ScrOG tutorial with pics

[bboyfromwayback]

I have yet to find a ScrOG tutorial that I 1) agree with and 2) wasn’t a little confused after reading it. There’s one on GWE that’s ok (LBH’s ScrOG tutorial) it starts off really easy to follow until his plant goes under a screen then it gets a little murky from there. As I was doing my second topping this morning it occurred to me that I’m early enough in to show how I do it. The last year I’ve played with mainlines and manifolds but from here on out I’m back to what I’ve always done, ScrOG. This method has always provided me with the best results as far as yield and quality of buds. So if you wish, follow along.

The pics posted are of a Chocolope I grew in a 3 gallon pot with only a 3wk veg and she produced 112g of solid bud, zero fluff.

The plants I’ll be doing the tutorial with is a Gorilla Glue #4 and a White Widow. 5wks from sprout (so a 3wk veg) and due to space they’ll probably be going into a 3 gallon pot under a 14”x15” screen next weekend so quick and easy tutorial.

[SoOrbudgal]

I really dig small scrogs for me it's the only method i'd could use anymore. I will be watching and learning

[MagicMike66]

I’m coming along for tips and advice. I’m yet to try it but seriously considering it for my next grow

[bboyfromwayback]

I’ll be showing my DIY single pot ScrOG setup next week.

[bboyfromwayback]

Best I can do with fat fingers to show the 16 nodes.


This plant is 5wks old and has been topped twice but hopefully I can be clear as to everything that’s occurred prior to the picture, any questions just ask me.

I always start in a styrofoam cup sitting on a heating pad. Styrofoam is a insulator so the cups help to keep those young roots nice and warm. 2wks in a cup then I go to a 1 gallon pot 4wks. From there it’s into the final pot. I personally don’t start in big pots, everytime I’ve tried the growth is just too slow the first couple of weeks. Whenever I pot up the containers are filled with roots which tells me just as much growth going on under the soil as above which is what we want.

I count the first node as the 3 serated leaves. I do nothing to the plant but let it grow until it has 5 fully developed nodes with leaves and node 6 is about 1/4” long. From there I top the plant right above node 5, remove all of the growth below node 4 and then give the plant a few days to recover.

As the 4 stems grow out I start to LST them down flat and once the tops of the colas develop their own sets of leaves I remove the big fan leaves connected to the main stalk because at this point they’re usually a lot bigger than everything else so they’re blocking light from those colas.

Once the 4 stems growing out all have 3 nodes, I top them back to the 1st node which leaves 8 colas. As those colas start growing out I LST them down as well and let them grow.

This catches us up to today’s pic. I keep LST’ng just to train my plant to be flat until the 8 colas all have grown at least 3 nodes a piece, then I top them back to the 1st nodes which will leave us 16 colas total which you see in today’s pic.

From here I’ll just water and LST until next weekend when she’ll go into a 3 gallon pot under a screen. That’s where I’ll pickup next

Side note, I keep all the big fan leaves tucked under the main stems so the colas get as much light as possible

[grouchyoldman]

I'm so pleased that you are doing this Bboy!
I used your small single pot screen method on my current grow with very good results.

It would be useful to hear your thoughts on the tradeoff between the final number of budsites and the size of the harvested colas. How many budsites do you aim for?

Subscribed & following along.

[bboyfromwayback]

Thanks buddy! I’m no pro and I can’t say I’ve ever had a grow I felt that I ‘nailed it’ tbh but I believe I can hopefully explain the way I do it personally better than I’ve read others explain their own method. I don’t aim for a certain number of bud sites, my goal is to fill the screen. With the Cali Dream I tried something different, a 4 way PPP type manifold. That method filled the screen way fast but made a messy center and most of the 2”x3” holes from the middle to center of the plant have 2 colas growing through instead of one. As far as cola/bud size, I believe the size of your pot is the deciding factor. I generally use a 14”x15” or 12”x12” screen for 3 gallon pots. 18”x18” for 5 gallon and 24”x24” for 7 gallon. I used a 3 gallon pot for the Pineapple Chunk in my last grow and she was so big I put her under a 18”x18” screen and she over grew it on all four sides but the buds weren’t nearly as big and dense as the Pineapple Chunk I grew before in a 5 gallon pot. Ok, I’m burning some Bruce right now, stoned out of my gore and feel like I’m babbling 😂 Happy Easter everyone

[newbutoldgrower75]

I started thinking about ScrOG during my previous grow. I think it would help improve the way I grow, plus keep the plants more under control. Extra yield is always a bonus as well haha. You are correct in saying that the tutorials on traditional ScrOG are limited. I found LBH's tutorial good and a guy named Nothern Scrogger quite informative, but like you said, things get a little bit murky once you get to a certain stage. I will definitely be following your tutorials for advice and tips buddy, looking forward too your single pot ScrOG setup next week as well. Cheers

[Texasbob]

Great post! Imo, Scrog is the best way to grow! I think if more people are exposed to a simple tutorial on how to do it more people will try it!

