Scrog Nightmare? Pinch/Bend or Not?

[sgt d]

Here's the deal: there are some plants on a 4x8' flood and drain table. They're being top watered, but will soon be switched over to flood and drain. They're at the end of week 2 of flowering, and they're entirely too big due to the last round taking longer than expected to finish, and that's a whole nother story...

Anyway, I finally got 'em pruned up and the hooks to hang the net on screwed into the walls. Almost ready to put the net in, but, like I said, they're too tall, and I aim to put the net about a foot below the highest tops.

So here's my question: should I pinch and bend em all down to the level at which the net will be, or gently and hyper-carefully lay the net over them and work it from there? Why?

I've learned a bunch of stuff from hanging around here, so thanks in advance for all your learned opinions...

 

[sgt d]

Duh. From the Scroggers United thread: "You should not leave your plants growing in vegetative growth for too long because this causes more leaf matter to develop than bud which will make our SOG or ScrOG grow less effective. Also watch out that you do not crush or pinch the stems as this will cause branches to develop at those areas or close to them. Branch development means that plant energy is being used in leaf and branch promotion rather than bud production."

Case closed?

 

[Gastanker]

I would pinch and bend. No other good way to level off 1' of growth. If you are in week two of flowering pinching and bending will not cause more branch development and often adds weight to colas as you have suddenly increased the surface area exposed to light by laying it horizontal versus vertical.

 

[Little Tommy]

I always bend the branches down and tie them down to the screen. It will give you a nice even canopy.

 

[sgt d]

Thanks, gas. Repped.

Tommy, do you mean a sorta gentle arc kind of bend, or more of a 90 degree sorta thing?

 

[hoagtech]

If you need extreme angles without breaking your stem, you could transplant the bigger ones into a bigger pot and rotate the root ball in the larger so it "leans". That'll take some of the hieght out

 

[insomnia47]

If you need extreme angles without breaking your stem, you could transplant the bigger ones into a bigger pot and rotate the root ball in the larger so it "leans". That'll take some of the hieght out

when i did my scrog i had one plat that grew way taller than all the others, i was in DWC with small net pots so i slowly leaned the whole plant about 30 degrees with the floor. what this did was make all the side branching geow straight up from those points so 1 plant essentially filled up a 3ft by 6in row of my screen. i highly recomend this worked great for me

 

[sgt d]

Nice one, y'all. I like the leaning tower idea. Simple, lo-tech, easy to accomplish. Respect.