Defoliation Experiment On Unstable Clones

[crimsonecho]

Hi farm,
I am always seeing questions being posted about defoliation and most of the answers given to those questions are based on assumptions, including mine.
I have a little spare time at the moment. Also i have 4 well established clones that was revegging and still a bit iffy. Thats the unstable part of the experiment. They are almost completely returned to vegging and after the defoliation, they don’t have any more single bladed leafs.
Here is the experiment. 1 dinachem clone and 2 northern lights clones defoliated to various degrees. One dinachem clone is the control. They have been growing at the same pace ‘till about now. I want to see what effects will defoliation have on these clones, at various degrees.
The control. Not defoliated Dinachem (not very bushy to start with but..).

This is Dinachem #1. Light defoliation.

NL #1. Light defoliation.

Nl #2. Heavy defoliation plus topped at every growth tip.

Family Photo.

 

[Ina]

They will grow nice even if they have only small tops and no leaves at all....:)

 

[Ina]

The smallest clone ever:)I could even take off the two yellow leaves and leave only the tiny top:)

 

[Ina]

 

[Ina]

You can make nice,small mothers from these with lots of tops!This is the same clone few days later.....Once they have roots they are exploding no matter what:)I'm assuming those with bigger leaves will grow a little bit faster now but after few days the others will catch up....

 

[Monster762]

Reveg clones turn to monsters. I had one took month to reveg but by the time it’s revegged the branching is crazy. Train it on the way. And I kept topping mine probably what took a month. It kept trying to bud. I started it as a bud with couple healthy leaves

 

[crimsonecho]

The smallest clone ever:)I could even take off the two yellow leaves and leave only the tiny top:)

:) cute little thing.
My drive for doing this is to see if defoliation kick starts the plant metabolism. Pro defoliation people suggest it does.

 

[crimsonecho]

Reveg clones turn to monsters. I had one took month to reveg but by the time it’s revegged the branching is crazy. Train it on the way. And I kept topping mine probably what took a month. It kept trying to bud. I started it as a bud with couple healthy leaves

Yeah revegging or monstercropping is a pretty good technique. These have already went back to veg but they have been topped at least 4 times to keep it tight, that reveg branching is crazy as you said :)

 

[Ina]

:) cute little thing.
My drive for doing this is to see if defoliation kick starts the plant metabolism. Pro defoliation people suggest it does.

Let's see!:)I am pro defoliation if it makes sense...Also in flower.

 

[3 balls]

Hi farm,
I am always seeing questions being posted about defoliation and most of the answers given to those questions are based on assumptions, including mine.
I have a little spare time at the moment. Also i have 4 well established clones that was revegging and still a bit iffy. Thats the unstable part of the experiment. They are almost completely returned to vegging and after the defoliation, they don’t have any more single bladed leafs.
Here is the experiment. 1 dinachem clone and 2 northern lights clones defoliated to various degrees. One dinachem clone is the control. They have been growing at the same pace ‘till about now. I want to see what effects will defoliation have on these clones, at various degrees.
The control. Not defoliated Dinachem (not very bushy to start with but..).
View attachment 839556
View attachment 839557
This is Dinachem #1. Light defoliation.
View attachment 839558 View attachment 839559
NL #1. Light defoliation.
View attachment 839561 View attachment 839563
Nl #2. Heavy defoliation plus topped at every growth tip.
View attachment 839564 View attachment 839565
Family Photo.View attachment 839566

Heavy weight champion clones! Cant stop staring at them. I wish you had a slide show of all the steps you took.
I also cant wait to see how this goes. I have wondered about this a lot since all the 3 a light hype.

 

[crimsonecho]

Let's see!:)I am pro defoliation if it makes sense...Also in flower.

I am pro defoliation too at any stage, except seedling :)
Lets see if we were wrong or not.
I am wishing for a big suprise where the heavily defoliated one just becomes super bushy, super fast :D
It just a fantasy..