[bboyfromwayback]

Before and after pics, sorry they’re out of order.

I didn’t expect to do much this week but this girl is growing fast, she didn’t even slow down after toppling the other day. Started working on the new colas this evening, only 3 colas were too small yet to do anything with. Since the new growth has already grown its own fan leaves I removed all the big ones I had tucked to get them out of the way and put more energy into the colas. The two small colas I left the fan leaves facing the outside of the plant to give them a little extra solar power to catch up (I have no scientific proof that works other than it seems to so I do it ) 😂 From here on it’s all about getting those 16 colas growing out to go under a screen. I’ll remove big, old fan leaves whenever the plant starts to get too bushy and bud sites are being shaded

Those autos are in Living Soil. First time I’ve tried it. It’s not great but very simple. I’ll be sticking to FF for photos but I’ll keep playing around with the living soil snd autos until its gone.

[bboyfromwayback]

Wanted to show off my new rig. One of the legs on my old tent been busted for a while so I finally got a new one. After a lot of debate and extensive research I decided to go with a AC Infinity 4x4. I have to say I couldn’t be happier with my decision. This tent is solid! Compared to my buddies Gorilla it’s thicker, the poles are bigger, the zippers are better and way cheaper.

newbutoldgrower75 here’s a pic of my setup. Running 2 ES180’s and a ES300 in this tent. I emailed GSC about the placement and they recommended I make a U. Plants under a HPS will tell you pretty quick if it’s too close plus you can feel the heat with your hand but led aren’t like that. It could take a week or two before you realize that you burnt your plants. GSC says you can take the 300 to 18” in flower, my experience if I go below 24” at 100% the plants start showing stress. I never go above 50% in veg and while I veg in this setup I won’t even run the 300 just the two 180’s at 35-50%. I’m into the 2nd week of 12/12 and the dial is up to about 65-70%. If I were you in your tent I’d spread the two 300’s out in veg to cover the tent snd not even run the HPS unless you needed some extra heat in winter.

grouchyoldman I was thinking about your question and tbh I never put much thought into the number of colas. I’ve just always tried to fill the screen and knew how big the screen should be depending on pot size or veg time. Unfortunately, after I read the post from BU2B the other day I went back to look at his PPP method, particularly the part about bud sites. I went back and counted screen by screen and removed any colas that had skinny stems. 78 colas remain for this plant and I’m confident she’ll be able to produce. Hopefully anyways 🙏🏻

[grouchyoldman]

Thanks for the followup Bboy, the tradeoff between number of budsites and yield is an interesting question. BU2B says around 68 colas is optimal which is about what a nicely trained plant under a screen produces.

I've grown the same ILGM White Widow strain using three different methods now (No Training, Basic LST, and ScrOG). The overall yield was greater on the ScrOG, but when I just let the plant grow without any training the individual buds were fewer but much bigger. It wasn't a controlled side-by-side experiment tho, things always go askew in any grow and affect the outcome. There's also value in those gorgeous Bud Porn pics that last long after those Ball jars are empty!

I think you are right on target for an awesome harvest!

[SleepyTibbs]

Aww geeze lol reading this sounds like my plants have been getting way too much light. I have 2 viparspectra p1000 in my 2x4x5 tent both at 100% 24" above, for the first 10-14 days they were at 60-80% but ever since then its been at 100% they dont seem to be getting burnt or stressed by it but it does explain why they are pretty stocky.

[bboyfromwayback]

If the lights aren’t stressed then your lights are good. Some plants from seed are just runts and won’t grow no matter what and some strains stay small and compact due to genetics. I grew a Purple Kush a while back that made autos look like monsters. Almost a 10wk veg, still only got 1oz off of it. Sometimes they burn ya no matter how good you are to them

[bboyfromwayback]

Friday evening I transplanted from 1 gallon pots to 3 gallon. After transferring pots I watered the plants in good and left them alone to recover, no LST or anything. This evening I noticed they’re growing steady again so time to put them under screens.

