How To Scrog Marijuana Plants

WHAT IS SCROGGING?

Scrogging is the process of scaffolding your marijuana plants to create an even canopy that gets lots of light. The term ‘scrog’ comes from ‘screen of green’, which is what you create when you scrog your plants.

Sometimes, people think that scrogging is the same as trellising or supporting your plants. Scrogging does support your plants, but it has other benefits that make it distinct from trellising.

When scrogging, you take the branches of your plants and stretch them out across a screen so that growth happens laterally rather than vertically. This means that each branch gets more direct light because they are spaced out, rather than cramped together, which is how they would grow naturally.

It is not the same as simply laying a net over your plants to restrict vertical growth. Instead, you weave the branches through the screen to form an intentional canopy.

This allows you more control over where the branches grow and how much light they receive. Not scrogging your plants won’t make them terrible, but it will reduce the number of high-quality buds you get. Enough light is the key to high-quality buds.

To fully understand scrogging, you need to know about colas. The cola is the top of the cannabis plant that flowers and where the bud develops. A natural cannabis plant will grow one main stalk with a large cola and then smaller colas around the rest of the plant. Because colas grow vertically from the branches, horizontal branches can develop more colas, and therefore more buds.

Scrogging creates a screen of branches, which means each cola receives direct sunlight and can produce a higher-quality bud. Sunlight is directly proportional to the size of a cola and the buds it produces after flowering.

THE BENEFITS OF THE SCROG TECHNIQUE

So why go to all this effort? Well, there are some major benefits of scrogging that mean that your marijuana plants produce more buds and higher quality ones. The basic principle is that you are distributing the branches laterally rather than vertically, providing more surface area for even sun absorption.

Scrogging is a great way to use your space efficiently and produce the highest yield in the smallest space. This is especially useful if you live in a state that limits the number of plants you can grow. Because scrogging increases the quality and quantity of buds it can supercharge your growth, even if you only have a few plants.

More High-Quality Buds

The major benefit of scrogging is that it improves both the quality and the quantity of your buds. Because your branches are more spread out, more sun can reach them which means your plants can produce more buds. Scrogging reduces light being wasted by hitting the ground instead of your cannabis plant.

Instead, the light is equally distributed across the branch, meaning it can produce a higher yield and better-quality buds.

Less Mold And Pests

Scrogging also helps to improve airflow around your plants, which reduces the risk of mold and pests. Any large-scale growing project is at risk of dampness causing mold, or an infestation of pests.

By scrogging your plants, you give each branch more space, making it harder for mold to grow. It’s easier for air to move between leaves and branches because the canopy is spread out and less crowded than plants that haven’t been scrogged.

With pests, you can always use pesticides, but scrogging is a natural way to reduce the likelihood of pests. Increased airflow reduces damp and humid conditions that are ideal for infestations. The larger spread also makes it harder for pests to hide amongst the leaves.

Increased Support

Like trellising, an advantage of scrogging is that it provides support for the branches and the whole plant. This means that the plant can grow bigger without the risk of branches breaking under the weight of so many buds.

If branches break, the buds on them stop growing, and they are wasted. It can be heartbreaking to grow a large bushy weed plant whose branches are laden with buds, only for a branch to be too weighed down and break under the weight.

More Space

Another benefit of scrogging is that there is more space between your plants, making it far easier to work with. You aren’t fighting dense branches to get to the buds. It also makes it easier to see potential issues and catch them before they become a problem.

WHEN TO SCROG YOUR MARIJUANA PLANT

The ideal time to scrog is after you have topped the plants and before they are flowering. Topping is another important process in growing weed that involves chopping the main stalk of the plant. This relates to the colas of the plant, which form the buds. Naturally, the plant will have one main cola at the top and other smaller colas around the rest of the plant. Topping is when you cut off that top cola before it flowers.

While topping may seem counterintuitive, it actually changes the way the plant grows in a beneficial way. An untopped plant will grow one main stalk that produces buds, and then the rest of the plant will be smaller and less fruitful. Topping redistributes the growth hormones in the plant, allowing you to get a higher yield.

By topping your marijuana plant, you encourage it to grow more stalks, resulting in a bushier plant that produces a lot more buds. Topping helps you to develop the branches for you to scrog and the two processes work together to produce more high-quality buds.

Topping should be done after your plant has grown 6 or 7 nodes, and you want to chop the plant above the 5th node. This ensures that enough plant is left behind and will encourage it to grow bushier rather than just vertically.

Get Ahead Of The Plant

The ideal time to scrog your plants is before they have grown to the height of the screen or mesh. This means that the plants can grow up into the mesh, rather than you having to force existing branches into the structure.

It is possible to scrog plants after the branches have already grown, but it will put more stress on the plant than gently encouraging the branches to grow where you want them to.

When setting up your frame and screen, position it about 1 ft above the base of the plants. Again, you may need to adjust these measurements based on the strain you are growing.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR SCROGGING

Scrogging is important for both indoor and outdoor cannabis, but there are a few things you need to keep in mind. Scrogging tends to work better with indoor growing because you have more control over the light source, but it can still boost production in outdoor cannabis plants.

