Unearthing the Vibranium OG: A Strain Like No Other
Ahhh, time to scrog the Vibranium OG cut from Native Sun Genetics is more than a gem for the cannabis community. It’s a grower’s delight mixing the classic OG flavors with the modern fruit flavor of today’s world. One of the great things about Vibranium OG is her vigorous growth and iced-out appearance, loaded with purple tops that scream pine cones. Due to her dope ass fast-growing behavior, I decided to take the mom plant and put her under a scrog. Why? I’ll explain more below.
SCROG Method: Maximizing Your Vibranium OG Yield
So many people nowadays have a scrog and trellis mixed up, and I get it. Whenever I see someone with six plants under a net with 4×4 inch holes, I immediately think, thats not a scrog thats a mini sea of green.
Since the word SCROG means SCREEN OF GREEN, I’ve always associated the term with smaller holes and a style for maximizing growth. In 1998, I created my first scrog after seeing a post on the internet of someone who used a screen to keep the plant short in the backyard so the neighbors couldn’t see. I thought it was a great idea since you didn’t need many plants and could keep the height down in small places.
Using it indoors in a 2×2 closet with a 200-watt HPS street light. I wanted to grow one plant and fill a screen using chicken wire (bad idea), so my mom wouldn’t see a bush coming from my closet.
Long story short, the shit worked out very well. Yielding 12 oz from one plant changed the game for me. Scrogging became my go-to when I would grow indoors with fewer plants.
Seeing people online using the method with six plants or a trellis net makes me cringe. For starters, the scrog should NEVER use fabric as the primary way to hold the plant in place. Think about it! The purpose of a scrog is to use fewer plants with lower headroom to get maximum results.
Behind the Screen: Setting up Your Scrog Screen for Success
Youre SCROG screen should be metal or, better yet, rigid plastic not to allow the middle of the screen to lift while she grows. Plastic, along with zip ties, helps keep the screen tight and in place throughout the process. Fabric or string will always make the center want to flex more than it should.
The second thing I see people do is creating 4×4-inch or larger holes. The larger the hole, the more challenging it is to keep the plant horizontal throughout the growth. The sweet spot is 2.5” x 2.5” or 3”x3” holes. You might add; How would you get your buds out of a smaller hole? More on that later.
Vibranium OG Vegetative Stage: Tips and Tricks for Healthy Growth
The Key to flowering a plant like Vibranium OG in a scrog is lateral growth. You get a better result when you use a plant that grows fast with more of a sativa background. Indicas grow slower and take longer to fill in the screen.
The time to flip will determine what variety youre playing with. Some say ¾ screen full, others say full screen. I say to know your plant genetics and work to her makeup. If she’s fast-growing, flip earlier, but flip later at full screen if she’s slow growing.
Flowering Time: Unlocking the Vibranium OG Full Potential
Here I am, at the end of week 1, and during the first week of flower, you want to continue to tuck the plant under the screen. Some like to add a second screen, but you need to learn how to use the scrog technique without a second screen.
Now, if you’ve ever scrogged before and saw your plants stretch out of control, then youre doing something wrong. Here are a few tips that will help your plant stay low to the screen but still produce growth.
- Lowering your light to 12 inches stops the stretch and focuses on internodal spacing.
- You want to raise the light each week until you get to week 3 of flower, where it should sit around 24-36” depending on wattage and growth.
- Use a Bloom Booster
- It sounds wild, but it will stop the vegetation growth and shock the plant. I wouldn’t do this outside of a scrog, but it works well in the first week of flower.
- You still want to use your vegetation formula, but adding ¼ strength or ½ strength formula will help keep the plant from stretching.
- After week 1, head back to your base bloom formula until it’s time to boost to full strength.
- You can use a product line like SimPro Formula Transition to help aid in the move from Veg to Bloom—a great product to stop growth in the first week.
Addressing Common Scrog Challenges with Vibranium OG
- The everyday struggles always have to do with lighting, feeding, and how to control the scrog as she develops. If your light is too high, the plants stretch. The plant slows growth by not adding enough water or food, and the screen takes forever to fill.
- Using soil or organic media can be like watching grass grow. It’s a heavier media, so it takes forever to get the desired result. When you work with Coco Coir or hydroponics, you can speed up the process and get to ¾ full screen in a 5-gallon pot within three weeks from clone.