We’re running low on Gorilla Glue and it’s one of our favs so this is just a quick grow to get some smoke but if you have never grown this way before you may be surprised what a quick veg can produce and if variety is your thing you can get a lot of 3 gallon pots in your tent.

For these two plants I’m using 14”x15” screens on top of small 7” tomato rings. The 7” rings are great to use with 2 or 3 gallon pots. 5 gallon pots and up I use 10” tomato rings. They come tall so I take a pair of snips and cut them down to size. I prefer the screen low enough that I can barely water. I use a 1/2 gallon can with a long neck, I also cut 12” off of a old water hose to use if needed. It’s flexible and the end of the 1/2 gallon watering can slides right down in it so there’s no spillage.

These are my general guidelines to be able to fill a screen and get nice, dense buds. This is also geared towards a soil/coco grow.

3 gallon pot 12”x12” or 14”x15” screen 2-4wk veg
5 gallon pot 18”x18” screen 4-6wk veg
7 gallon pot up to 24”x24” 8wk+ of veg

For supplies all you’ll need is tomato rings (they come in packs of 3 on Amazon for about $15), some type of fencing and zip ties. I made my screens out of garden fencing that has 2”x3” squares which is a great size. Anything smaller is too confining and the bigger 4”x4” squares get crowded with more than one cola each. 2”x3” is perfect for a fat single cola.

Put your ring in the pot, push it down and gently bend the plants down and under the ring to spread it out as you lower it into the soil. Once it’s at the level you want lay the screen on top. The closer the screen is to the dirt the faster you fill it, instead of growing up, we’re growing out. I have this screen 3” above the dirt on these plants. The smaller the screen the closer you can get it to the soil and be able to water easily. Next zip tie the screen to the tomato ring then use zip ties to attach the assembled unit to the pots handles to anchor it down. If you forget to anchor it down the plant will start lifting the ring/screen up as it grows. That’s it! You have a mobile, single plant scrog you can easily move out of your tent and sit on a table to work with.

I wanted to add this note because there’s many ways to make a screen and the easiest way is to just buy one of the full screen nets. I like each plant being mobile instead of individual plants under a fixed structure. No matter how you choose to construct your screen or net, make sure it’s tight. There should be little give when your plant starts growing up against it. See! I knew I’d keep editing 😁

The way Ive always ScrOG’d a plant is to keep everything growing under the screen. This is different from most others methods I’ve read online and IMO much easier. I don’t weave or tie the branches down, those methods seem unnecessary and a pain in the butt come harvest time not to mention more stressful on the plant. Keep everything growing under the screen like I have in these pics. Once they grow into the next square I’ll let them grow up just enough until I can move them into the next one. Doing this allows all those little insignificant looking bud sites towards the center of the plant to get direct light they otherwise wouldn’t. By the time the main colas reach the outer perimeter of the screen all the small stuff in the center will be big colas. I’ll take more pics as the plants progress to show the growth snd process. I’m going to give them a day or two to grow out a little more then into the flower tent. They’ll out grow these little screens fast. If I was growing a bigger plant like the Cali Dream I would keep LST’ng it down as it grows out until I’m ready to flip it to flower. I don’t like to keep them growing under a screen more than a few days before flipping to flower or the colas grow up and get too tall which can cause some larf. The Cali Dream is a little taller than I’d like but it got vegged longer than I wanted due to the prior grow.

Anyways, I think that’s it for tonight. I may edit this a few more times lol who knows. Any questions or if something isn’t clear, please ask.

Updated pics of the Cali Dream. She started flowing 5 days ago.

