Lesson by: The Canna Dogg
Topic: Screen of Green (ScrOG)
Summary: This lesson will teach you the fundamentals of scrogging your plant.
Note: Some consider topping to be essential for scrogging. However, you don’t have to top your plants to benefit from scrogging. In this guide, we won’t be covering topping.
Introduction
Scrogging your plant refers to the practice of modifying your plant’s natural growth in a way that it produces a literal “Screen of Green”[1],[2]. It’s widely attributed to Wolf Segal, a Cannabis growing legend, who invented it when he was doing time after getting busted with no less than 12,000 illegal plants back in 1989.
The method itself is based on the “Sea of Green” method, but is done with a single plant instead of a “sea” of plants. So, you don’t need 12,000 plants to start scrogging, you actually only need one!
The nifty thing about scrogging, is that it makes it easier for you to get all the above-ground environmental factors (light, temperature, humidity, wind, and CO2) right across the screen, as all your buds will be horizontally aligned.
This is done by deploying a net or grid of some sorts horizontally across your canopy, and effectively training your plant to break apical dominance by weaving/tucking your plant into your net. There has actually even been scientific research conducted on scrogging, and the preliminary research suggests that scrogging can indeed significantly increase yield, even for the inexperienced grower[3].
As mentioned above, you can top your plants for an even bigger screen, but we’ll be looking at a non-topping approach. So, let’s have a look at how it’s actually done:
Materials Needed:
- A seedling
- A screen
- (Optional) Rubber-coated plant wire/zip-ties
Instructions:
- Install your screen. Most grow tents or boxes come with fittings for a screen.
- Your screen height will be your canopy height. Adjust as needed for optimal light exposure and general growing conditions.
- Let your plant grow vertically, until it hits your screen.
- Start weaving/tucking your plant into the screen.
- Basically, you’re weaving all your branches over/under/over/under your screen, in order to create a single horizontal line of buds.
- Remember that your plant can grow up to around 50% in size during bloom. So keep this in mind when planning your ScrOG!
- Prune all leaves underneath the canopy. They will not be receiving any light, as your ScrOG will block out the light.
Additional Information:
- You can use zip ties or rubber coated plant ties to secure your branches to the screen for additional support.
- Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. The tucking of the branches need to be done very gently!
Living FAQ:
- You don’t have to buy a screen, you can actually make one yourself. Just be careful of your choice of material. I recommend using string for its ease of use. Don’t use anything like fish line that can cut into your plants - it won’t work.
If you’re not quite sure how to prune your plant, @sierragrovebags has written a great guide on that over here, and you can find some very affordable netting over here at Growers House.
For more from The Canna Dogg, you can checkout my site here.
References:
[1] G. Green, ScrOG, in: S.T. Oner (Ed.), The Cannabis Grow Bible, Green Candy Press, San Francisco, 2003, pp. 116–121.
[2] L. Edwards, Growing techniques, in: C. Perry (Ed.), Grow Great Marijuana, Sweetleaf Publishing, Los Angeles, 2006, pp. 38–40,
[3] Knight, G., Hansen, S., Connor, M., Poulsen, H., McGovern, C., & Stacey, J. (2010). The results of an experimental indoor hydroponic Cannabis growing study, using the ‘Screen of Green’(ScrOG) method—Yield, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and DNA analysis. Forensic Science International, 202(1-3), 36-44.
Really happy you like it!
) is actually different in the runoff than what we normally want to be feeding with. But if you just let it sit and your medium isn’t saturated; it will suck up the water, and begin the process of messing up your root-zone environment. Which you DON’T want to happen hehe! 
Chat soon.
