SCROG Advice - When to stop tucking

It’s my first grow with my only plant and I decided to SCROG it. It’s been 14 days since flipping the lights and 5 days since little buds were discovered, and I’m wondering if I should still be tucking the branches under the SCROG.

During flowering I’ve read that a lot of growth continues. Where is the new growth? Is all the new growth just on the tips of the branches?

A lot of the branches have buds that are below the netting, should all the buds be above the net?

Here’s a picture that I hope will help with any answers / advice:

All advice is appreciated…

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I keep tucking them for the first 3 weeks of light flip and then I stop and let them do their thing… after 4 weeks any shoots that didn’t make it into the screen get cut off… :wink:
Lookin good … :wink:

:v: :sunglasses:

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@peachfuzz has pretty solid method there. The one thing that I would add is to be paying attention to where the lower bus sites are.

If you have empty net space and a branch that can pulled to it, that will allow the bud site underneath to usually come up through the net. You’ll undoubtedly trim a few away, but you’re still at the point you can probably get a few through. Just be carful when tucking, the branches usually aren’t as pliable the further you get into flowering stage.

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After reading what @peachfuzz and @dbrn32 have written it dawns on me that I’ve been just pushing the branches under the SCROG net while I probably should be weaving them into the net. That will allow buds lower on the stalks to be above the net.

Is there a reason for sacrificing some of the lower buds? I realize that the plant can divert more energy to the remaining buds, but is there any other reason? Is there any other trade off as the plant seems to be continuing to grow like it has plenty of energy.

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I believe the reasoning is when they are trimmed the energy up top doesn’t have to give up some of that to the lower portion. I don’t know if the benefit is there though. I would have to assume rather than getting small popcorn buds below that adding to the top instead only should yield more at the end.

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I wouldn’t exactly call it weaving. What you want to do is take growth that’s through the net and bring it under the net to the next opening. If you were weaving under/over/ under would probably work but make a huge mess.

As your main branches extend out towards the end of your net, the chutes off of each main branch should create new bud sites. Hopefully that makes a little more sense?

Then once you’re essentially done tucking and consider your canopy full you’ll begin take away that stuff underneath. The idea here is to not let that stuff underneath to be stealing energy from your tops. If you have filled the net properly or even reasonably, you shouldn’t have much light penetration below the canopy, so that stuff usually gets chopped to not steal potential from the buds you’re gonna keep.

I’m not one to run a whole lot of scrogs, so maybe someone else has better info. But that is my understanding and method when I do.

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You’re doing it right. Just tuck them under! @HappyCamper

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Plants will generally come close to doubling their height or distance from the main trunk they came from during flower. In a Scrog at the stage you are now I would only worry about any runaway branches and tuck to keep the canopy even. That makes light usage more uniform.

The buds under the net will be blocked mostly from the canopy and get little light. They will work harder to get food and still be small. In humid areas those buds will be more likely to get wet and mold but not that big a diff if you have good vents. Some folks leave them to make hash from but others want bigger buds you get by clipping them. Think about it like a pumpkin vine that you only let one pumpkin grow on.

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@HappyCamper

Just finished a scrog recently.
No weaving over and under the screen, creates harvest nightmares and can pinch of stems as they swell. Unly "spread out the tops under the screen making sure visible shoots have a place to grow vertically when the time comes.

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Looking good the strings will do there job now. Good growing.

Welcome to the forum @Ricktheruller