Defoliation Experiment on NYCD

[hempfield]

...

testing in your own environment will lead you to your own results... your own results are the ones that matter, not Timmy's or Billy's or Bobby's...

...

I couldn't say it better than this !


I am not willing to write a book or something about this experiment. It started more like a personal curiosity derived from other observation I made on my flower room (to be read "my environment"): the younger the clones , the bigger the bud to leaf ratio. I have some SuperSkunk and Trainwreck clones which are almost ready to harvest and they were put directly under the flowering lights after transplanting from cloning tray and they developed more buds than leaves (I am maybe crazy if I know how many leaves each clone has ? ).

Starting from this point and having this 6 clones of NYCD, which take forever to grow ( again, in my environment ) and to flower also, and because I could not see the bottom buds at all(seriously, I have to move the big leaves aside to actually see lower branches) I asked myself "What if I strip them naked ? If I can't see the buds this means the light can't reach them, so they will be under-developed at harvesting time without some serious pruning."

So I started this thread following exploziv suggestion (thank you sir !), but I must confess that I was a little worried about the debates and discussions it may start.

Today is day 28 of flowering. ~50 day to go and maybe we will came to a conclusion.

If this experiment is useless or not ? For most of the growers can be useless or just not important. But for me it will be very useful, because I like to learn from experience more than from reading or listening for someone talking.

Regarding the affirmation that plants talk with each other (affirmation that I sustain even I can't tell how this is possible), I want to tell you that I do all the harvesting task in the same flower room, next to the flowering plants. I trim and dry very close to the living plants and they do not seems to be afraid of the scissors or grow bigger buds than the previously cut sisters

 

[SecondAttempt]

subbed... thanks for doing this hempfield

 

[hush]

Plants totally talk to each other. It has been proven in controlled experiments, and the results have been duplicated over and over again. No, they don't use words, because they don't have mouths, and presumably don't comprehend human languages, but they have other senses that we can't comprehend just yet. But it's not really something that can be debated any longer. Don't mean to derail... I just get happy when I see other people acknowledging that plants communicate with themselves, and with their environment.

 

[komboloi]

Oh Lordy....

 

[howske]

Nice hempfield, looking foward to the results. Even though plants communicate with each other, to say this experiment is useless is pretty close minded. What about in the garden when a plant gets topped, bent, pinched (stressed) next to one that hasnt, it still changes the structure of the plant which may lead to bigger yields due to better light penetration, i dont see how this is much diferent and for the home growers like me who have all plants in yhe same room i think this is a valuable experiment, interested to see the out come i for one have never tried defoliating to this extent, just lower branches and older fan leaves because i thought it would be too much stress and would affect yield, but these plants are kicking along just fine, i wont be soo paranoid about sacraficing some fan leaves for better light penetration in the future. I guess the final result will tell hempfield ,
Thanks all the best mate

 

[Classic Seeds]

yes plants are living things and have empathy for their fellow plants ,but this is about defoliation and how it affects the yields in a normal growing situation thanks hempfield for keeping it real and not doing anything different except deleafing some and not touching others aloha cls

 

[hempfield]

I'm not a scientist and this is an experiment made just for fun so it should be considered as such.

The plants are doing well, despite the high temperature in the last week. My flower room does not have an AC unit (yet !) and temps raise up to 29-30 degrees Celsius (86F), forcing me to water more often (every other day).

At first look the non-defoliated plants seems to be slightly bigger than their stripped sisters and they also a step ahead in bud production. The upper buds on them are bigger, but the lower popcorn seems to be under-developed.

The popcorn buds on the defoliated plants have started to grow as more light are available for them.

Some of the older leaves on the non-defoliated plants lost their vigor and turned yellow and even start to fall off (maybe they have been inspired by their naked sisters ? )

Here are the weekly pictures at day 29:

The tallest




The Average




The Shortest




Defoliated plants




Non-defoliated plants

 

[hempfield]

All together

 

[zamzia]

Subbed for the results my man, good work

 

[JointOperation]

ya but what people dont get is.. side by sides done by most arent going to show us anything..

side by sides done by GOOD GROWERS.. who have there nutes.. enviroment and genetics all dialed in.. could show us something more accurate..

but anyone who tries defol.. and does it correctly will see better results. if u strip a plants fan leaves off and think your going to increase your yields. thats not how it works.. you need to be able to tell when the plant needs those leaves and when its not using them..

 

[Apache Kush]

Why doesn't everyone just wait until the defoils

ripen, swell, and develop the popcorn lower bud sites before they chime in.

I'm subbing ...


will you weigh your yield post trim @HempField?

& compare the actually weight data, and see which plants put out most, right... ?

 

[hells winter]

Hi
This is good, 'cause every plant seem to react different to defoil. so it's good that it's about a certian plant, but i must ask.
Was the defoiled plants treated in veg also, or did you start in bloom?
'Cause if i'm not misstaken you have to 'prepare' the plant in veg.
But anyway, thx for the show and good luck, much appreciated.

HW

 

[JointOperation]

dont need to prepare shit.. i toss into flower.. then pulling leaves off after the stretch.. and then again at week 2-4 after stretch.. i count day 1 of flower.. as the last day of stretch.

 

[Pop A Molly]

Hi
This is good, 'cause every plant seem to react different to defoil. so it's good that it's about a certian plant, but i must ask.
Was the defoiled plants treated in veg also, or did you start in bloom?
'Cause if i'm not misstaken you have to 'prepare' the plant in veg.
But anyway, thx for the show and good luck, much appreciated.

HW

yeah you better start defoil in veg, plant seem to react better in flowering that way, lots of new colas, and my bud sites tripe themself after the last defoil i did to my girls. but you really wouldn't know if you won't try it yourself..

dont need to prepare shit.. i toss into flower.. then pulling leaves off after the stretch.. and then again at week 2-4 after stretch.. i count day 1 of flower.. as the last day of stretch.

how about that, this is my girls when they were in veg about day 43
this is after the first defoil my girls ever got

and this pic is after only 4 days after they got it with some LST tho

looking good to me ..
i mean my girls is now in flowering, about day 36, and they keep growing new tops and plantey of .. can't get any better then that lol

 

[hempfield]

I am a little bit late with the weekly update (I constantly forgot to take pictures when working in flower room), but here are the latest news.

The non-defoliated plants are like one or two weeks ahead of defoliated ones. Their colas are much thicker and also the thricomes are more denser.

At this stage I could tell that defoliation is not quite the best practice for this strain on my grow environment.

The temperatures fluctuate in 27-29* Celsius (80-85F) range with lights on, and 24-27*C (75-80F) with lights off.
Humidity is constant at ~50-51%.

Defoliated plants - Day 36






Non-defoliated plants - Day 36






All plants - Day 36

 

[hempfield]

Bud on defoliated plant - Day 36




Bud on non-defoliated plant - Day 36



The Tallest plants - Day 36

 

[hempfield]

The Average plants - Day 36






The Shortest plants - Day 36

 

[hells winter]

thx for the update,

Is there any difference in the lower buds? are the defoiled plants 'bigger'?

thx again

HW

 

[hempfield]

I was to stoned to noticed that last night, but I will check them tonight. Anyway, I think the non-defoliated plants have bigger bottom buds, but on the defoliated plants they are more dark green.

 

[exploziv]

I was to stoned to noticed that last night, but I will check them tonight. Anyway, I think the non-defoliated plants have bigger bottom buds, but on the defoliated plants they are more dark green.

That's exacly what I observe from your pics. And I think they should be greener, cause plant feeds them better than before, since it has less leaves, and needs them to grow out fast.