How To Grow Marijuana Seeds With The Screen of Green (Scrog)

You may have seen the word SCROG on forums after looking for grow info after you've purchased your Marijuana Seeds, here's what SCROG means.
 

So first things first, what is SCROG?
 

Well, the word SCROG stands for Screen of Green. SCROG is a method of growing cannabis indoors which trains your plants using a fine screen, and this is a form of growing which increases the yields from small grows.
 

To get the most out of your indoor projects you should have a go at this technique. By using the SCROG technique you will find that this method can produce several bud sites and will give each of your flowers plenty of opportunities to develop.
 

Once you have got your screen set up and ready you can easily use it to produce crop after crop of the highest of quality cannabis.

What are the benefits of Scrog?
 

The chances of growing just one central cola when just using a single plant to grow with little/no training are pretty high. When you use the SCROG method, each branch will develop into a nice decent sized cola, and this will coax out the higher yields from as few as 1 to 5 of your plants.

When growing with SCROG it will produce homogenous buds and all of the cannabis branches will be trained to hover atop of the screen in a canopy. 

It means that they will all be an equal distance from your light which will then give all of the flowers the perfect opportunity to soak as much of the solar juice that it wants. Using SCROG will give you a consistent crop every single time.
 

SCROG Vs SOG
 

SOG (Sea Of Green) is a method of another type of growing which encourages high yields, and in a way, it's pretty much the exact opposite of SCROG, SCROG uses a few plants & it creates multiple and highly developed budding sites.

Using around 30 - 40 plants, SOG focuses on the development of 1 primary cola

Once clones are given one to two weeks to establish, they are switched to flowering and this will cause the clones to go into overdrive. Then the stalks will start to thicken and they will begin to produce a single yet impressive flower.

In some rare cases, the plants just simply stretch tall and then produce a small bud, so for this reason, SOG can only then be done with clones. Seedlings won't react this way when they readily switch into flowering.

SOG will require some very intense lights and much more maintenance. When you use the SCROG method you will save a fair bit of water, as well as be able to get away with using less light.

While Sativas will take really nicely to SCROG, Indicas are best suited to the SOG technique. When SOG is used the plants will rarely reach a height of more than around 12 inches (30cm)

Using the SOG method is also a lot faster than SCROG. Usually, the SOG technique is used by professional growers that need those high yields really quickly. For the average grower at home, the best method is SCROG, to get a ton of the product from just a few plants.

The number of plants that are used in the SOG method can also give you more trouble in some of the legal areas. In most of the legal states, you are only allowed to grow around 4 - 6 plants. So SCROG is the better option for most people.
 

How do you use SCROG?
 

What's cool about SCROG is that it's pretty easy, through the vegetative stage you can simply begin to weave the branches through the screen. Under the canopy, the plants will look pretty trim and quite neat. Also, you will find they are easier to water and maintain. Make sure that you pay attention to the flowering time with SCROG.

Some of the strains can tend to stretch a lot more than others during flowering. Before you go ahead and try SCROG make sure you look up some growing info about the strain you are growing. If it tends to get tall and grows vigorously when it's flowering then you can shorten the time in which your plant spends in the vegetative state. 

A stretchy plant will fill out the grid during its flowering. If you have a plant that isn't stretchy then leave it in the vegetative phase a bit longer and that will help it to take up more of the grid space. Another handy tip is to remember that you want to train the plants for ample lateral growth.

Without further ado, here is a nice step by step breakdown of how to use SCROG:

Materials:

• Screen with two - four-inch (5-10 cm) diameter holes (something like this. Lots of people tend to make their own screens out of bamboo sticks)
• Plastic plant ties or string
• 5 to 6 - gallon pot (25 L) for 1 plant, 3-gallon (12 L) pots for more plants
• Plants
• Pre-prepped growing space
   

Directions:

• Place mesh at around 8 inches (20 cm) above the pots. You will need it to be as close to the light as possible while leaving plenty of room for large buds
• Give each plant around 12 square inches (30 cm) of screen
• Guide branches through the screen but make sure you only allow the tops to hover atop the mesh
• You may use plant ties or string to secure branches if necessary, although you may find that the screen itself will hold them in place after a time
• Continue training until an average of around 70% of the screen is covered before switching to flowering. If you are growing a Sativa, aim for 50 to 60% coverage before flowering. With an Indica, up to 80% of the screen may be covered
• As your plants continue to grow, they will fill up the remaining space
• Once your plants are moved into flowering, be sure to keep an eye out for more branches underneath.
   

Pruning
 

Please be sure that you are pruning back the fan leaves while they are in the growth process. You may also tuck the fan leaves close to the buds underneath the screens during flowering. The fan leaves will suck away the energy from flower development.

When using a technique like this your plants will thrive without extra leaves, thanks to the canopy structure. just do not let those leaves go to waste.

The leaves from a cannabis plant are highly nutritious, you can throw a few into a smoothie or even have yourself a nice calming cup of cannabis leaf tea.

The fan leaves probably won't be loaded with the psychoactive THC but, they do contain cannabinoid acids & it's these acids that have the anti-inflammatory & antioxidant properties as well as being rich in vitamins. You really don't want to miss out on these health benefits.

Air Circulation

With SCROG the thick canopy creates that quality air circulation which is essential. When the buds are densely packed in together and encouraged to grow large, you create the perfect environment for mildew & mould.

If you can, try and use an air-cooled light, also, make sure that you have at least 2 fans going, one to pull the fresh air into your grow space, and one for pulling the hot air out of the grow room/tent.

As we have mentioned previously, one of the best things about SCROG is that you can save time while watering, make sure though that you only water them when the soil is totally dry. The biggest rookie mistake is over-watering, it can increase the chances of mould, pets or pathogen outbreaks.

So there you have it, the basics of SCROG. This method can bring you a lot of bang for your buck. Home growers are usually limited to just a few plants and this SCROG method will give you the highest possible indoor yields for very little input. This technique is well worth trying for anyone who is diving into cannabis cultivation.