Defoliation: Hi-Yield Technique?

[Pipedream]

Been plucking leaves since the beginning of time. Well maybe not the beginning of time, but before many younger growers were even born. Can't speak for every situation, but for growing large Sativas under a small light, it works wonders. I'll let the pic's do the talking...



Almost 100% of the remaining leaves are growing directly from bud-sites, and will be totally sugared by the time harvested.

 

[IE2KS_KUSH]

Lmao nice ruler lol

 

[cameron666]

im just about 2 weeks into flower with a small bush of a king kush plant, it has a few lower budsites being covered slightly by the upper leaves, so im gonna give this method a go, aslong as id does not do damage itll be ok

 

[huntingbb]

im just about 2 weeks into flower with a small bush of a king kush plant, it has a few lower budsites being covered slightly by the upper leaves, so im gonna give this method a go, aslong as id does not do damage itll be ok

less is more at first...

 

[overmyhead]

Been plucking leaves since the beginning of time. Well maybe not the beginning of time, but before many younger growers were even born. Can't speak for every situation, but for growing large Sativas under a small light, it works wonders. I'll let the pic's do the talking...





Almost 100% of the remaining leaves are growing directly from bud-sites, and will be totally sugared by the time harvested.

Beautiful! Since you've been doing this a long time may I ask for your advice? I helped a friend set up his med supply system, a couple rubbermaid tubs with cuts straight from clone. I've gotten great results with this and defoliation, but the day before he was to defol a rat got in the room and tapped every plant for it's sap, we taped the wounds (really bad, all the way around the stem on most plants) and it looks like one day later a few are already lost but some look pretty strong, would it be wise to go ahead and defol or would that make it worse? The only argument I can come up with for defol would be to reduce transpiration through all those fan leaves?

 

[huntingbb]

Beautiful! Since you've been doing this a long time may I ask for your advice? I helped a friend set up his med supply system, a couple rubbermaid tubs with cuts straight from clone. I've gotten great results with this and defoliation, but the day before he was to defol a rat got in the room and tapped every plant for it's sap, we taped the wounds (really bad, all the way around the stem on most plants) and it looks like one day later a few are already lost but some look pretty strong, would it be wise to go ahead and defol or would that make it worse? The only argument I can come up with for defol would be to reduce transpiration through all those fan leaves?

What stage are the girls at? If your bud can hold off on flowering a bit longer there's an opportunity to make up for destroyed girls.

 

[overmyhead]

What stage are the girls at? If your bud can hold off on flowering a bit longer there's an opportunity to make up for destroyed girls.

They're two weeks in, most were straight from 9 oz cups in perlite (jrosek style) and then the mom too. I'm going to see him tonight so I'll find out what is going on but I know that yesterday at least two of the little ones looked like they were on their way out. The big one is a real strong plant but it/they really did a number on her. Funny thing is that there were six, on the floor of to the side that were coming down that night and they didn't touch em. I also better hear some dead rat reports!

____________________________

Update:
5 our of 20 little ones confirmed dead, mom seems ok as do most of the little ones. And one dead rat in a trap right outside their entrance, the bait beyond the trap was undisturbed so hopefully he was a lone wolf. He left the entrance open for now in an effort to draw any others out.

He said he took a few fans off some of them to let more light in but we'll see.

 

[blackrussian]

I Have a question:when i must start the defoliation during the vegitation or flowering.They are my girls can i start with defoliation now-2 week+2 days in a flowering period or its too late to start it.If you know another method for hi yield,please let me know.Thanks

 

[Ember1]

Personally I do defoliation during bloom. I keep all leaves in veg to help it get established and grow to the height I desire faster.

I would pluck all the largest fan leaves and trim up the inner/bottoms all in one go. You will have a little slow down in growth until it recovers (most likely a few days at most) and then she will be good.
I defoliate all throughout flower. Most is done at the first week of bloom during much of growth/stretch. After I get most of them pruned, I pluck overlapping leaves here and there until the end.