[bboyfromwayback]

Sure thing! Any type of fencing would work but I’m glad I used the garden fencing since it has a rubber coating. After I use a screen I’ll spray it with foaming Clorox bathroom cleaner and hose it off. Other than the ends being rusted where cut they look new

[panalilies]

I did some looking on amazon and I came across this screen type- (the link is to the actual manufacturer, they add more things to the package and ship faster than Amazon would). What do you think? I bought a trellis net for my tent but it just isnt working right so Im looking for something new before my plants get too much older (already at 3 weeks)

https://scrogger.com/collections/p-scrog-diy-screens/products/p-scrog-screen-and-quick-adjust-stakes

[bboyfromwayback]

That will work. If I was someone with no need for a entire 50ft roll of fencing and only need one or two screens for plants then I wouldn’t care to pay $35 for that setup

[bboyfromwayback]

Little update just to show everything is still growing under the screen. I planned on moving these into the flower tent by now but right after I transplanted them the autos were done so I moved these girls into a unfinished closet in my basement. Growth slowed until I started germinating these little ones and added a heater plus T5’s 🤔 so anyways, going to give them a few more days to veg before I defoliate and flip

[SoOrbudgal]

Okie dokie i'll be watching ohhh it's almost 730pm time for the doobie and a show catch ya later

[bboyfromwayback]

The girls are going into the flower tent today. Did a light defoliation but not much since I’ve been removing some leaves as they grew to keep the center open. Heavy defoliation in a few weeks. Until then it’s pretty much cruise control. At this point I let all the small stuff in the center start growing up while keeping the mains growing out towards the edges but still under the screen.

Experience helps by knowing how big of a screen to use. Depending on the veg time, pot size and plant. Ideally you want your screen full within 2wks of flipping to 12/12. After that the stems start to get too hard and force themselves towards the light. I expect both of these plants to slightly outgrow these screens which is what I wanted to completely fill my tent. I’ll post some more pics in a few days.

[grouchyoldman]

I sound like a bboyfromwayback fanboy, but those scrog pics are as close to perfection as I've ever seen!

Perfect training above and below the screen. All the plants look great, but the scrogs are going to be monsters.

[bboyfromwayback]

Thanks buddy! I should’ve taken some cuttings from that Cali Dream before flipping, great genes in that plant. Be cool to see what she could do given the entire tent. That may be a grow down the line 🤔

[bboyfromwayback]

I thought I’d use this pic to show a little better use of the technique. The size of the plant/screen will determine how much grow should be focused on the center. For this small screen I meant to leave two but a third ended up remaining snd it’s against a ziptie in a way that I’m afraid it will snap if I tried to pull it back out so it’s staying. The yellow shows a empty spot that’s remaining. There will be a few other empty holes once the colas in them now get bigger and go towards the outer edge, that’s why you want to leave some behind to grow in the center and fill those spaces. The red arrows shows which way those colas are going and the orange arrows show where I’ll put the side shoots that are growing off those colas. Now this could all change by this evening but that was the plan as of yesterday evening. With the Cali Dream I left 6 colas behind and grew them in a circle around the center but that’s under a 24”x24” screen.

Main thing for now as it stretches is to fill the screen. Let the small stuff grow up to become big stuff while keeping the big stuff growing out and under to fill the screen. Easiest way I know to explain it. Week 3 when it’s time to defoliate again I’ll thin the plant out by removing any small/skinny stems and any lower growth that didn’t keep up with the rest of the plant. Until then, every evening I’ll check the plants out and any big leaves that are coving other colas or bud sites I gently tuck down under the screen but I don’t remove anything else until week 3

[bboyfromwayback]

Week 3 defoliation and feeding took place last night on the big girls, looks like they bounced back nicely.

Ok, now to the little ones this thread is about. Before and after pictures of what I do every evening as soon as the lights some on. I pull each stem down under the screen and stretch it all out in the direction I want it ti keep growing in. All articles I’ve read say to let the growth get about 4” above the screen then to pull it down and move it into the next space over. That method works but the reason I do it this way is to get all the small stuff coming up as much light as possible. If everything goes as planned, by the time the screen is full, the small colas coming up in the center should be close to the same height as the mains that reach the edge for a level canopy.

The plant on the right is super full, doubt it’ll go another 2wks before I start removing some leaves from her

[Canuck147]

Nice full tent - but it still looks like your plants have elbow room.

[bboyfromwayback]

I guess I could stack them on top of each other

[bboyfromwayback]

Added this picture to show what I’m talking about by letting the little stuff get light. I circled all the colas growing up off the three mains in the pic. If this plant was growing vertically, the top portion of those buds would be nice and full then the lower you go down the stem they get fluffier and less mature. F that! All those buds will get as much lights as the tops this way. Hardly any fluff. Keep everything growing under snd out to get all your bud sites exposed. That’s why you can grow tiny plants and still get 3-4oz per plant of solid nugs this way. To be continued