Question about flat spiral ScrOG

[Brother_Antioch]

Hi, folks.

First, let me say I've searched this topic and haven't found anything related to it, but if I've missed it I'd be happy to be redirected.

Currently about 2 weeks into my first indoor grow. 4x4x2' tent, 1200W full spectrum LED light on a 18-6 light cycle, 1 Godfather OG female photosensitive, growing in Promix HP Mycorrhizae growing medium. For nutes, I'm using General Hydroponics FloraGro, FloraBloom and FloraMicro, following their feeding chart and paying attention to PH for my distilled water, and TDS meter to ensure I'm not killing anything.

My question is regarding doing a flat spiral scrog. I will be putting the screen with 3"x3" spacing. What I would like to do is have the top come through the middle, then train it to lay flat in a spiral spreading outwards. My question is 2-fold. First, is this possible??? The second is, assuming it IS possible, should I top my plant or just let it keep growing from the single top? My thinking is that if it's allowed to just keep growing, and tie it down in a spiral as it grows towards the light every 4-6" (meaning, as it grows up 4"-6" I then tie it down again following the spiral pattern) then I should maintain a constant light intensity for the entire plant, and produce a ton of bud from it...big, long, healthy buds.

So, I humbly submit to everyone's vastly superior knowledge in my endeavor. I've searched like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes for answers, and I've only come across a single posting/page about a flat spiral (can't remember where, sorry) but even that had no details, just a "bragging post" as I like to call it. (something I look forward to doing in the near future, truth be told. If any of you fine folks have any advice regarding this, or regarding anything to do with what I've posted here, I'd be forever grateful for it.

Thanks in advance,

BA.

(PS: Sorry if I "mansplained" my situation...not sure how much information is too much information, but thought more is always better)

 

[Galgrows]

Photoperiods can take alot of abuse with training. Keep them root healthy and just do it. Post some pictures of it.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Photoperiods can take alot of abuse with training. Keep them root healthy and just do it. Post some pictures of it.

Thanks, Galgrows. I appreciate the insight. I'll post pics of it as it comes along. I'm a few weeks away from starting the LST, but once I do, I'll keep a record of it.

So do you think I should top the plant or just keep the one tip growing?

 

[R4V3N]

If you mainlined it and took the two branches on an spiral pattern from the center outwards, like a galaxy effect, you could keep it more even. I'm thinking that if you were to do it with an untopped plant, you'd have to plant it at an outer edge of the pot, and train it around the edges towards the center. Also you'd at some point have half a node pointing at the ground and the other up in the air, so the colas might turn out uneven if it has to grow to the light more than the other side.

You could grow 2, just to be sure? :D

 

[Brother_Antioch]

If you mainlined it and took the two branches on an spiral pattern from the center outwards, like a galaxy effect, you could keep it more even. I'm thinking that if you were to do it with an untopped plant, you'd have to plant it at an outer edge of the pot, and train it around the edges towards the center. Also you'd at some point have half a node pointing at the ground and the other up in the air, so the colas might turn out uneven if it has to grow to the light more than the other side.

You could grow 2, just to be sure? :D

Thanks, R4v3n. What you say makes a lot of sense. I'll top the plant and run 2 spirals. I'll call it my "Milky Way" grow.

Cheers!

 

[PooToe]

As cool as mainlining is I think it kind of limits your dry yields. You'll certainly get nice fat colas but fat colas don't really appeal to me as much as the overall volume I'm able to harvest. Topping your plant will make it bushier opening up more potential bud sites but that will also decrease the size of your flowers. I prefer more medium size flowers that are more or less the same size. It makes it much easier for the dry and cure portion of the grow and I've found that bud rot is a thing of the past.

I like your idea of trying to snake the main stem to grow in a spiral but doing it that way will increase the veg time. I top early and try and establish as many branches as I can that I can spread out and grow flowers on. If I were you I would take one plant that will have 6 or 7 main shoots. position it in the center of the net and spiral them all like a galaxy. You'll be able to fill the net much quicker than if you ran one main stem.

