Iâ??m a scrogger with questions-

what about removing leaves? To me it seems utterly crucial to chop aload off as the grow progresses, particularly to allow air circulation under the screen-but i have heard that all of the growth below the screen should be removed before putting the plants into flower-then pruning should be avoided during the stretch. Is this right?

I also trim leaves from the top of the canopy to allow air and light to penetrate better and carry on doing this throughout flower-and have met non-scroggers who say this is very bad.
Whatâ??s your policy?

How about trimming out some of the smaller bud sites to allow the plant to concentrate on the larger buds? My scrogs always seem a bit overcrowded-should i be meticulously trimming off buds following the â??one bud per screen squareâ?? rule-

So these Qâ??s are all about cutting-How much, when, where and why

Another question-with me it often seems to just happen that the largest buds, on the main stems, end up at the edge of the screen-and then i let them grow up a bit. Iâ??m not sure if this is right-i wonder, for example, if the largest buds should be positioned nearest the light (ie toward the centre of the screen)- how do you place the buds?

The art of scrog appears to getting the plants to just the right size before switching to 12/12 then positioning the buds in a regular even pattern-quite a hard thing to do. I am working on 1 plant / m² of screen and canâ??t imagine Miguel Vâ??s 10, 20, or 30 plants /m² -must be a short veg on those



fresh air inspector

Strain dependant imo, this was raised in another thread and the consensus seemed to be that it depended on how the strain reacts when leaves are removed. Does she slow or plough on??
Personally I like to remove lower branches that dont make it to the screen - they receive so little light and the plant is better concentrating its energy onto buds that are.
This also aids crucial air flow under the canopy.
Once in 12/12 I avoid any pruning - Less stress is best imo.
I do not remove leaves from top of canopy unless they are dying - i would rather reposition them


Biggles

I usually do 1 plant per sqft and veg for around 3-4 weeks with a screen height of between 8"-12", I dont usually use ties I just push them down and move them to the next hole, if it aint big enough to do this wait until it is, only use ties if you have to.

I dont usually have problems with leaves blocking bud sites as I dont let anything come up above the screen until the stretch is done with, The stretch with the strain Im using atm is always 23 days so I can plan where Im going to train them to the day

Dont make your screen any deeper than 30" unless u have access all round it, serious back problems will soon be yours if u do.

Scroggins a magic way of growing, all bud sites at the same level and it lets you use nice small lamps as well as you dont have to get deep down.

Just a few things that popped into my head, hope they help


BuildnBob

def scrog is the answer for increasing our yeild for our efforts & expense. Its easy to achieve, & ok, its a bit of effort but well worth the results. Here`s some pics from my first grow done with scrog in a cabinet. Also, a wooden board underneath the plants, with say cuphooks around the edges would also work in allowing fixings for the branches. As for overcrowding I simply harvested the top, & left the undeveloped buds in for another couple of weeks on ph5.5 only. Keep a check on the underneath for any dead leaves or buds & remove them that won`t make it. With my screen I tied it down in the middle with two fixings, & then put four slip knot fixings on each corner. This allows for tensioning (not too much though), & adjust it slightly each time over the growth stage, so the screen curves up allowing for max light to the buds



Fresh air inspector

What is the screen area, what lamp and what type of yeilds are you gettting with what plants??

My screen area is just a tad under 0.5 sq meters, 400w HPS and I have been dragging around 300g from this with a local clone (white witch??)


Good point made by biggles - I'd forgotten the merits of this, but he rightly points out that you can drop wattage (temps??) as you do not have to penetrate the canopy.

BuildnBob

the screens 700 x 400, just right for the tank & cabinet. As I`m using the cabinet for drying, Iv`e used the screen to hang the smaller buds from. As for yeild I haven`t a clue mate, theres more than enough though to keep me up in the clouds for a while

Jah bergerac

Bob's idea of harvesting the top buds then allowing the lower buds to ripen for two weeks sounds good. I tried this in a half arsed way on my last grow but only left the lower buds exposed for a few days which didn't seem to make much difference. This time i will leave them for longer to see if they fatten up much. If they do this will increase the yield by a significant amount.

How about the question of yields. What should those of us that are quite new to scrog be aiming at? FAI's 300g/0.5m, if my maths are correct, is similar to what i've got so far-that is 16oz/0.75m and 23oz/1m on the last grow. The 16oz was with a 400hps whereas the 23oz was grown with 400+600hps -so more than doubling the light did not double the yield.

If there are still any who still doubt the power of scrog-three friends who are 'experienced' growers have come over to give me some tips on my new hobby since i started. Each one has got excited on seeing a scrog for the first time and its ended up in a sort of scrog workshop. I'm surprised that more small scale growers don't use it.

Miguel Velcro

I like to hack off most of the fan leaves.I'll tuck the lower leaves but most of the upper ones get cut.
I try to cut the leaves off when they are young and small,before they cause shading issues.Doing it this way,to my mind at least,stresses the plant less and allows it to re-divert it's energies towards shoots/leaves I want to keep.
Is stress really a bad thing though?
Most of us seem to be cutting out the weak shoots,here's an interesting point:
For many years rose gardeners have thinned their plants to strong shoots,removing all the weaker lower growth just as we do.However,recent experiments have concluded that by leaving all the weaker growth intact,a greater quantity and size of blooms is acheived.It seems the plants use this inner canopy as an energy resource rather than it being a drain on their reserves. Food for thought.

Yields. I reckon the target for the acolytes of scrog should be around 2 oz per ft2 of screen.
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