To defoliate or not?

[CannaRed]

I just reread thru this thread, alot of great opinions. I haven't been very active the last couple of years and I notice that Hempy's profile isn't active anymore. We didn't always get along, but I hope Hempy's in good health and doing okay. Does anyone know him in the real world and know if he's still kicking around?
He was so argumentative, but he was a part of ic

 

[PoweredByLove]

pruning is the wrong term . removing a few leaves is minor defoliation .

Pruning is a horticultural, arboricultural, and silvicultural practice involving the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots.

Are you saying pruning is not what they mean when they say they're defoliating a plant or are you saying that is what they're doing?

I would agree that it falls under the category of pruning. When you remove parts of a plant for benefit then it's pruning.

As for "defoliation" meaning the thing weed people do where they remove a significant amount of the fan leaves on a plant. I've done a side by side and made my conclusions and over the years tested and retested my hypothesis and I maintain it is situational and strain dependant on whether there will be any benefit. Strains I think would benefit are any plant that mostly grows a thick branchy bush like afghans look. Taking off a lot of those leaves will most likely increase your overall bud formation but most likely will not increase overall yield. You can in addition remove all the growth below the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 and force the plant to use all its energy in the upper canopy.

This will just make less popcorn and more mid to large buds.

On a sativa type Thai Colombia Indian looking bud like the guy a few posts up has. Removing leaves will just harm your plant since they don't grow many branches and leaves to begin with. They need every bit of light they can get to.

But just like the Afghani looking plant if you take away all the stuff at the bottom 1/3 that would have been shaded by the top anyway. You will have less popcorn to deal with and larf and leaf and those little tiny branches that stick way out and have 1 little leaflet on them. All that energy put it up top.

But you can't get a plant to do something it can't do like out yield it's constraints.

View media item 18718459Defoliate

View media item 18718460Defoliate
View media item 18718397Leave em alone
View media item 18718276Definitely clean up all of that at the bottom
View media item 18717345You can mostly leave alone. But get rid of everything at the bottom or put it in a scrog. You wasting your energy on it unless you just scroop it all of when it dry and just hash it out.

If you trim these up to smoke then do yourself a favor and just put it in the trash early on your hands will thank you in about 10 years.

 

[CocoNut 420]

I should be clear that i don't not remove leafs but stripping a significant portion doesn't sit right with me?

I've grown for a few years but I'm 1st to admit I don't know anything about the science stuff I'm open minded on any subject if there's a logical explanation.

I'm flowering this blueberry twist it's leafy and compact, I don't think it needs them all but its usually only the bottom I remove.

what would you do with this?

They're not the best pics but I can snap better ones to show how leafy it is, I'm open to suggestions?

 

[PoweredByLove]

I should be clear that i don't not remove leafs but stripping a significant portion doesn't sit right with me?

I've grown for a few years but I'm 1st to admit I don't know anything about the science stuff I'm open minded on any subject if there's a logical explanation.

I'm flowering this blueberry twist it's leafy and compact, I don't think it needs them all but its usually only the bottom I remove.
View attachment 19035713
View attachment 19035712 what would you do with this?

They're not the best pics but I can snap better ones to show how leafy it is, I'm open to suggestions?

Personally. Since I've never seen these pants growing but they seem pretty leafy. When you flip to flower as in the day of. Remove all the bottom 1/3. After week 6 take off all the large fan leaves on the main stem and the big side branches. Leave all the leaves near the bud site alone.

 

[CocoNut 420]

Personally. Since I've never seen these pants growing but they seem pretty leafy. When you flip to flower as in the day of. Remove all the bottom 1/3. After week 6 take off all the large fan leaves on the main stem and the big side branches. Leave all the leaves near the bud site alone.
View attachment 19036591 View attachment 19036592

Thanks a lot bud i appreciate that, next time I grow it I'll make it a point to remove them on the 1st day, leaving the bigger ones to wk6 doesn't sound painful at all the plants had some of them by then.

Normally i leave the lower 1/3 untill after stretch (i love to hate stretch)
My thinking is the plant might concentrate growth into the remaining shoots, that's just hypothetical of course but it seems logical, what do think?

Cheers bud

 

[PoweredByLove]

Thanks a lot bud i appreciate that, next time I grow it I'll make it a point to remove them on the 1st day, leaving the bigger ones to wk6 doesn't sound painful at all the plants had some of them by then.

Normally i leave the lower 1/3 untill after stretch (i love to hate stretch)
My thinking is the plant might concentrate growth into the remaining shoots, that's just hypothetical of course but it seems logical, what do think?

Cheers bud

Me too. I would transplant into final pot then throw into flower. My thinking was they would grow some during the stretch anyway and the extra space might help. But In practice they don't do much with the roots after flip. Only real added benefit from potting up was I don't have to worry about watering as much cuz they dry slower.

But the bottom always keeps growing all the way through flower even with next to no light. Just a bunch of wasted energy. I find it's easier work later and better results to just strip all that off like the old guys would tell me.

I'm a bit of a scientist so I had to check for myself but yeah. It's really up to you I don't see any actual yield change. I'm sure if I add up all the trim on the leafy plant with the solid buds and compare to the plant I pruned a lot it will be about the same. Just less popcorn vs buds.

I'm lazy so anything smaller than my thumb I don't bother with and it just gets mashed up for joint weed or I make edibles with it.

 

[GET MO]

Wanted to follow up and show the result of taking top leafs for lowers to stretch and even put the canopy. These plants were growing as almost single cola plants with very little branching, by taking off the top leaves you can see the results.

 

[Camillia]

I have only done it during a wet year, I am an outdoor grower, I found that I would get some white powdery spots if they were too dense and not having enough air flow. One positive was that there was less trimming and clean up during harvest season. My girls grow about an inch a day, after defoliation I find they slow an inch or two, but get back on track after a few days.

 

[CocoNut 420]

I have only done it during a wet year, I am an outdoor grower, I found that I would get some white powdery spots if they were too dense and not having enough air flow. One positive was that there was less trimming and clean up during harvest season. My girls grow about an inch a day, after defoliation I find they slow an inch or two, but get back on track after a few days.

When I 1st messed around with defoliation the affect on stretch was what caught my attention more than anything, I'm glad you've noticed it aswell.

Fwiw another brother I've spoken with and respect alsi observed the same effect.