Marijuana Techniques: How to ScrOG Your Plants

Throughout the years, growers from around the world have come up with various methods and techniques to increase the yields that their plants produce! An average yielding strain can now come up with more healthy buds than you would expect! One of the most famous ways of achieving this is through the Screen of Green or ScrOG method.

Wouldn’t it be great to have massive yields with each and every cannabis plant that you grow? As growers, we would want nothing more than to come up with thick, chunky batches of the biggest weed buds. But is this possible? Surely, there will be cases where certain strains don’t yield as much, right? Not precisely. 

What is this ScrOG method and how exactly does it affect a cannabis plant’s growth? While effective, it is also an advance way of improving your gardens. As such, you’re gonna have to learn it’s basics first before applying it to your plants!

What is the Screen of Green (ScrOG) Method?

This method is basically a growing technique that many cannabis cultivators use in order to maximize the yields. Scrogging, as people would call it, makes some pretty minor adjustments to your garden. These adjustments will subsequently alter your cannabis plants’ growing patterns. The ScrOG allows your plants to get more into the growing conditions and absorb the natural or artificial elements around it.

That’s right, this method will work in pretty much any growing set up. Both indoor and outdoor growers can make full use of this technique. In fact, it won’t matter how many plants you grow or how small your grow site is. It can help increase your yields regardless! It will, of course, require a certain amount of skill and patience to master this technique. But the more you do it, the more you get comfortable with scrogging!

Not only does this help you get more buds, it significantly reduces the chances of your plants catching any infections and diseases. Overall, scrogging promotes a much healthier growth experience.    

How Does the ScrOG Work?

Cannabis plants will naturally tend to grow more vertical than horizontal. This means that you will most likely end up with taller plants rather than a wide, even canopy of leaves and colas. That’s when the ScrOG method comes into play! You see, having a wider and even canopy of leaves is much better for light absorption. Spectrums of light will have more freedom to penetrate the plant structures. Exposure to more light in the leaves gives the cannabis plants more energy for photosynthesis and, therefore, more buds as a result. 

Through the use of a screen, a batch of plants will have their bottom colas brought up while the top colas are stretched down. This forms an equal, even canopy for better light absorption. Along with the help of the screen, the branches and colas of the cannabis plants are placed in a stationary position that helps hold the colas in place and serve as a support for the further development of buds. The outward direction in which they point to will help them grow horizontal instead of vertical!

What about the lighting?

Lighting will, of course, be the main driver in this setup. Light absorption is, after all, what we are trying to improve here! When you ScrOG your gardens, you will want to lower your lighting systems to a height where your whole crop is exposed to it. But you should be careful when doing this! Placing them too near your leaves and colas may cause heat stress and burning. Striking the balance in distance is one of the key factors of using the Screen of Green.

Can anyone Do This Method?

Basically, any and every grower can apply this method in their weed plants. However, there are some instances where doing so would be impractical! The ScrOG method usually appeals more to small-time growers or personal cultivators that plant a small to medium amount of cannabis plants. In order to get more buds out of their limited gardens, scrogging is quite common among them.

On the other hand, commercial growers and volume cultivators who look to sell commercially are much less inclined to use the ScrOG method. Don’t get us wrong, though. Many of these growers will still use this technique! However, given the already large yields that their vast gardens produce, using this method will seem much less significant. 

Also, scrogging was basically developed in order to improve your yields. It is, in no way, a necessary procedure for your gardens. While it can bring added bonuses to your crop, many growers will still find success without it. We recommend building up an ample amount of knowledge and experience first before turning to ScrOG. It is usually done right before flowering, during the later parts of the vegetative stage. This is to ensure that the plants will still continue to develop their structures but, at the same time, be mature enough to deal with the stress.

Different Uses:

Through this Low-Stress Technique (LST), each and every cola in your weed crop will begin to absorb equal amounts of light. This calls for an even growth and development of buds. Afterwards, you could almost guarantee that all your weed nugs will turn out the same!

