How To Train Your Plant’s Growth For Bigger Yields

The meditative art of bonsai is a great way to get bigger yields from your weed garden.

Training your plant’s growth can help you get bigger yields. By helping your branches grow away from each other, the plants absorb more light, allowing them to grow bigger faster.

One of the more popular training techniques is called the Screen of Green, or ScrOG for short.

Using a screen stretched horizontally above the plants, the branches are trained to weave through the screen.

In a manner similar to the Sea of Green method, ScrOG creates a canopy that maximizes light use in a confined space.  The canopy is converted into a sea of top buds in the flowering stage.

Despite being based on the same principle, ScrOG is quite different from the Sea of Green method.

Sea of Green relies on many plants to create a canopy, whereas ScrOG can produce similar yields from fewer plants.

For growers who don’t have access to a lot of seeds or clones, ScrOG might be the right choice.

How to Make Your Own Screen of Green

1. Build frame for your screen: A square made from 2x4s or PVC will work best, but experiment and find what works best for your grow space.
2. Make grid a using screen materials: there are a variety of materials you can use for your screen.  String is one of the best materials, as it is cheap and is easy to remove at harvest time.  Hemp twine is effective, but the fibers can become bound up in the buds.  Chicken wire and fishing line are not recommended because they damage the plants and are difficult to remove at harvest.  Once again, experiment and see what works best for you.
3. Vegetative State: Grow your seedlings or clones long enough for them to show signs of solid root growth (they start growing vigorously, usually after a few days).  Top your plants by cutting the tallest shoot just below the last fully developed node. (Note: some strains, including many indicas, don’t respond well to topping).  This will cause the top shoot to split into two branches.  Some growers choose to top the plant again to make four shoots.
4. Training Day: As your new top branches grow back, train them grow through the screen, weaving each branch through the screen in opposite directions.  Repeat this process with all your plants.  Continue vegetative cycle until the plants have created a canopy.
5. Trimming: Remove lower leaves and thin branches to allow your plants to put energy into the canopy
6. Flower: Once you start the flowering cycle you will see what all that extra work was for––beautiful cola buds emerge from the canopy.
7. Harvest: Cut the screen material and carefully remove it, once the screen has been completely removed you can harvest your buds.