# Mainlining vs Scrog for noobs



## MJCanada (Jul 26, 2017)

So,

I've popped a Special Kush(Royal Queen, Indica dominant) and a Double Glock(Ripper, pure Indica).

I'm in a 2x3 grow space that opens on 1 side, the 2ft side. It's 8ft tall. Of that 8 ft, I got about 6 to work with (Can raise lights to 7, got exhaust filter etc in that last foot).

This is my very first grow, but I'm no idiot. I research and learn very well.

My question, to the more advanced growers out there:

It being my first grow, am I crazy to consider mainlining over scrog?

Reason why I'm considering it, with mainlining, I can pull the pots out of the grow space to water, flush, etc.
With a scrog, once it's set, I gotta figure out ways to do that while the plants are in the grow space... and my space opens only on the one (short)side. I fear I'll be super frustrated with trying to work with the plants in a Scrog.

I've read the Main-Lining Tutorial on Growweedeasy.com.

It seems scary(cutting the girls up so much!), but fairly straight forward.

Am I nuts to be considering this?


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## Shag Pile (Jul 27, 2017)

Id make sure you can get a stress free grow under your belt first. Make sure you can keep temps under control aswell as feeding plants properly.

You don't want to cut so much foliage off an already stressed plant. 

But yeh, mainlining really isn't that hard if you can follow the steps on growweedeasy and are confident you can grow properly.


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## InTheValley (Jul 27, 2017)

I NEED to scrog, but like you said, you cant move them once they are set into place. I like to turn mine everyday,

in a 2x3 you have to think it out, because things can get outta hand fast.

31 days from seed, 4th day since flip

This is a 2x2,, string and tape trained for level canopy. The one in the back left corner wasnt topped, its going natural, `10th node building.. the other on the right side in back was topped once, but no LST traings, and in a 36oz container. The front 2, both topped just once, then LST trained making all tops as level as possible. one spread span on the right front, is 18 inches. have about 90 tops total. 

Looks like all 4 are female, but no sign yet.


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## TacoMac (Jul 27, 2017)

MJCanada said:


> So,
> 
> I've popped a Special Kush(Royal Queen, Indica dominant) and a Double Glock(Ripper, pure Indica).
> 
> ...


In that small a space, you only need one plant if you're going to Scrog...and you'll still run out of room.


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## MJCanada (Jul 27, 2017)

Ya I popped 2 just in case and now they are both growing great!

I don't have the cash to spin up another room right now so I was thinking 2 8 top mainline to keep it within the space.

Keeping each plant in a 2gal or 3gal pot to finish them. which will be a fairly quick veg if they hold up to the stress.


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## JimmyTheNewb (Jul 30, 2017)

I too am growing for the first time and i had the same questions you did lol. Im no idiot and researched for months before ever popping a seed. I did a mainlin/lst type thing lol bot sure what to really call it but heres a pic of her when i flipped which was 2 days ago. Just bc youre new people will tell you to just get through your first grow and be happy with what you get but i say fuck that i wanna go big im not one for wasting time. Now with that being said it hasnt been no walk in the park but im glad i went with my gut instead of what i was told.


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## MJCanada (Jul 30, 2017)

Totally mainlining mine.

I have 2 plants and only a 2x3 space.

I can't kill one cause I popped 2 different strains and I couldn't decide which one!

If I don't do something they will over grow the floor space (indica/indica dominate no worries on hieght).
Scrog would be great but only for a single plant.

If I mainline I can position the colas to maximize the space... and I think 16 (8per plant) will fit fine in a 2x3.

I have also been researching everything for almost 8 months prior to popping my beans. Almost every evening 2-3 hours of watching videos and reading websites.

So far so good


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## JimmyTheNewb (Jul 30, 2017)

Lookin good bro. The main thing i guess i would add and i seen someone say it too is prepare prepare and fucking prepare some more. Them bushy plants get bigger then what i thought they would. Im having some humidity issues i had to work out and also some light cracks. Vegging went smooth as a babys ass but flowering is a whole different ball game. Also i noticed your humidity is at 48% thts not horrible or nothing but when there that small you might notice some better results to get it up a little but then again im no expert and it could have just been low when you took the pic. They look good though and i wish you best of luck. Ive fallen in love with growing it has brought peace to my life. Also im sure you know this but its better to under water just a bit then to overwater. Happy growing


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## MJCanada (Jul 30, 2017)

Ya the humidity drops into the 40s for about 4 hours a day. My house A.C. does that during the mid afternoon trying to keep up with the heat.