Understand The Branches

Something very important to keep in mind when scrogging is to consider where the branch wants to go. You will have more success if you try to work with the natural direction of the branches. Of course, scrogging is all about getting them where you want them to be, but let their natural shape guide you.

Spacing

A key element of scrogging is getting the space between plants right. In order to form a proper canopy, you need the branches to overlap slightly. This means your plants can’t be too far apart, but you also don’t want them too close which will prevent the even distribution of light.

As a general rule, your pots should be between 1 to 2 ft apart from each other. However, a more specific guide is to look at the branches. Take your plant and stretch the longest branch out toward the neighboring plant.

You want the stretched branch to overlap the longest branch of the adjacent plant by about 6 inches. This ensures that each plant has enough space, but also that the branches can interlock slightly to create the desired canopy.

Aftercare

Scrogging is a stressful process for the plant, and it is normal for a plant to look a bit wilted after setting up a scrog structure. However, with some light and watering, the plant should bounce back quickly.

You should plan to water your plants within 24 hours of scrogging them. While it does stress the plants, the benefits are more than worth it.

Low-Stress Training

Another cannabis training technique that works well with scrogging is low-stress training (LST). This involves gently bending and tying down branches to have more precise control over the shape of the plant and where the branches lie.

LST is an excellent way to encourage lateral growth, which maximizes sunlight and increases space efficiency. And because the process is so gentle, the stress on the cannabis plant is not too significant and it will recover easily.

HOW TO SCROG MARIJUANA PLANTS

Below, we’ve put together a simple guide to get you scrogging like a pro in no time.

The Frame

The first thing you need when scrogging is your frame. Some people use premade structures like tomato cages, especially for outdoor plants, but you can also design a custom frame for your plants. One of the most popular materials for frames is PVC piping because it is both sturdy and lightweight.

When it comes to securing your frame, a common strategy is to use wooden planks to hold it up. It’s important to be sure that your frame can withstand the weight of your plants in order to scrog successfully. You need to create a square or rectangular frame to fit the size of your planned canopy.

Then you can attach four legs to it so that it will stand up. We recommend screwing in eyelets to the frame so that you can easily attach your screen or mesh. While you’ll fine-tune the spacing over time, start with 5 or 6 cm between each hook or eyelet.

To actually hold the branches in place, there are several different material options. One common one is to use string or hemp cord. This is gentle on the branches but also helps to hold them in place. Other options include metal mesh or plastic string. Again, trial and error can help you to choose the perfect material for your scrog.

Set-Up

Once your frame and screen are in place, you can start to position your branches. Ideally, you will be doing this as they grow into the screen, but you can position branches that are already at the height of the screen.

As mentioned, your pots should be between 1-2 ft away from each other, depending on the strain you are growing. You will then fill each mesh square with an individual branch.

Don’t put two branches in the same square, because crowded branches will result in poorer distribution of light, meaning some of your plants won’t grow as well.

Spread The Branches

To fill in the screen, gently stretch a branch and pull it through the screen. Then release the branch and see if it stays in place or bounces back into its original position. From here, adjust until the branch is securely in the mesh, trying different squares in the screen until you find one that works. If the plant still needs to grow a bit before reaching the mesh, keep a close eye on it.

One strategy for scrogging is to stretch out the branches into an X shape to help them to grow horizontally. The number of branches you have depends on how high up you top the plant, and the X-shape works best if you have four branches after topping. This technique works well with LST when you tie down the branches to help secure them in place.

The easiest way to scrog your plants is to start at the corner, work your way around the edge, and then fill in the middle. Scrogging works whether you have one plant or several. If you’re working with multiple plants, finish one plant completely before moving on to the next one to ensure that nothing gets neglected.

Sometimes scrogging can feel like doing a jigsaw puzzle, and you might want to give up. It’s important to remember the benefits of scrogging and training your plants. If you can’t seem to get the branches to go where you want them to, try rotating the plant completely, as this sometimes makes the process easier.

Checking In

Once you have scrogged your plants, give them a few days to recover. After two or three days, go back and check how they are growing. This is an opportunity to make adjustments based on their natural growth. Seeing how plants respond to scrogging helps you to improve your technique over time.

Because cannabis plants are not vines, they will not naturally grow into the mesh. That’s why this process is called training because you are manipulating where they grow to suit your needs. You’ll need to keep adjusting and weaving the branches through the mesh to perfect your scrog.

Pruning

Because the branches below the canopy are covered in shade, they won’t be producing large buds. In fact, you should prune the branches below the screen to help the plant conserve energy. By pruning, you allow the plant to direct all of its energy to the buds in the canopy, rather than directing energy below the canopy to grow worse buds that don’t receive enough sunlight.

CONCLUSION

Scrogging is pretty simple to start doing, but it does take some time and experience to get good at it. You need to understand how your plants grow, and how best to space things for your specific strains.

Different strains will require slightly different setups. When you start growing weed, learning to scrog can seem overwhelming, but hard work and small adjustments will help your branches to get loads of light and result in plenty of high-quality buds.

When it comes to learning about weed, Embarc is the best place to go. Check out our website for more information or visit one of our dispensaries for high-quality cannabis products.