Outdoor SCROG - Good or bad?

[fawnridge]

This is my first outdoor grow. I just read a few articles about SCROGGING for outdoor grows and I'd like to get the experts' opinion on it. Good idea for maximum yield or not the way nature intends for the plant to grow outdoors? Tomato cages or overhead netting? What happens when the plants get too tall for either? Thanks and a tip of the hat.

 

[Zen_Seeker]

Good idea for maximum yield or not the way nature intends for the plant to grow outdoors?

I don’t see why not? What are your reasons for wanting to SCROG? Would they still apply if growing outside?

Tomato cages or overhead netting?

Not a fan of the cages as I go bushy.

Zen’s SCROG Winter 2022 to 2023

So I’m feeling like my posts might be stepping on others threads so I’ll start my own. Not a cry for help this time but to show what has worked and what’s currently going on. Two weeks after stretch when buds really started coming in. This is the end of...

www.thcfarmer.com

What happens when the plants get too tall for either? Thanks and a tip of the hat.

If you’re SCROGing it won’t get to tall. Kind of the point to tucking and trimming. keep it even & manageable.

 

[fawnridge]

I don’t see why not? What are your reasons for wanting to SCROG? Would they still apply if growing outside?


Not a fan of the cages as I go bushy.

Zen’s SCROG Winter 2022 to 2023

So I’m feeling like my posts might be stepping on others threads so I’ll start my own. Not a cry for help this time but to show what has worked and what’s currently going on. Two weeks after stretch when buds really started coming in. This is the end of...

www.thcfarmer.com

If you’re SCROGing it won’t get to tall. Kind of the point to tucking and trimming. keep it even & manageable.

My goal is maximum yield. We're bakers and need a pound a month. With 10 high yield indica's going into barrel planters, we're hoping to get enough to cover our annual need without paying insane D.C. dispensary prices.

 

[Zen_Seeker]

My goal is maximum yield. We're bakers and need a pound a month. With 10 high yield indica's going into barrel planters, we're hoping to get enough to cover our annual need without paying insane D.C. dispensary prices.

Check out @CannaGranny SCROGs. She’s been doing it for years and teaches classes. I think it would work fine for you but bounce a few questions off her.

 

[GrimReffer]

This is my first outdoor grow. I just read a few articles about SCROGGING for outdoor grows and I'd like to get the experts' opinion on it. Good idea for maximum yield or not the way nature intends for the plant to grow outdoors? Tomato cages or overhead netting? What happens when the plants get too tall for either? Thanks and a tip of the hat.

Outdoor scrogs are glorious, comes down to practice and timing. I wouldn’t call tomato cages a scrog, I use them on normal outdoor plants. Couple t posts with a frame and screen is a good way or you can use cattle fence with same size squares.

 

[CannaGranny]

Outdoor scrogs are glorious, comes down to practice and timing. I wouldn’t call tomato cages a scrog, I use them on normal outdoor plants. Couple t posts with a frame and screen is a good way or you can use cattle fence with same size squares.

What Grim says is right on. A simple net will not give you a full on scrog. It has to be heavy enough to hold the plant down, and so far I have not seen any typical trellising nets do that. There is a big difference In scrogging versus trellising. Scrogging will triple your take and take away most worries about outdoor grows and wind.

 

[TSD]

I did an outdoor scrog last year for the first time. It was a game changer in the way of maintenance, pest control, mold control and even bud size. I'm in the Northeast, so my season isn't great, I need all the help I can get.
I purposely was trying to keep them smaller, so most were in buried 7 gallon fabric pots to slow them down a bit because last year I had trees and my hubs had daily panic attacks over it lol... so this was why I did a scrog, to stay more discreet. They of course grew through the pots, so I won't say too much on yield because I was trying to keep them smaller, but in general, scrogging increases yield. I had 2 Sativa doms scrogged, Super Silver Haze gave me 14 ounces, Amnesia Lemon gave me 16 ounces, and my Indica Dom big girl Black Cherry Punch gave me 30 ounces. I used hammer in metal fence posts, the green coated metal fence and zip ties to build my scrog. You have to keep training them out so they don't get tall, that's the point scrogging, you don't just put them in the net once and leave them. It takes several adjustments through veg and the stretch to get them scrogged. I trained mine out well before they hit the scrog net so they were ready to go, and I planned on doing one more adjustment, but was gone on a week long camping trip and they grew too much to risk breaking limbs so they stayed. I'll put up a few pics and link my diary from last summer if you'd like to take a peak, the beginning shows how I prepared them for scrogging.
Amnesia Lemon