- DO NOT WEAVE YOUR PLANT THROUGH THE SCREEN! By weaving a plant through a screen, you’ll have difficulty removing your product at the end of flower. You want to keep the entire plant under the screen. Later, I’ll show you how to crop the whole plant by flipping it upside down.
- Defoliation is a must to keep mold and mildew from producing. You can place a fan under the screen or defoliate it for better airflow.
- Fabric pots are dope, but under a scrog, they seem to dry out faster, and you’ll need to add water more often.
- Topping the plant will cause her to add more tops, but they will be smaller. You want to use a bending technique and only top if necessary.
Nutrient Needs: What Your Vibranium OG Plants Crave
Im using the SimPro formula to get the job done. It’s easy and works well. If you use a formula you’re used to, and it works, great, dont change a thing. But if you need to help controlling pH swings and need help determining how much to add to your media, SimPro eliminates all that and enables you to grow a great crop with ease. Is it the best on the market? Maybe not, but will it help you save money and flower big crops plus, it’s 90% organic.
Expanding Your Vibranium OG Grow: Scaling up Your SCROG Setup
Again, the scrog technique is used for small places with height restrictions and limited plant count. Can you turn a warehouse into rows of screens to scrog? Yes, but good luck tucking all day and night.
I speak to home growers on this. Scaling up your growing space is about getting more tents. If youre limited on plant count, let’s say 6. You can get three tents for flower and 1 or 2 others for vegetation. Create three scrog tents and place a clone under each scrog every two weeks with the other three vegging in your veg tent. Continue the process as you finish a crop, drop in a new plant from the veg tent, and start a new plant or clone.
Scrogging in an ample open space wastes resources, and a sea of green method would work best along with a Pinch, Bend, and Twist technique to keep plants at a specific height.
Even if you can only grow six plants, youre better off cultivating one huge plant in an open space than trying to scrog without walls. Think about all the light you lose from the available space. You can fill the footprint better with larger plants. I see open space scrogging so much, and the results are always so-so.
Tales from the SCROG: Success Stories
Here’s an interview with Porfirio Delgadillo, who used my method for the first time. Check out what he has to say.
C: Is this your first scrog? If so, how did the scrog tutorial help you through the process? If not, how was your experience prior?
P: very first scrog; I have a good friend in this group who referred me to your YouTube on scrog and changed my whole game. I followed your directions clearly throughout the video with your step-by-step guide and made it happen to this degree. Before, my plants would get too heavy and fall over, and the scrog it held together kept it erect, and the growth was unbelievable.
C: How long you’ve been growing indoors?
P: I have been growing for less than a year. Eight months, to be exact.
C: Was the scrog tutorial provided easy to understand? If yes, tell our community how the information made your life easier.
P: Straightforward as could be! Your directions are easy to understand, and you explain very thoroughly! From this point forward, I will always scrog due to my results.
C: How has the Cartier Crops scrog method helped you?
P: In every way! From weight to quality. Big juicy buds. I was only used to a few main colas; this way, you have dozens—a full 180 degrees from what I was doing.
C: Would you recommend my scrog method to people with fewer plants and smaller places?
P: I have personally sent your scrog video to everyone I know who grows so they can follow your lead!
C: 6) How has the scrog method changed your garden?
P: 6) Well, I start lollipopping more and super cropping now compared to just letting them grow naturally, which made a difference in my garden after watching all your videos.
The Scrog Method Is Not For Everyone
Scrogging is only for some, especially if you plan to be in the garden a little. Scrogging is not a set-it-and-forget method since you must constantly pull the upper shoot under the scrog netting to make the method work.
The scrog method is not a sea of green, either. A sea of green grow methods consists of as many pants as possible you can increase in one space to maximize the yield and decrease veg time.
Plus, there are limits to how many plants someone can grow in some states, and a sea of green will put you over the limit.
However, the scrogging method legally utilizes a small number of plants while maximizing a small space.
Conclusion
I started scrogging in 1998 in a closet and wanted to grow more in a limited space. After many trials and errors, figuring out a method made the task more straightforward and fun.
You must work at the craft and understand detailed instructions, or your scrog can become a powdery mildew jungle fest.
In my youtube scrog series, I summarize what you need to know and how to handle it each week. It was tough cramming all the information in there, and on that note, there is another series developing as we speak that is more detailed you will love to watch.