 

[crimsonecho]

Heavy weight champion clones! Cant stop staring at them. I wish you had a slide show of all the steps you took.
I also cant wait to see how this goes. I have wondered about this a lot since all the 3 a light hype.

Thanks man. I took these clones just as the preflowers started to show up. Once the flowering process starts and you turn them back to veg, shit does crazy. These were much like @Ina s clones, a bit bigger. Topped multiple times and tied down. Trying to get something like bonsai mothers.

 

[3 balls]

Thanks man. I took these clones just as the preflowers started to show up. Once the flowering process starts and you turn them back to veg, shit does crazy. These were much like @Ina s clones, a bit bigger. Topped multiple times and tied down. Trying to get something like bonsai mothers.

Bonsai mothers or set a world record for yield from a single plant!

 

[crimsonecho]

Bonsai mothers or set a world record for yield from a single plant!

Hahhah :)
My current grow is monstercropped clones and i can tell you, eventho there are many moving parts there that affect the yield, they are some bad mothafuckas with no training at all.
Monstercropping is a good technique for sure.

 

[crimsonecho]

Day1
No discernable growth or difference in growth relative to each other.
Just pruned the roots and gave them a fresh soil to spread their legs :)
They have been in those pots for quite a while and i figured if i was going to do this experiment, it is better to give them fresh soil and some room to grow.
The root mass it took from every clone is much less the same. They were really spiraled down there. The roots i mean. It will be better this way. Gave some plain water.

 

[3 balls]

Day1
No discernable growth or difference in growth relative to each other.
Just pruned the roots and gave them a fresh soil to spread their legs :)
They have been in those pots for quite a while and i figured if i was going to do this experiment, it is better to give them fresh soil and some room to grow.
The root mass it took from every clone is much less the same. They were really spiraled down there. The roots i mean. It will be better this way. Gave some plain water.

I'm really loving this site and my wife is really not- washing machine broke a week ago and I wont get off here to fix it.:)
Root pruning, first I've heard of it. I searched the forums and somebody talks about cutting off the bottom with a bread knife, is this what you're doing? I would have thought this to be damaging not beneficial? What does this do?
I veg in 1gal plastic bags then transplant into 3 gal fabric pots I would love to slice the bottom 3 inches off just so it will set deeper in the 3 gal. Is that too much? Am I confused about what root pruning really is?
Thank you

 

[crimsonecho]

I'm really loving this site and my wife is really not- washing machine broke a week ago and I wont get off here to fix it.:)
Root pruning, first I've heard of it. I searched the forums and somebody talks about cutting off the bottom with a bread knife, is this what you're doing? I would have thought this to be damaging not beneficial? What does this do?
I veg in 1gal plastic bags then transplant into 3 gal fabric pots I would love to slice the bottom 3 inches off just so it will set deeper in the 3 gal. Is that too much? Am I confused about what root pruning really is?
Thank you

Yeah just as you prune branches, you prune the roots. After a while in plastic pots, the roots start circling on top of each other. This slows down the growth greatly ime. Plant only grows if the roots can grow too.
You took it out of the pot and take some of the root matter by cutting it. Because the plant is “rootbound”, the soil comes out as a mold. I take half from the bottom and about quarter from each side. Then transplant into new soil.
This also causes the roots to branch out by activating auxillary root tips, just like “topping” causes the plant to branch out. So it is a high stress training but productive one too. As long as your plants are happy i don’t think it will cause any problems. Just start in moderation to get the feel of it. In anycase, it will be hard to kill the plant with root pruning by taking to much. Even a teeny tiny bit of root left will flourish and cover the pot eventually, it will only set you back timewise.

 

[crimsonecho]

Hi people, sadly the experiment is a bust. My control plant somehow managed to flower under a 16/8 schedule.
View attachment A2678F05-3A7A-40EC-9661-9F8D3836F5C5.MOV

 

[crimsonecho]

Control (!)

 

[crimsonecho]

DC #1