Using a Trellis for Cannabis Plants

If you are growing marijuana plants for whatever reason, whether you do it for personal or commercial purposes, the same concept applies: cannabis plants need support. When they start developing and expanding into their full sizes, the cannabis plants that you cultivate will need to be properly maintained and regulated! If left on their own without any sort of method, they might start going out of control in terms of their size and height! One of the most commonly used supporting systems that people apply is using a trellis for cannabis plants.

Not only does this help your marijuana plants grow more exponentially through its use, but the way it positions your plants for better air and lighting absorption is also great for increasing yields! 

What Is A Trellis For Cannabis Plants?

A trellis is a tool or piece of equipment used for many different flowering-yielding plants, including cannabis. It is basically a screen that comes in a woven, grid-based pattern that can be made with various kinds of materials such as steel, nylon, or even string. The act of using a trellis for cannabis plants is generally to weave and tie the stems and branches of the weed plants onto this framed structure. This has the effect of expanding and stretching the plants! 

As a result, there would be a lot more light exposure and air circulation within your gardens. Trellising cannabis plants aims to create an equal and even canopy of leaves that, instead of growing vertically due to its apical dominance, will instead turn its attention towards a more horizontal growth pattern. This ultimately leads to a more even distribution of energy throughout the gardens, making sure that your marijuana buds will have a much more equal growth.

Kinds Of Trellis For Cannabis Plants:

All of the things that we have explained thus far seem to be awfully familiar to many of you. This sort of raises the question: Is trellising similar to using a Screen of Green? Why, yes it is! In fact, a ScrOG is actually a specific type of trellis for cannabis gardens! The types of trellising methods are generally classified based on the position that they are installed in. 

While each kind of trellis will work in any place that you use them in, it would be smart to apply them where they work the best. I will explain this more once we get into it.

“Living Wall” or Vertical Trellising

The vertical trellising method will generally apply the same concepts used in growing grapevines, where the stems and branches of your cannabis plants are woven into the screen’s fibers to hold them in sturdy conditions.

The application of a vertical trellis sort of creates what we know as a living wall. As the leaves of your cannabis plants emerge from the sides of the screen, it will take on the appearance of a thick, even foliage of leaves which makes it a lot more neat and tidy. One other important note about this type of trellis is that the screens are usually connected from end to end, forming a sort of cylindrical shape with your cannabis plants in the middle.

“Screen of Green” (ScrOG) or Horizontal Trellising

The more common form of using a trellis for cannabis growth is through the use of a Screen of Green, or what people more commonly call a ScrOG. This horizontal trellis for cannabis plants makes use of the same screen in the vertical method. However, this is usually installed above your cannabis gardens, suspended by either pole or lines of wires that hold the screen in a secured position.

As the branches of your marijuana crops are tied and stretched onto this screen, it creates a very equal and even canopy of leaves. The suspended lights above your setups will also be able to expose its much-needed UV spectrums to a broader range of your plant’s parts.

When Should I Use A Trellis?

It is important to note that using a trellis will often go hand in hand with other training techniques that increase yields such as LST, topping, fimming, pruning, and defoliation. This helps maintain the integrity of the structures of your plants and, at the same time, increases your chances of coming up with even bigger yields come harvest time! 

Also, the application of all these training techniques along with trellising will usually take place during the vegetative stage of your plants’ lives. This is when the structures of your plants start taking their full shapes, spending weeks strengthening the branches, and expanding their reach. 

You should be able to place your screens along with your plants while weaving them into the wires! This allows their growing patterns to alter. Using topping and subsequent defoliation breaks the apical dominance and gives the plants a much more compact and shorter height. Also, the weaving and bending of your plants will usually stretch into the early weeks of flowering. Cannabis plants continue expanding, only gradually stopping once their energy shifts towards bud production. 

What Can I Get If I Use A Trellis For Cannabis Cultivation?

Because cannabis plants are notoriously known to be able to reach insane heights and uncontrollable foliages during their growth, domesticating them will require growers to keep them in check! Trellising is one of the most effective ways of making sure that you have an established garden wherein their growth is kept under your full control. With this, your plants won’t start fanning out in any direction at random. They will instead get a much more guided feel of where to grow and how to expand!

Every grower of marijuana has the main goal of coming up with the best and most volume of buds during their harvests. For this to be possible, you will have to maximize the factors and elements that you give your plants! Trellising basically allows growers to practice and observe proper spacing in between the crops. Furthermore, using screens will also keep the plants from blocking out light and air to and from one another.

Equal Sizes And Potency Level

Unless your buds are all equally exposed to the same amount of lights, there is practically no way for them to reach equal sizes and potency levels. This is why cannabis plants in the wild outdoors will usually have buds much smaller and less potent at the bottom portions of the gardens. The foliages of fan leaves that block out the fun only allow the topmost weed colas to fully benefit from the environment! With the use of a trellis for cannabis plants, this issue is virtually eliminated. 

Physical Support:

One other feature that a trellis for cannabis plants offers is, as we have said, to provide a structured framework of support for the plants. If you grow your cannabis plants outdoors, there will always be the inherent risk of having them blown down by strong winds or other unpredictable calamities. With the trellis supporting their integrity, your cannabis plants will be held up in a much sturdier position. 

More Yields:

While trellising helps improve the performance and spacings of your gardens, it also works as a great way of increasing yields (especially the ScrOG method). You see, proper spacing and more amounts of light reaching the plants will inherently boost the energy levels that they have. With the addition of topping that doubles the number of colas forming in your plants, it is only natural for them to start producing more buds. 

How To Use A Vertical Trellis For Cannabis Plants:

Because a horizontal trellis or ScrOG is much more common for cannabis plants, we are only going to discuss how to make use of a vertical trellis. Keep in mind that this works more in an outdoor garden. Because outdoor plants will have higher chances of growing a lot bigger and out of control, it is usually here where a vertical trellis is applied.

The cost of trellising is very cheap and accessible to anyone out there. Basically, all you will need for the trellis itself is a flexible screen to act as the cage, bamboo poles or PVC pipes, strings or plant tapes to secure the branches, and the plants themselves. 

Let’s Get Started

First off, when the cannabis plants reach their vegetative stages, we recommend topping them. This will allow you to come up with more weed colas that increase your yields. It also breaks the apical dominance of the plants, ensuring a more controlled height. Afterward, carefully take your pots and space them out in the area you wish to place your trellis in. If you cultivate directly in the soil, then just simply start in the area they are located in. 

Take your screens and place them around all of your plants, sort of it going full-circle around the crops. Properly secure the screens in the ground with nails and poles. Place a few poles by the screens to use as the place where you tie the branches when new, longer ones start sticking out of the screens.

Once you have set up the trellis, simply take the branches of your cannabis plants. Tie them onto the fibers of the screens! Go up and under the squares. Weave them onto the farthest wire that they can reach. The lighting systems above will now be able to expose themselves to even the lowest portions of your plants, maximizing the UV spectrums present.  

Conclusion: Who Can Use A Trellis?

Every grower who wants to have the most buds possible should consider making use of a trellis. With its benefits, there is no reason to stop yourself from maximizing the yields that you can produce!

But a small tip for all of you out there: The different growing techniques used for a trellis and the amount of care you will need to give your plants, will require a slightly higher level of experience in cannabis cultivation. If you are an amateur grower, try familiarizing yourself with the way cannabis plants behave during growth first! After you feel as though you have enough experience to take it up a notch, you can always try your hand in using a trellis for cannabis cultivation!