Another 4 weeks and my A.c. will be off and humidity will be about 55% and fairly steady until the outside temps start dipping below 0.

When that happens I will have a tray with a seedling heatpad under it to bring humidity up if I need. I know flowering you can drop humidity a bit but my house is roughly at 30% most of the winter.

And hopefully my watering is good. I am into full saturation of the medium now but I have only been doing that for 2 watering so far. The girls both took 4 days to use it up last time. I expect this one to be 3 days as they almost doubled in size in those 4 days.


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## InTheValley (Jul 30, 2017)

man, I think i might have 3 males, and 1 female. 7 days since flip, slow to show.


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## MonkeyGrinder (Aug 4, 2017)

Don't mainline the Rq special kush. I'll elaborate later.


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## MJCanada (Aug 4, 2017)

MonkeyGrinder said:


> Don't mainline the Rq special kush. I'll elaborate later.


Waiting not-so-patiently for your elaboration!!


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## MonkeyGrinder (Aug 5, 2017)

MJCanada said:


> Waiting not-so-patiently for your elaboration!!


Cause they stretch like a mofo when they get flipped. Mainlining doesn't work worth a damn if a plant stretches. And yes I've mainlined the strain. Multiple plants. Indoor and outdoor. Every single one stretched to high heaven. When NB says blah blah blah supercrop to control canopy. It won't put a dent in em. So just don't.
Mainlining sounds nice and all on paper. NB shilled it pretty well in his write ups. Results just aren't typical with the claims.
The time and effort involved also make it just flat out impractical when you get to the end result.
Scrogging beats the pants off from it any day of the week.

At the end of the day I would actually just flat out suggest scrapping the RQSK. I'm not bashing their other gear by any means. I've grown and actually enjoyed a couple of their strains.They were great. The SK however is officially in my books as the worst strain I've ever grown. And I've grown bagseed that was swiped out of a strangers ashtray.
The trichome production is sub par. Density +yield were just the same. Using street terms I would classify it as low mids as far as potency is concerned. Also foxtails easily and was a finicky eater. You're setting yourself up to waste a whole lot of time on that one.


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## MJCanada (Aug 5, 2017)

Thanks for the info MonkeyGrinder.

I may still try to mainline it, since I have a too small space for 2 plants, and I got a double glock rolling well already.

If she doesn't work out, meh... I don't care to lose her, so long as my double glock is still going strong.

And, since you are saying she's junk anyway, may as well do whatever with her, and if she lives and produces, great!

I do appreciate the input.


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## InTheValley (Aug 6, 2017)

Ended up Scrogn,


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## WeedSexWeightsShakes (Aug 9, 2017)

i did a manifold for my 2nd grow and have some in my veg tent for my 3rd going
not sure if it is the best way to grow but i like the idea of it so i am giving it a try
http://rollitup.org/t/platinum-p300-grow.945695/#post-13679983


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## MJCanada (Oct 29, 2017)

Since someone liked a post in this thread today... figured I'd update everyone here(you can go check out my journal too)...

My little sluts are shown their pewbs 


And this is a shot of the mainline on both of them. This is nebula's method, which turns out isn't a true mainline at all. It doesn't split the nutrients evenly... but once trained, they pretty much have been growing evenly since 1 week into flower...

  


And this is a shot of the girls in their home.
 

If I didn't mainline, I probably would have ended up yielding less as they'd be competing for the same space, but... so far so good... it's going to be super tight in there with 7 weeks left of flower!!

Also left a few under shoots as I plan to clone them in another week... Took some other clones earlier too so I'm going to SoG right after this run.... so long as the clones take.


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## Heyimjay22 (Feb 25, 2020)

I'm on my first run, 5 green crack in a 4x4 tent under 400W HPS. This is week 3 of flower and so far I find the results impressive. Next run I'm going to try to squeeze 6 in because I feel I have some unused space this run.


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## Hippieryan (Feb 27, 2020)

TacoMac said:


> In that small a space, you only need one plant if you're going to Scrog...and you'll still run out of room.


Just curious, I have a cold storage room that I was going to ScrOG in on my next grow. I am allowed 4 plants by law, I thought I would use 4 in DWC 5 gallon buckets. 
hoping to make my screen 5 1/2 feet by 2 1/2 feet. Is that to small? Should I just do 3 and do one in soil?


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## Heyimjay22 (Feb 27, 2020)

Hippieryan said:


> Just curious, I have a cold storage room that I was going to ScrOG in on my next grow. I am allowed 4 plants by law, I thought I would use 4 in DWC 5 gallon buckets.
> hoping to make my screen 5 1/2 feet by 2 1/2 feet. Is that to small? Should I just do 3 and do one in soil?


