PeeJay;1885029 said:Thought I'd put together an overview of the SCRoG technique I used since training is a very popular topic. What I did was much different than the current popular training trends on the forum. I did not train the plant before the screen was placed. I used the screen to train. At five nodes high the plants were transferred to the five gallon pots with the porta-SCRoG rig. I cut down some tomato cages and buried their legs into the soil. The top hoop of the cage was around 5.5-6" above the medium. No manipulations, LST, topping, or FIM was done before placing the plants under the screen. Once the transplant was done I did a FIM at the fifth node.
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Next I started bending the FIMed top under the screen each time it was tall enough to move to the next square in the grid.
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Essentially, I used the screen to LST the plant. The FIM gave me multiple tops. I moved those towards one end of the rectangular screen. Two factors contributed to rapid growth on the nodes below the FIM. Both the FIM and the LST increased growth hormones (auxins) available to the lower branches. Because the main top(s) were being bent out and away from the lower growth, there was plenty of light for the four nodes below. Because the screen was only six inches above the soil they hit the screen pretty quickly.
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Growth from the lower nodes was moved in the opposite direction from the main FIMed top.
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A few dominant tops from the lower nodes were topped to double them, but I think I only did three or so. New branches growing up from all the bigger branches moving horizontally through the screen sent tops up through the screen, too.
[img]https://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/helen_goes1212.jpg
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I've done almost no defol. The plants seem to take care of that by themselves. The canopy is thick enough that little light reaches under the screen. When a leaf is not being productive it turns yellow and falls off.