Black Cherry Punch

Group shot

SSH and Amnesia Lemon

Adirondack Garden Gal Making a Diary '22

Hello fellow farmers! Starting my 2022 journey, and I'm going to try to actually keep a grow diary this time... I said that last year too and was lazy about it... well more like my ladies were massive and required all my extra time. 🤷‍♀️ So I start...

www.thcfarmer.com

 

[mysticepipedon]

It's funny. I was about to say, "Don't waste your time," but by the time I got to the end of this thread, I was converted.

 

[TSD]

It's funny. I was about to say, "Don't waste your time," but by the time I got to the end of this thread, I was converted.

It was a legitimate game changer for me. The first time in probably 15 outdoor grows that I have had no botrytis on my buds, and next to no PM, just a few tiny spots on inner leaves at the very end that I spotted right away and got rid of. The airflow was amazing. (My non scrogged location still had a few amputations and came down a bit early sue to mold and PM, so it was not the season, it was the scroggin lol.) Made maintenance soooo much easier, and when I added the leaf blower come late summer, they were so easy to dry off in comparison to a tree shape lol. Also already had a frame for frost covering. No drawbacks really, all positive for me in this climate that I choose to battle. A few people told me it was silly and pointless outside, but I feel I proved them quite wrong lol.

 

[fawnridge]

Man, the sheer volume of information is heavier than reading Shakespeare in Korean. Having watched a bunch of videos and looked at some of the amazing plants grown here, I'd love to scrog the whole batch. However...we're a bit limited by space, and we do want to grow all six plants. So, we're going to scrog just one of the six and dedicate the extra space to it. The other five will grow as trees through some heavy duty tomato cages. One of the outdoor grows I watched had plants with stems thicker than soda pop cans growing through tomato cages! The narrator said he got two pounds per plant!!!

 

[TSD]

Man, the sheer volume of information is heavier than reading Shakespeare in Korean. Having watched a bunch of videos and looked at some of the amazing plants grown here, I'd love to scrog the whole batch. However...we're a bit limited by space, and we do want to grow all six plants. So, we're going to scrog just one of the six and dedicate the extra space to it. The other five will grow as trees through some heavy duty tomato cages. One of the outdoor grows I watched had plants with stems thicker than soda pop cans growing through tomato cages! The narrator said he got two pounds per plant!!!

This girl was 2.5 pounds plus larf, non scrogged obvi... in ground, no pot to restrict... White Widow. Started in March, went out end of May. That year was the reason I scrogged this past year lol... too big. She was held up with rebar she was so heavy.

Tomato cages probably aren't gonna cut it size wise, and the girls really don't like rubbing against the metal in the wind sometimes, depending if they're picky or delicate. I've had bad results with metal in direct contact... stems turning brown, damage to the branches that could let pathogens in.

 

[Mikedin]

It was a legitimate game changer for me. The first time in probably 15 outdoor grows that I have had no botrytis on my buds, and next to no PM, just a few tiny spots on inner leaves at the very end that I spotted right away and got rid of. The airflow was amazing. (My non scrogged location still had a few amputations and came down a bit early sue to mold and PM, so it was not the season, it was the scroggin lol.) Made maintenance soooo much easier, and when I added the leaf blower come late summer, they were so easy to dry off in comparison to a tree shape lol. Also already had a frame for frost covering. No drawbacks really, all positive for me in this climate that I choose to battle. A few people told me it was silly and pointless outside, but I feel I proved them quite wrong lol.

Northeast as well here I’ll be growing at least 1 outdoor plant this year, may scrog it especially after seeing those monsters

 

[Jojo420]

"Tomato cages or overhead netting? "
Both
Put a decent cage around them in veg and use the netting right before the stretch.
The cage for supporting the big inner branches first and netting supports the weight of the buds.

 

[vtweedly]

@TSD How high above plant do you put scrog net outdoors. I mostly see indoor height suggestions. Some of these pics look close to 3ft above plant base.

 

[Beazy]

They work great !!