At Flip

A few weeks before harvest

 

[Brother_Antioch]

As cool as mainlining is I think it kind of limits your dry yields. You'll certainly get nice fat colas but fat colas don't really appeal to me as much as the overall volume I'm able to harvest. Topping your plant will make it bushier opening up more potential bud sites but that will also decrease the size of your flowers. I prefer more medium size flowers that are more or less the same size. It makes it much easier for the dry and cure portion of the grow and I've found that bud rot is a thing of the past.

I like your idea of trying to snake the main stem to grow in a spiral but doing it that way will increase the veg time. I top early and try and establish as many branches as I can that I can spread out and grow flowers on. If I were you I would take one plant that will have 6 or 7 main shoots. position it in the center of the net and spiral them all like a galaxy. You'll be able to fill the net much quicker than if you ran one main stem.

At Flip
View attachment 2359786

A few weeks before harvest
View attachment 2359785

Thanks for the information, PooToe. I understand what you mean about veg time being a lot longer, but that doesn't really bother me so much. However, you make a great point about getting a few main shoots and doing what I was thinking. Cuts the time down and increases the yield, and I'm good with both those ideas!

Would you suggest topping it once, then topping those two a couple of weeks later to produce 4 shoots? Running them at 90 degrees to each other would create a 4-branch spiral that should fill in very nicely (only have 24" of depth to my tent so it limits me to a 2'x2' spiral) and leave only a few inches between each. I figure I could probably make 2 revolutions before having to harvest, if my math is correct. It's still a couple of weeks from being ready to start LST, and probably a good week or more until it's ready to top. The picture is day 6 from the seed germinating and being put under the light. Short, but healthy! Need it to get a little taller, so thinking I might have to raise my lights a bit more. They're about 22" off the canopy right now.

Thanks a ton for the advice. I can see signing up here was the best tool in my growing arsenal.

Cheers!

 

[PooToe]

Thanks for the information, PooToe. I understand what you mean about veg time being a lot longer, but that doesn't really bother me so much. However, you make a great point about getting a few main shoots and doing what I was thinking. Cuts the time down and increases the yield, and I'm good with both those ideas!

Would you suggest topping it once, then topping those two a couple of weeks later to produce 4 shoots? Running them at 90 degrees to each other would create a 4-branch spiral that should fill in very nicely (only have 24" of depth to my tent so it limits me to a 2'x2' spiral) and leave only a few inches between each. I figure I could probably make 2 revolutions before having to harvest, if my math is correct. It's still a couple of weeks from being ready to start LST, and probably a good week or more until it's ready to top. The picture is day 6 from the seed germinating and being put under the light. Short, but healthy! Need it to get a little taller, so thinking I might have to raise my lights a bit more. They're about 22" off the canopy right now.

Thanks a ton for the advice. I can see signing up here was the best tool in my growing arsenal.

Cheers!

View attachment 2359821

If you look at the first picture I posted you can see the main shoots on each plant splayed out under the net. They form a kind of star shape. Some have 5 some have 7. Start there and get your spiral going.

I top once I have 5 mature nodes. You don't need to top more than once as the plant will naturally grow off-shoots from the main branches. I use to top at node 5 then FIM a week before flip but I found that it made too many bud sites so the flowers were smallish. Great smoking but a bit small for my taste. Overall yield was comparable to just topping once and letting it go but with smaller flowers. I try and balance flower size to take Trim Jail into consideration. Too small and it takes much longer to trim. Too large and I risk getting bud rot.

I might return to FIM a week before flip if I can figure out the fertigation irrigation that I plan on employing this run. Fertigation will allow each flower site more growth due to it allowing a wider O² root exchange window. Hopefully this will mean that the flowers will be larger than when I ran it on a water every 3-4 days schedule.