Is SCROG more efficient than growing taller plants?

Hello! Im using a closet which is 7 ft wide by 2 ft deep, with an 8 ft ceiling. So i/m thinking I can grow plants up to about 4-5 feet.. does that sound right? Im figuring that my 1000 watt HPS with an air cooled vent will be able to reach a max height of 6.5 ft, leaving the plants room up to 4.5 to 5 ft high. So would it be better to use SCROG or just grow tall plants with numerous branches?

Thanks so much in advance.

There are advocates of both which tells us no-one really knows. More accurately, it tells us that yield depends on other things more important. Bottom line is you can make your plants as big or small as you want. The smaller they are the more you can have. Also they can't grow out of the floor so you have to count the vertical space for the rootzone. If hydro there is a res, if soil there are pots. A 4 ft plant is about all you want to shoot for and one that big creates a lot of problems. Also, the choice is not between four 5 ft trees on one hand or 24 12 inch or less sog on the other. You could also plan for 8 or 10 30-36 inch plants. I think whichever approach enables you to do the best job as grower is the one that will be more efficient. Try them all.

Scrog is primarily used to limit plant height, get a nice even canopy), and get perfectly even quality of buds. You do not appear to have too much of a restriction on the height end with those dimensions. So it may come down to wanting consistent bud density/quality vs. having the giant single cola grow. If height is a concern, I would handle your grow the following way:
-Pick the Max Height that you want your plants to get to. Put up some sort of sceen just below that height.
-As your plant begins to hit that screen height (in flower at that point), start treating it like a scrog, shifting the colas horizontally to prevent it growing too tall. You can also use this screen as bud-weight support at that height as well (you'll probably need to lollipop).

By doing this, you can keep a relatively standard grow and still have a form of vertical control so they won't get too close to that 1000w.

-Butters

kellykapoor said:

Hello! Im using a closet which is 7 ft wide by 2 ft deep, with an 8 ft ceiling. So i/m thinking I can grow plants up to about 4-5 feet.. does that sound right? Im figuring that my 1000 watt HPS with an air cooled vent will be able to reach a max height of 6.5 ft, leaving the plants room up to 4.5 to 5 ft high. So would it be better to use SCROG or just grow tall plants with numerous branches?

Thanks so much in advance.

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Theoretically, "yes", based on the inverse relationship of light penetration to distance from the light, as anything more than a couple of feet from the light isn't getting as much usable light as the top parts of the plant.

That being said, the "practicality" and implementation of this principle varies by grower, as Illegal Smile said.

yea dont use scrog unless you have to...people use it when they have to but you could always scrog a plant that has not height boundary and end up with a huge and tall bush im sure..give it a shot id like to see it lol

scrogging will increase ur yeild and and make the most of ur lights and space

so scrogging definitely increase yield, all other factors constant? more yield from many plants under scrog than with few plants (6- not SCROGGED? by how much?

butters- i think the screen set up high is a good idea, but what is lollipopping?


Thanks for the replies guys!

i am currently growing scrog, and i think its well worth it, it makes great size budds and is great in small spaces or grow cabnets

kellykapoor said:

so scrogging definitely increase yield, all other factors constant? more yield from many plants under scrog than with few plants (6- not SCROGGED? by how much?

butters- i think the screen set up high is a good idea, but what is lollipopping?


Thanks for the replies guys!

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no, more yield from less plants under scrog... scrogng is to stretch ur plan out so it covers more surface area... u make the most with less plants.. i would suppercrop it.. its the same idea as scroging with out the screen.. in a 7x2 area it may be a bitch to tend to sum plants with the screen up... they r unmovable

kellykapoor said:

butters- i think the screen set up high is a good idea, but what is lollipopping?

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Lollipopping is the practice of cutting out all growth on the lower 1/3 of the plant.

What this does is takes out those littler branches that will result in small popcorn-like nugs. These little nugs take plant energy to make and by taking them out of the picture, the growth is forced towards those main buds in a scrog.

At the height that you'd be looking to put the screen up, you'll want to lollipop at about week 1 or 2 of flower to force huge cola bud growth. Then, the screen can act to support the weight of the now heavier colas.

-Butters