Plant Training Techniques

Plant Cultivation

ScrOGged pepper plant
Pepper plant in P SCROG

What starts as a closet hobby quite often turns into a labor of love for many people, and for some a career. But one thing for sure, if your patience gets you through one or two grows, you will probably start seeking techniques that will improve future crops. Training techniques can substantially improve yield while dramatically reducing grow space requirements and lighting needs.

MAX YIELD made simple

Training techniques are simple to employ.
You don't have to be an expert to maximize yield. There are an abundance of excellent references on the internet, but here is a sampling of the most notable techniques:

Super Cropping - bending/deforming branches, high stress
Lollipopping - removing lower vegetation
Topping - cutting plant above top node
FIMming - partial pinching of new growth above top node site
LST - Low Stress Training, bending but not deforming
SOG - "Sea of Green", high plant densities, short veg cycles
ScrOG - "Screen Of Green" is typically associated with one plant and utilized in conjunction with other advanced training techniques. Scrogging a plant increases yield and reduces grow space requirements.

LBH's Famous ScrOG Tutorial

The ScrOG method utilizes a screen with multiple openings typically suspended between the planting medium and the lighting source. Plant tips grow up to the screen and then are "trained" to grow horizontally using LST at the screen's planar surface during the vegetative cycle. The method results in a flat surface of plant growth with multiple bud sites relatively equal distance from the light source. Once the screen's inferior surface is filled with vegetation, lighting is switched to 12/12 and flowers are allowed to grow vertically through the screen openings and rising at approximately the same rate and equal distance from the light. Because all the buds are growing at the same height, it is possible to get all the growth within the effective footprint of the light source and ScrOG, maximizing production from the space.

Examples of veggie ScrOGs
Serrano Pepper, Roma & Cherry Tomato and Tamarillo Plants

Tomato ScrOG
Giant tamarillo plant (tree tomato) lollipopped and ScrOGged

Examples of other ScrOGs

Vegetable plants like tomatoes and peppers definitely benefit from the ScrOG method, but higher dollar value plants is where the real bonanza lies. Home growers appreciate the increased yield in precious small spaces. Commercial growers realize that ScrOGging is a critical element of efficiency that will help to give them an edge on competition.

Building ScrOGs

Search YouTube for hundreds of helpful DIY ScrOG videos to view.

DIY ScrOGs
Pros and Cons

Ounce for ounce...pound for pound, use of a ScrOG is one of the best investments a grower can make in a garden. The pros far outweigh the cons. Although the techniques are simple, scrogging and maintaining maturing plants is not without its frustrations and limitations.

Pros

Increases yield and quality
Promotes even canopy light penetration
Improves light source efficiency
Improved lighting ROI with greater usable production per watt
Reduces grow space requirements
Greater production per square foot of space
Greater production per cubic foot in vertical farming
"Trellis like" support of heavy/dense flowers
Improved air circulation

Cons

Complicated
Tools required
Time commitment / trial and error
Saggy trellis net makes training plants difficult and nearly impossible to produce a flat canopy.
Sloppy trellis, bamboo, PVC appearance
Fixed screen forces grower to treat all strains / all plants under the ScrOG in the same manner.
Fixed screen makes lollipopping, pruning and regular grooming of plants difficult.
Once established in the ScrOG plants cannot be easily moved without trauma and/or damage to ScrOG and/or plants.
Not easily adjusted
ScrOG material can block light. Some DIY ScrOG material, especially metal, can block as much as 13% of the light rays available to the plant canopy and may conduct heat, especially if dark in color. This heat generation in direct contact may retard growth and damage plants.
Difficult for grower to reach plants deep in ScrOG
Difficult to change hydroponic nutrients or maintain organics.
Difficult to manage drain pans and test nutrients

"Interested in Scrog but my plants move during cycle change. I can't be the only one with this problem." - OpenGrow.com

P SCROG Systems are the world's first commercially available completely portable and adjustable ScrOG systems that allow growers to train plants based on their individual needs regardless of strain, maturity level, health status or any other unique requirement. P SCROG screens are made from transparent polycarbonate resin allowing nearly all light to penetrate and are virtually indestructible. Don't care to DIY? Try P SCROG...it's simple.