fuck me.everyone who starts the process IN VEGETATIVE GROWTH STAGE (also known as PRE-FLIP) gets better results than those who start 21 days into flower.
(3) wk flipped plants have fully defined their bud-sites (which'll go, which won't... etc), have more or less concluded the "stretch", and are ramping up to stack some serious calyx. Defoliating at this point will put more light on the lower sites but the plant is balanced to put the most work in on the apical node(s). Removing your leaves at this stage throws the plant out of whack and seriously retards apical cola (and lesser tops') development.
You likely would've got more yield if you DIDN'T defoliate... or did some very modest removal of obvious shade leaves.
I feel like you cheated yourself out of some serious yield on (200) plants because it wasn't understood that this process isn't to be started in flower....
If you started in your perpetual setup when your cuts were about 6-7 nodes old... AND STILL VEGGING.. then you would've realized the several benefits this technique intends to facilitate. You defoliate starting very early so that as the plant recovers and re-grows leaves, the entire plant develops more. Nodes "should" stack tighter, lower branches "should" be thicker and more robust. You should get similar development on the top third or so of the plant, but the overall plant will be way more balanced and developed.
You can expect to work through several evolutions of defoliation as you pass through the end of veg, the flip, the stretch and then rapid calyx development. The goal is to have a noded up plant with all areas getting maximum light. When the stretch hits you still end up with maximum nodes which turn into maximum budsites producing bud. Then you have maximum light on those buds so they produce max weight.
K33f does not do this with SOG... the point of this technique is that equal or more dry weight can be produced more consistently and with WAY fewer plants that in a typical SOG. His plants get trained over so that bud sites are more equidistant from the light source. Plants cannot really be trained horizontally in a true SOG. (I posted pics of a defoliated cabinet sog in an earlier post... 24 plants under a 400W)..... but defoliation still has a place and will increase yield if used correctly. I have a specific reason for using SOG in that cabinet BUT k33ftr33z' way is better and I'll be switching that setup over when other objectives have been reached.
A final thought on SOG and defoliation. Using the technique with SOG is an inferior approach. (I do it, as evidenced in the photos, so save the hate). SOG is inferior because the only free space is up due to so many plants being packed in together. The plants must grow up. Defoliation in conjunction with SOG allows more and better bud to develop on the bottom 2/3 rd of each plant. The buds grow up as well. Basically I have a 2.5' plant with buds growing equally all the way down (there is slightly more bulk in the top cola) but the key point is that the bud grows along with the main stalk. I'm on 5" centers so 2.5" over there is another bud growing along another stalk.... It's pretty crowded.
In k33ftr33z' garden, a single plant takes up a 3' by 3' foot print with about 3' of headroom. The only thing that grows into that headroom are buds. This is important. If you end up not having 3' tall colas... you can lower the light down and all the bud will be bigger and denser. Using parabolic reflection, it is possible to spread light out more evenly on the horizontal plane. Our SOG setups are really second class citizens because we also need the light to spread out evenly horizontally BUT WE ALSO NEED PENETRATION. You can reflect light to spread it out, or you can concentrate it to penetrate. Trying to do both is an unsatisfactory compromise (at least thatz what my light meter tells me).
So what do we do? If we want to SOG and achieve maximum yield (and our environment and irrigation/feeding is dialed) we can throw up 1000W lights in adjust-a-wings and get penetration and spread at the cost of efficiency and with the added bonus of managing all that heat. Or we could throw up 600W or 400W and keep the SOG canopy on the shorter side. Best is to get all the bud sites on the whole plant at the same level and light with 0.4K or 0.6K
If you are willing to try another time, start when the cuts have developed about (6) nodes in veg and then continue as instructed in this thread by the author. It is likely that this is going to screw up your timing for your perpetual. Veg will take longer BUT there is a good chance flower will take less time. Hopefully you can start veg earlier... or increase vegging plant count (or this will happen anyway if you start vegging earlier...)
When you are looking at the scrawny sticks you just created (6 nodes into veg)... just remember that when all those new mini-fans grow back, the total surface area for photo-synthesis/food production will actually be higher than if you let the plant develop naturally and the best part is they will be directly feeding growing bud-nodes.
peace
ps. (more blabber) I wonder if the increase in bud production on bigger plants vs. smaller plants (in a SOG) is geometric rather than linear. ie. a plant twice as big as another can yield more than twice the amount of bud (all things otherwise being equal). In my work, I see that a given plant might be 1/2 ounce dry. I compare it to a plant roughly twice as big (height, girth) but that plant weighs in between 1.5 ounce and 2 ounces.
One difference between the example plants is root mass. The plants that weigh the most (dry) in my garden always have the biggest root mass. Following K33f's guidance, we get maximum root mass. SOG promised to eliminate extended veg periods and increase crop turnover. If we can make veg times irrelevant (by having a separate veg area and being comfortable with the required plant count) then it is hard to find a compelling reason to continue with the practice of SOG. Using K33f's management techniques, we can get a big plant with a fully developed root system into a small space while being fully lit.
I thought most Aussies were allergic to bullshit High Country..