It really depends on the lights your going to use. Here are some examples of the size grow to HID light footprint. (Courtesy of growweedeasy.com)


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## Hippieryan (Feb 27, 2020)

Heyimjay22 said:


> It really depends on the lights your going to use. Here are some examples of the size grow to HID light footprint. (Courtesy of growweedeasy.com)


That is great info, I am just using LED’s and have two of them, they seem to do the job, but the more I read makes me want to upgrade to HPS


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## Heyimjay22 (Feb 27, 2020)

From what I read the spectrum leds throw will give better trichome production and HID tend to give better yield. To me a combination seems ideal. If you have dwc setup I'd run that to gain the faster growth than soil rather than doing both.


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## Hippieryan (Feb 27, 2020)

Heyimjay22 said:


> From what I read the spectrum leds throw will give better trichome production and HID tend to give better yield. To me a combination seems ideal. If you have dwc setup I'd run that to gain the faster growth than soil rather than doing both.


So is the screen size I determined five foot six x two foot six big enough with LED’s I will eventually get HD lighting but have dumped a lot of money into this room over 3 months and my wife may kill me if I don’t slow down a bit. I know strain can have a lot to do with it as well. I just don’t want it super cramped if I don’t need to. I have two lights that will be over top, both LED, they say they are 1500 watt, but I find that hard to believe


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## Heyimjay22 (Feb 27, 2020)

If possible check with the manufacturer to find the recommended height above plants and what sq ft coverage they claim for your model but in my opinion I think if properly spaced you should have no problem at all. When working with led lights the lumens are more accurate than the wattage. This website is really informative on many of the aspects of growing MJ. Here a link, be sure to hit the menu button and explore other articles on the site. https://www.growweedeasy.com/led-grow-lights-marijuana


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## Hippieryan (Feb 27, 2020)

Heyimjay22 said:


> If possible check with the manufacturer to find the recommended height above plants and what sq ft coverage they claim for your model but in my opinion I think if properly spaced you should have no problem at all. When working with led lights the lumens are more accurate than the wattage. This website is really informative on many of the aspects of growing MJ. Here a link, be sure to hit the menu button and explore other articles on the site. https://www.growweedeasy.com/led-grow-lights-marijuana


I have gotten loads of info from this site, just haven’t looked at lighting under it. I will do this for sure. They say my footprint is 3x3 at 18”. I will investigate the lumens like suggest from the manufacture. Thanks again for all your help


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## Heyimjay22 (Feb 27, 2020)

Your most welcome! If you have any more questions dont hesitate to ask! Share some updates as your grow progresses! I'm anxious to see your sucess!


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## TacoMac (Feb 28, 2020)

Hippieryan said:


> Just curious, I have a cold storage room that I was going to ScrOG in on my next grow. I am allowed 4 plants by law, I thought I would use 4 in DWC 5 gallon buckets.
> hoping to make my screen 5 1/2 feet by 2 1/2 feet. Is that to small? Should I just do 3 and do one in soil?


How many plants you're allowed isn't the point. The grow space and lighting is. Here's a shot of one single SCROG plant in a 3 foot x 3 foot tent:



If you have a 5 foot x 2.5 foot tent, again, one plant can fill it up if done properly. Adding plants isn't going to add to your yield, so the only reason you would do that is for variety (you're growing different strains.)

Whatever yield you get is space and light, not necessarily the number of plants unless you're growing in rooms and not small tents.

To properly grow 4 plants going full SCROG you'd need at least 64 square feet or a 8 x8 area with enough lighting to cover it properly.


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## Hippieryan (Feb 28, 2020)

TacoMac said:


> How many plants you're allowed isn't the point. The grow space and lighting is. Here's a shot of one single SCROG plant in a 3 foot x 3 foot tent:
> 
> View attachment 4491236
> 
> ...


Wow great picture, I get what your saying, I have a room and not a tent, was just going to make my screen that size, but after looking at that picture your point is well take . Thanks I appreciate the comment and photo


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## Hippieryan (Mar 1, 2020)

TacoMac said:


> How many plants you're allowed isn't the point. The grow space and lighting is. Here's a shot of one single SCROG plant in a 3 foot x 3 foot tent:
> 
> View attachment 4491236
> 
> ...


