grow space. But it was quite nice experience, enjoy...

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One of the best ways to get the highest yield possible though, one of the biggest benefits for sure

Herb & Suds said:

Pretty sure it has been answered but as i said right now you just have some plants under a net and they look indica leaning so I don't expect huge stretch

I would weave them a couple weeks then flip Once the stretch begins you can actually bring more than one bud through the trellis holes

And fill it
My biggest concern is trying to do three plants at once to many variables
I also don't do a scrog with a plant I haven't grown out, I have no idea the stretch otherwise

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Thank you for the response. My buddy just finished this strain. He said it was fairly stretchy.

I agree with the 3 is to many variables. Its now down to 2. One was a male so it made that easy lol.

Knowing these just about double in size from stretch would you still wait?