Training Cannabis Plants to Increase Yield
There are many reasons for training your cannabis plants, and we’re going to go over the main benefits that can be obtained by using these various techniques.
Why Train Cannabis Plants?
It can stop branches from bending or breaking under the weight of buds.
- Outdoors it reduces branch breakage under strong winds.
- Increases final yield and quality of your buds. When trained, your plant won’t use any energy strengthening its branches to hold the buds, which means that it can increase yield easily.
- It’s also quite an affordable process, and most of the materials used when training cannabis plants, except for plant wiring and raffia, can be reused. It’s definitely worth trying – it doesn’t cost much and it’s definitely worth the results; higher yields and higher quality flowers.
There are strains that produce especially large flowers such as Gorilla Candy and Amnesia which, although they’re quite sturdy, if it gets too windy during the last stage of flowering, they may end up breaking if you haven’t trained them or staked them.
Gorilla Candy Seeds produce large, sturdy plants with big and compact buds; we recommend staking them to help them to hold up their hefty buds.
Plant Training Types
According to their shape, plant trainers can be classified as either vertical or horizontal.
Vertical Plant Staking
- Plastic-coated steel: these stakes are highly durable and easy to clean. With a little care these can last forever.
- Bamboo: these are the most affordable models although they don’t have quite as long a lifespan as the other models. They can also begin to rot with excess moisture and rain, which can cause fungi in the plant too, as it’s organic. They’re definitely the most eco-friendly option.
- Plant YoYo: these are ideal for using in indoor grow rooms or grow tents when stakes simply aren’t enough. They can be hung from the ceiling in your grow tent or room and it doesn’t need to touch your plants’ leaves or go anywhere near the substrate. Ideal for flowerpots that you’re not planning on moving.
Horizontal Plant Trellis Nets
- Elastic SoG Net: this net is designed to be used in indoor grows from 80 x 80 cm up to 120 x 120 cm. Reusable.
- SoG Net: this 1 m wide net comes in the grower’s preferred length. Each square is 15 x 17 cm. When harvesting you can simply cut them open as it’s quite cheap, making it much easier for you to get your plants out. It can also be used in outdoor grows horizontally, using other nets and stakes to give your plants an extra helping hand.
Plant Training Methods
There are many different ways to stake, guide and train your plants. We’re going to have a look at some of the most common and efficient methods:
Vertical Plant Staking
Vertical training is aimed at attaching the main stem of the plant to a stake along various points. The best material to use is raffia or plant wire so that you don’t damage your plant. This vertical training technique can also be applied to side branches.
- Simple: this is the most common type of training outdoors. Stick a stake in the soil parallel to the stem. It should be about 5 – 8 cm from the main stem. We recommend placing the stake before transplanting so that the roots are less damaged.
- Ring: this is considered one of the most efficient methods, as it holds up the main stem as well as the branches. It’s ideal for large plants in flowerpots over 30 litres. In square flowerpots you’ll need to place a stake in each corner. You can also use larger round flowerpots, using 4 or more stakes along the edge of the flowerpot. The idea is to use plant wiring or raffia around the stakes and then use them to hold up the branches. You can also use a SOG net in order to hold the branches out sideways.
- Plant YoYo: plant yoyos are ideal for holding up cannabis plants indoors when stakes aren’t enough. They’re efficient and super easy to use. They don’t go anywhere near your plants’ substrate so they can’t damage their roots. They’re hung from the ceiling of the grow tent or growing room; they can easily hold up branches full of buds during the bloom period. They can also be used around the branches to stop them from opening up too much and keep them growing upwards. As your plants grow, you can adjust the YoYo to your plants. Reusable.
Horizontal Plant Training Methods
There are a few different horizontal plant training methods, and you’ll need to choose one depending on factors such as the strain you plan on growing, your available space, your experience growing cannabis etc.
SOG Technique – Sea of Green
The SOG technique (Sea of Green) consists of growing more plants than a normal grow. In this case, the ideal situation is to have plants from the same strain or with a similar structure, ideally clones or strains such as Jamaican Dream and Lemon King so that they grow at more or less the same height.