So you not think you could do your switch earlier with less plants? Just saw you are on five months already. Don’t get me wrong your yield will be crazy I’m sure, I’m just thinking I may be able to do two grows in that time frame with more plants and not as long of a veg? What are your thoughts on this? I am not saying this is true, more asking since my inexperience. Thanks again for all your help and time


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## Hippieryan (Mar 1, 2020)

TacoMac said:


> How many plants you're allowed isn't the point. The grow space and lighting is. Here's a shot of one single SCROG plant in a 3 foot x 3 foot tent:
> 
> View attachment 4491236
> 
> ...


What are you thinking you will yield from that?


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## Boatguy (Mar 1, 2020)

TacoMac said:


> How many plants you're allowed isn't the point. The grow space and lighting is. Here's a shot of one single SCROG plant in a 3 foot x 3 foot tent:
> 
> View attachment 4491236
> 
> ...


I agree with this.. I have 2 in a 2x2.5 and wish i had just done a single in a larger pot.


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## Hippieryan (Mar 1, 2020)

Heyimjay22 said:


> Your most welcome! If you have any more questions dont hesitate to ask! Share some updates as your grow progresses! I'm anxious to see your sucess!


I have read the mainlining step by step on grow weed easy and it seems to be the same as Scrog, just Lessing out the screen if you don’t want as many colas? Am I correct? Just wondering if mainline is a part of Scrog one way or the other?


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## Boatguy (Mar 1, 2020)

Hippieryan said:


> I have read the mainlining step by step on grow weed easy and it seems to be the same as Scrog, just Lessing out the screen if you don’t want as many colas? Am I correct? Just wondering if mainline is a part of Scrog one way or the other?


Mainlining takes longer, more hst vs scrog training
They are totally different though. Mainlining is for a specific number of mains, scrogging is for even canopy


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## Hippieryan (Mar 1, 2020)

Boatguy said:


> Mainlining takes longer, more hst vs scrog training


So using more plants may shorten up my time and increase yield that way with Scrog? Just asking since I saw one plant fill an entire area, I’m thinking I could flower 4 in way less time? If not I will maybe do one in would just as a side event while I Scrog the others


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## Hippieryan (Mar 1, 2020)

Hippieryan said:


> So using more plants may shorten up my time and increase yield that way with Scrog? Just asking since I saw one plant fill an entire area, I’m thinking I could flower 4 in way less time? If not I will maybe do one in would just as a side event while I Scrog the others


Sorry, do one in soil


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## Boatguy (Mar 1, 2020)

Hippieryan said:


> Sorry, do one in soil


Not sure if i explained it well enough. With mainlining you do all your training in veg, not to say you cant do more after. Scrog is just spreading the plant out through part of veg and through the stretch. 
https://www.rollitup.org/t/the-main-lining-thread.542308/


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## Heyimjay22 (Mar 1, 2020)

Hippieryan said:


> So you not think you could do your switch earlier with less plants? Just saw you are on five months already. Don’t get me wrong your yield will be crazy I’m sure, I’m just thinking I may be able to do two grows in that time frame with more plants and not as long of a veg? What are your thoughts on this? I am not saying this is true, more asking since my inexperience. Thanks again for all your help and time


So far I've found with mainling everything is even and I dont need to screen or trelace. Kinda like set it and forget it.


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## Boatguy (Mar 1, 2020)

Heyimjay22 said:


> So far I've found with mainling everything is even and I dont need to screen or trelace. Kinda like set it and forget it.


Look like some nice single cola dominant plants. Have you had to cut off much, or any sidebranching?


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## Hippieryan (Mar 1, 2020)

Boatguy said:


> Not sure if i explained it well enough. With mainlining you do all your training in veg, not to say you cant do more after. Scrog is just spreading the plant out through part of veg and through the stretch.
> https://www.rollitup.org/t/the-main-lining-thread.542308/


Thanks boatguy, that makes more sense, sorry for my ignorance. I always ask things twice in case I misunderstood it the first


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## Mohican (Mar 1, 2020)

Nets are a pain!
Have you read the mainlining thread on here?





The Main-Lining Thread


I am getting a lot of requests to put a formal "main-lining" thread together to make it easier for ya'll to access, and reference....so here goes...... "Main-Lining" definition. a form of training and managing canopy for cannabis.....to build a "hub" off of a single node creating a...



www.rollitup.org


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## Heyimjay22 (Mar 1, 2020)

Boatguy said:


> Look like some nice single cola dominant plants. Have you had to cut off much, or any sidebranching?


I had to break the dominance in the beginning. After that I just let them go and evened them out slightly as needed.


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## Hippieryan (Mar 21, 2020)

Boatguy said:


> I agree with this.. I have 2 in a 2x2.5 and wish i had just done a single in a larger pot.
> View attachment 4493048View attachment 4493050


Thanks boat guy


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