is it better to defoliate after or before preflower or even during?

[jdog22]

so im 8 days in from turning the lights 12/12
they have stretched abit now and i didnt defoliate before the flip.

would anyone know much about if its a good idea to defoliate during its stretch or should i just wait until after its finished?
i know that less stress during its stretch can result in a taller and nicer plant. but i also want those low stems to grow bigger.
any help on this thought would be appreciated thanks :)

 

[bullfrog13]

id prefer to wait til after stretch personally

 

[jdog22]

hmm id usually do it before, but the plants seemed too small to worry about. Now they have done their thing and half way through pre flower im like sheet there really isnt alot of light getting to the bottom, so in my 4x4 i decided 2x 600w lights was the way to penetrate hitting from different angles so maybe thatll help me out abit since shes got alot of leaves.

 

[bullfrog13]

fair to say ive never really done it during though.

 

[radagast]

I'm no expert but most plants will stop or slow whatever they are doing to convert energy on healing, since that's the most important thing to their overall survival. If i hurt them during vegetative stage, i will still be able to fix what went wrong or even the plant itself slow the growth a little bit to heal herself as if i hurt them during flowering stage, she will stop producing flowers!
On auto flowering species it's never advised to trim during veg but it is never recommended trimming them on flowering stage, i think that could translate to photoperiod plants as well, but with less worry about losing yield.

 

[Trash_2002]

so im 8 days in from turning the lights 12/12
they have stretched abit now and i didnt defoliate before the flip.

would anyone know much about if its a good idea to defoliate during its stretch or should i just wait until after its finished?
i know that less stress during its stretch can result in a taller and nicer plant. but i also want those low stems to grow bigger.
any help on this thought would be appreciated thanks :)

Lightly defoliate the leaves that cover too many lower bud sites, after the stretch phase, usually after 21 maybe 28 days 12/12 depending on cultivar.
do it all at once so they spend only one time "healing".

another tip, do it right before a watering or feeding, so they pull water and heal really fast those little wounds.

 

[Nuggz23]

I defoliate at the end of week 3.

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

I believe defoliation should be done for a purpose, so defoliation itself is not the goal. My main purposes for defoliation are for air flow and light penetration. Otherwise, I usually don't remove fan leaves till I have a reason to do so. The plant will use nutrients from them. They're also an indication of the health of the plant. So, I defoliate a little at a time. Of course, I only grow a few plants at a time, so I have the time to work on each plant individually. I'm sure I'd think differently if I had many more plants than I do.

 

[Trash_2002]

I believe defoliation should be done for a purpose, so defoliation itself is not the goal. My main purposes for defoliation are for air flow and light penetration. Otherwise, I usually don't remove fan leaves till I have a reason to do so. The plant will use nutrients from them. They're also an indication of the health of the plant. So, I defoliate a little at a time. Of course, I only grow a few plants at a time, so I have the time to work on each plant individually. I'm sure I'd think differently if I had many more plants than I do.

Defoliation in fact reduce a little bit yields, BUT, the main reason to do it is to enhance the production of Secondary Metabolites in Cannabis Plants, and many other species of flowering plants too.

So you gain quality in the end, better resin, higher thc, terpenes, flavonoids and etc, but loose a little bit final weight too.

 

[A NewPhase]

Great topic, im almost at the end of veg and i like to do a lower level trim first, most lower level fan leaves and little bud sites up to about 4” long. Then i LST the upper bud sites leveling off the canopy for the first three weeks of flower, you know the stretch.
At that three week point into flower after the stretch, i will do another trim, really making room for money makers, im done playing the popcorn bud game, i usually do a pretty serious trim if a have enough plants, four is what i shoot for….

 

[Newty]

If I do a veg defoliation, it will happen 1-2 weeks before flip.
Heaviest Flower defoliation, if required, should happen during week 3 from flip and nothing heavy after.

 

[A NewPhase]

If I do a veg defoliation, it will happen 1-2 weeks before flip.
Heaviest Flower defoliation, if required, should happen during week 3 from flip and nothing heavy after.

I tried my damdist to kill them, but like a good weed they are came back, looking forward to the stretch soon