You’ll use the squares in your SoG net to guide your branches and act as a trainer. The objective is to save on growing time and harvest much earlier indoors. By doing this you can evenly distribute all branches under the lights and use the net to hold up the hefty buds created by your plants. That’s why this technique is called Sea of Green, as it ends up looking like a nice, calm sea of buds.
SCRoG Technique (Screen of Green)
Screen of Green (SCRoG) is a training technique that uses a mesh net that you have to thread the stems and branches through during the growth stage in order to fill out your growing area. This was initially a way of adapting cannabis growing to fluorescent lighting.
In SCRoG setups you have to place the net horizontally about 30 – 40 cm from the ground. Once your plants reach the net, you’ll need to wind them through the net, covering it all. This is a job that requires constant work. Once they begin to flower they’ll have covered about 60% of the net if you’re growing sativa or long-flowering plants such as Kush strains, and about 80% of the net if you’re growing indicas or hybrids that shoot up when flowering.
This technique allows you to grow less plants and use larger flowerpots than if you’re growing normally. This technique also allows you to make the most of your lights, giving your flowers maximum exposure.
For example: in a SCRoG grow you can place 3 – 4 plants in one meter in 18 L flowerpots and get the same (or, in many cases more) yield than from 9 plants per meter in 7 L flowerpots.
*These techniques are mostly designed for light-dependent seasonal plants, as autoflowering plants have a short flowering period and produce less branches than feminized strains. This is why the most common training method for autoflowering strains is simple or ring training for those that can grow slightly bigger. If you want to learn more about growing autoflowering plants, visit our post How to Grow Autoflowering Plants Outdoors.
At La Huerta Grow Shop you can find various types of nets used for growing cannabis such as the Elastic SOG Net for indoor grow tents from 80 to 120 cm. We also stock SoG nets that can be used outdoors too.
When to Train Cannabis Plants?
When it comes time to train your cannabis plants there are a few factors to consider, including the type of strain and growing method, the desired results and your growing experience.
- If your plants haven’t gotten enough light during the growth period, they might stretch out a bit too much in search of light. This can also happen if you don’t fill your flowerpot enough and your plant ends up shaded. It uses a lot of strength to stretch out and it can’t hold itself up, so you’ll have to use a stake to hold it up until it’s strong enough to hold itself up. Once your plant can hold itself up, we recommend removing the stake and placing a bigger one when you transplant.
- Horizontal tutors should be used during the growth stage.
- The best time to maximize yield when using vertical training methods is from the last transplant until the moment your plants begin to flower. This is because thanks to the stakes, they can spend more energy increasing the size of their buds.
Conclusions:
- Outdoors, vertical training in ring form is highly recommended using steel plastic-covered stakes or bamboo stakes. You can also use a horizontal SoG net if needed or even vertical staking as a little extra help.
- We don’t recommend using YoYo plant trainers in greenhouses or on balconies as the strength of the wind can break the branches they’re holding on to.
- If your plants have stretched out a lot during the first few weeks, we recommend using simple vertical stakes so that the stems don’t bend or break.
- If you plan on planting seeds indoors we recommend using the horizontal SCRoG method, which guarantees better light distribution to all buds while making the most of the training process.
- When preparing clones from the same strain you can grow using the SoG horizontal training method, which allows for quite a fast grow and high yielding with a short growth period before bloom.
- If you have various different strains in your indoor grow we recommend using a YoYo plant trainer as well as stakes and/or a SoG net to keep the branches in place and make for heftier flowers during the bloom period.
- Growing different sized plants can be an issue and it makes it impossible to effective use any type of horizontal plant training method.
At La Huerta Grow Shop you have access to an entire team of experts that can help you out with any issues, questions or doubts you may have when it comes to increasing yield and quality of your cannabis by using various different training techniques.
You can also leave a comment below if you have any questions or ideas to add!
We’ll see you in the next post!
