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Week 6 scrog update, net is finally popping off
Started the flip four days ago after spending the last two weeks just tucking and weaving. Running a 4x4 with a single Gorilla Zkittlez pheno that i've been working since seed. Net is sitting at about 14 inches above the coco, and right now i'd call coverage somewhere around 75 to 80 percent. The back left corner is always the last to fill and this run is no different, but i'm not worried. She'll stretch into it.
The main thing i want to describe is the canopy structure because i'm genuinely happy with how it came out. Every shoot that's poking through the net is roughly the same height, maybe a half inch of variation across the whole surface. That's what you're chasing with scrog. When you get that flat, even plane it means every bud site is going to see the same light intensity and that's where you get the uniform development. Took me probably four or five runs to really internalize that concept and stop rushing the flip.
Did a light defoliation underneath the net yesterday, cleared out everything below that won't see light during flower. Not going crazy with it, just removing the stuff that would become larf and pull energy. Left all the fan leaves that are feeding shoots above the canopy. That distinction matters more than people think.
Going to post pics in a few days once the stretch starts showing. Post a pic of your nets too if you're in the middle of a scrog run, always curious to see how other people manage their canopy.
4 Comments
Gorilla Zkittlez is a terp machine when you find the right pheno, so i'm curious which direction yours is leaning. Some cuts go full candy grape, others have this funky diesel backbone underneath the sweetness that just destroys the nose. The grape-forward ones can be kinda one-dimensional to me, but if you caught one with that gassy underpull you're in for something special come cure time.
On the canopy talk, solid work, that half inch variation is legitimately good. My one pushback is that the defoliation conversation is almost always overdone in these threads and yours sounds dialed but i'd just say the flat canopy does most of the work on its own. The light uniformity you described is where the real return comes from, not so much the cleanup underneath. I've seen people go too hard on the lower strip right at flip and stress the plant right when she needs to focus on the transition. Sounds like you were conservative about it which is the right call.
Post the pics when she starts stretching, and if you're logging any smell notes as flower develops i'd love to hear them. Gorilla Zkittlez can shift a lot during the first few weeks.
The part about stressing her right at flip rings true from what i've seen, but honestly i'd flip the emphasis a little. In my experience the lower strip matters more in living soil or organic setups where airflow really affects how the soil breathes, and less so in coco where you can get away with a denser canopy underneath. Curious whether you've noticed a difference running coco specifically, because some of the "don't over-defoliate" advice comes from soil growers and may not translate one to one.
That back left corner thing is so real, every tent seems to have one dead zone that just refuses to cooperate. Mine is back right and i've basically accepted it as a permanent feature of my life lol.
One thing i'd add that hasn't come up yet, since you're four days into flip, keep an eye on how aggressively she stretches before you do any more tucking. Some Zkittlez crosses are pretty chill about it but others will double or more and that net fills up fast. If she's a big stretcher and that back corner finally decides to wake up all at once, you can end up with a crowding problem you weren't expecting.
The canopy uniformity point is well made and i don't disagree, but i'll be honest, in my setup i've found that the light intensity piece matters a lot less than airflow once the canopy fills in dense. A flat plane with garbage air circulation still gives you problems. Worth thinking about as she starts stacking.
The stretch point is solid, but I'd actually push back on the airflow vs. light intensity framing a little. In my experience those two variables compound each other rather than one outweighing the other, and a dense canopy with poor light penetration creates the exact humid stagnant pockets that make airflow matter more in the first place. Fix the light distribution and you often reduce the severity of the airflow problem simultaneously.
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