But of course, there is so much more to this technique than just higher yields. Here are some of the different uses of ScrOG:

• It is not an expensive thing to do. Unlike other things such as building a hydroponics setup, using the ScrOG method is pretty cost-efficient. You will need a few materials to successfully make it work. But overall, it’s pretty cheap to do!

• Because of the use of a screen and structures, the ScrOG method also provides for additional support that holds your crops together! Whether you grow indoors or outdoors, you can feel a lot safer known that your plants won’t tumble down!
• The increase in light absorption and the equal exposure of your cannabis canopy is the main highlight of the ScrOG method. More energy is given to the plants which allows them to boost their bud production!
• Additionally, scrogging also promotes a much tidier and clean environment. This reduces the risk of any viruses and bacteria from contaminating your plants. 
• The ScrOG method is a Low-Stress Technique that exposes your plants to very minimal and controlled degrees of stress! As such, this boosts the immunity and resistance of your cannabis plants. They will be able to withstand a lot more stress and still be able to successfully thrive. 
• As you continue scrogging you cannabis plants, you will surely gain much more experience and understanding about cannabis cultivation. 

How To Set Up:

There’s a difference between reading about ScrOG and actually knowing how to do it! If you have never seen a setup like it before, then it may be quite complicated to imagine. Here, we are going to teach you the basics of setting up the ScrOG method! 

First off, here are the things that you will need for it to work:

• Screen – It’s called Screen of Green for a reason! The very first thing that you will need to prepare is your screen. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy, too! You can use ones that are made of mesh, steel, string, hemp cord, or twine will work. But the most common one due to its durability and flexibility is nylon. The size will pretty much depend on how big your growing space is and how many plants you wish to ScrOG. Just make sure that the branches and colas can be tied to the screen to create a blanket of a canopy.

• Poles and/or Frame (Optional) – You’re gonna have to tie down the screen somewhere, right? With some poles (made of any material, really) installed around your gardens, you can tie each corner of your net to stabilize it. Using PVC pipes is a great cost-efficient way of doing this. With the same material or some wooden planks, you can make yourself a sturdy frame to attach the screen to using fish hooks or standard eye hooks.

• Clippers or Scissors – When you start scrogging your cannabis plants, there will be a series of topping, trimming, weaving, and pruning your branches. As such, you will need to make sure you have the necessary equipment to do so. Using your bare hands might cause damage to your plants as well as some bruises and breaks.

Steps in using the ScrOG Technique:

• Position your screen roughly around a foot or a foot and a half from the pots. This will leave just enough leeway for the top colas and branches to peek out of the screen’s holes. This is what we want as we are going to tie them all around the screen. 

• Next, we are going to cut off the uppermost cola (topping) of each plant located under the screen. This is going to be located around the third node of the plant. What this does is that it opens up two different main stems and directs the energy for growing towards the remaining colas at the bottom. You can continue waiting for the plants to produce more colas and subsequently top them again in order to increase the number of main stems for larger yields. 

• Prune the button branches once they also start reaching the tops. This gives it an equal growth and canopy. Also, all the energy of the plant is now directed to forming the canopy up top. 

• It is time to stretch your branches and stems. To do this, simply take the emerging branches from the stems and carefully stretch them out under the farthest part of the screen that then can reach. Be gentle so you do not accidentally snap off the branches in the process. 

• Tie these branches out as they stay in a stationary position that fans out in horizontal directions. As you continue waiting, you will notice that the branches are now growing sideways and producing an even canopy of colas. 

• After they produce a nice, even growth, it is time to force introduce them into flowering. This is where the magic kicks in. You will notice numerous new colas sprouting healthy buds! This is because the plants now focus their energy into developing buds for the bottom buds as opposed to just the main top cola. 

The ScrOG technique relies mainly on spacing and topping. Also, regular maintenance is needed when your plants undergo this process. Watering them around 24 hours after scrogging gives them enough time to recover. Regularly check the leaves and make sure that they are getting enough nutrients to undergo a healthy production of buds.

That’s pretty much all there is to it! Using the ScrOG method may be a little complicated at first. But the more times you do it, you will find it to be pretty easy and convenient! Who doesn’t want more yields, right? This is a great technique to increase your overall production of healthy weed buds!