 

[blackrussian]

Can I start from now to apply this technique,the plants in the above comments are mine I can attach to them from now until the end they are in the second week + 4 days in flowering period

 

[Ember1]

You should have no problems. I am also into my second week and still defoliating. I have always defoliated heavily up until week 3 with my grows. After week 3, I take only what needs to be trimmed to allow more light penetration.
Your plants will look bare and a lot smaller depending on how much you pull. I try to leave some leaves at each bud site. I never completely strip (lolipop) the plants. I pull all leaves the last week or so of bloom.
There is really no right or wrong way. Try an experiment with one or a few plants and see how you like it.

 

[blackrussian]

Hello,today I have attached this technique to some of my girls, I want to ask you whether I did good or am completely wrong things, whether there will be bad consequences, or it will be ok.I attache some pictures of my girls before the defoliating and after .

BEFORE:






and after:






Please tell me everything .If something wrong let me know.Is the plant are healty?Thank you

 

[kjz71521]

Defoliation seems to be a good trick to gain a bigger yield, good stuff Im paying attention because I wanna learn how to max crop in my small sog space..

 

[Scrogerman]

Hello,today I have attached this technique to some of my girls, I want to ask you whether I did good or am completely wrong things, whether there will be bad consequences, or it will be ok.I attache some pictures of my girls before the defoliating and after .
Thank you

Cut the leaf stems closer to the main stems they come off. Leaving long leaf stems can promote mold growths, theres more surface area to rot/go bad. I cut leaf stems leaving 1-2mm, not quite flush but as close as i can get it without hurting the stems.
I personally would stay well away from the top 1/4 but thats me. They should come back but i do not advise new growers to try this tec without getting a few grows under their belts. there has been mixed reports & imo that comes down to timing & knowing the strain, but most importantly knowing the tecnique, which involves pruning leaves from early on in the veg period- read the whole thread man!. be carefull buddy! Dont go mad!- yours actually looks good at this point. id say Nice work!
Trying this tecnique on a few plants in your grow is a real good idea id say! Leaf Pruning is always a good idea, but to what extent is the whole point behind the thread, the OP seems to have it cracked, but lots of reports of it not working, thats down to perfecting the tec imo. I Prune & Tuck leaves myself & struggle to get under 1gpw these days!

 

[blackrussian]

Tomorow i will change the water, and what do you thing to cut only the big leaf to the rest of plants or leave them as they are now.What you propose to do?Thank you

 

[budlover123]

My friend defoliated his last crop, we believe there is something to defoliation, but from our experience, if we try this again, we might defoliate once or twice around mid-veg.

He defoliated pretty regularly during veg, but during flower we noticed that the majority of healthy looking bud sites had nice leaves near them, he didn't defoliate again until a month or so in, and it could have been many factors, but those buds sure seemed to stop growing when we defoliated in mid flower!

You can try defoliating a couple plants if you like, but those will veg slower, I say, take 2 plants that look pretty identical and just do a one time defoliation of almost all of one of their leaves, maybe twice during veg, maybe, but that's it.

another thing we noticed, one of the plants he grew was about a week older than the rest, that plant did much better through defoliation than the rest, we believe the others were not quite ready for such an endeavor, don't start too early in veg, it;ll add a month to your veg time IMO

 

[blackrussian]

Hello, today my girls were 3 weeks + 1 day since we've switched to 12/12,trimmed large leaves that interfere with light to penetrate, today made a few new photos. Please comparing them with the old that are above and tell your opinion. How they grow,healthy are they after trimming, are they good looking?

 

[ninjasmoke]

can any strain do this? i grow Larry OG kush, church, trainwreck.. can i do this instead of 8 pots under a light can i do 2-3 and produce more than i already am?

 

[TruthOrLie]

i only defoliate once. at harvest.

 

[JWP]

i only defoliate once. at harvest.

lol

I thought i would give it another try directly following k33ftr33z instructions.

2 plants died. The other 3 are comming back slowly. My yeild just droped by at least 2/5ths ;(