Supercropping for Autos? Or scrogging?

Advanced Techniques
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Hi everyone, so as I think I read here (somewhere), which must be a common adage, cannabis is not addictive… but growing it is! I’ve only done two grows, both not total disasters if not great successes. Now I am planning a third, and wondering a few things.

  1. My grow tent is small, 60cm x 60cm (and only 100cm high). I’ve grown two plants at a time in previous two grows, mainly as insurance in case I killed one. But it’s probably better to go one plant only, eh? That’s my plan.

  2. I’ve tried some moderate LST in the past. I’m wondering (hence the title of thread) whether supercropping is a technique that that can be done successfully on autos during indoor grows. I’ve in mind to grow a “Royal Haze” (genetics: Amnesia Haze x Skunk x Ruderalis). Foolish? Not foolish?

  3. Data on this seed says plant will grow up to 85cm indoors, which is a little too tall for my tent. If I supercrop it, will it grow shorter? I assume it will but I am not sure. I grew a Wedding Cake last time, and topped it (just to see what would happen–I tried to kill it in other inadvertent ways, but it persisted… until harvest). It seemed ok in the end, even if it took a little longer to reach readiness than the label indicated. I’d try super cropping on this strain in future, I think, but I want to grow something new.

  4. Maybe scrogging is better? My assumption is scrogging stresses the plant less than super cropping. Is that right?

My impression is that most things I’ve read say supercropping if not scrogging are techniques mainly for photoperiod plants, allowing them longer time to recover, etc. But in embarking on this fun and fascinating journey, I bought a bunch of auto seeds, without really knowing better. So I’ve got about 15-20 auto seeds I need to get through!

Part of me wants to get new photoperiod seeds, but I don’t want to waste, or ruin by waiting too long, the seeds I already have. Some of the seeds in my “bank” are pretty fancy F1 hybrids, but I’ve grown two varieties of these already, and they are so squat and densely foliated I’ve been unable to try anything except light LST on them!

Long post, sorry gang! Thanks for any advice!

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The most I’ve done to autos is conservative pruning, mostly down low, mainly to enhance light access to developing flowers. All the literature I’ve read warns against trying anything extreme because of an auto’s fixed life cycle.

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Supercropping is a high stress method. Scrogging is not. You can actually do both, but with an auto I wouldn’t risk supercropping if the plant is more than a couple of weeks old. One never knows when an auto may flower and be less tolerant to stress.

Suggest growing photos if you want more control of your plants.

Breeder estimates are notoriously inaccurate and apply only experienced growers with ideal conditions.

Cannabis is cannabis and the growing differences between them are minimal. It is still a cannabis plant.

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Most people will plan photoperiods for scrog because the plant has to grow longer in order to fill the trellis. You could certainly do it with an auto, but if your auto wants to flower after 4-5 weeks like it should, your trellis probably isn’t going to be full. So you just end up with dead space instead of a full screen. Supercropping will induce mord stress that could potentially stall an autos short growth period or prematurely start flowering. Not the end of the world but definitely something to consider.

If you want to try something, go ahead and try it. Something autos will stay in veg for a long time too, regardless of what you do to it.

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IMG_38411512×2016 1.33 MB

This is a Blue Dream auto I grew last year. It started to outgrow my small tent, so I used two nets and multiple strings and clips to tie it down and spread the canopy. I ended up with about 170 grams of bud off the one plant.

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