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Defoliating during flower, yes or no?

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Defoliating during flower, yes or no?

Travis420 14 Replies 6,208 Views
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Travis420

Travis420

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#1
What is everyone’s opinion on defoliating starting the end of week 3 of flower? Trying to make more light for the inner plant.
 
#2
Travis420 said:
What is everyone’s opinion on defoliating starting the end of week 3 of flower? Trying to make more light for the inner plant.
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Depends on how heavy, what leaves, how long into flower, environmental conditions etc. imho. Some people swear by a light defol session at week 6. People find some messed up ways to make this work. As long as you're not going too heavy you should be OK. If you're going to be heavy handed do it now though.
 
#4
I say do so sparingly if you do. These are the solar panels that promote vigorous growth. I see a lot of defoliated plants that simply lack the yield and girth of plants that haven't had the leaves removed.

I cut leaves that are in the way of cola growth. I try to tuck leaves away more so than cutting though myself.
 
#5
Would you mind posting a photo of the plants?

When I grow outdoors I tend to allow the plants to grow naturally throughout, only removing leaves on select plants, for various purposes unrelated to what defoliation is generally used for. Indoors is another matter, and how I'm growing is a factor in what, when and how much I remove... SCROG, SOG, LST, etc.

Generally speaking, if I'm only growing a few plants indoors, I'll tend to defoliate them well into flower. Once or twice a week I'll remove two leaves per branch in one session. I only remove the ones that are shading buds, and undergrowth that still isn't receiving enough light (popcorn buds) gets snipped. When I grow indoors, I keep my plants short - without topping... at most they grow 8-10" tall. These are not autos, but photoperiod sativa. The strain I grow, Maui Haze, takes it all like a champ.

My outdoor plants are massive, over six feet tall and as burly as a 55gal drum with huge colas. Indoors, the colas average the size of a TP tube. The light source plays a big part in this, as the sun is far better than my lights.

Like Neuro said, there are many things that play into it. My response is merely to add info to help make your decision, I don't generally recommend defoliation unless it's applicable to the particular grower.

I'd suggest researching defoliation and figure out if it's suitable for you and your plants. If you have a room full of plants I can't imagine having to defoliate all of them... too much work.
 
#6
After reading your post again, it seems that you only have one plant. In this case I would suggest (gentle) LST and afterward snip any lower buds and leaves that aren't getting enough light. Generally the lower 1/3 of the plant.
 
#7
Neuro said:
Depends on how heavy, what leaves, how long into flower, environmental conditions etc. imho. Some people swear by a light defol session at week 6. People find some messed up ways to make this work. As long as you're not going too heavy you should be OK. If you're going to be heavy handed do it now though.
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I can only speak from my experience and the reasons why I defoliate at certain times in flower. I veg for about 4 weeks, and lollipop pretty aggressively at week 3 of veg. At day 18-21 of flower I will do a pretty heavy deleafing. I run 9 plants per light and with a 4 week veg it gets very tight so I need to go aggressive with the deleaf to really open up the plants and get some much needed airflow through the canopy. Around this time my humidity is slowly creeping up and by day 42ish the humidity is at it's peak where I like it and air circulation drops big time. Around day 42 I do another deleaf. Nothing really grows back after the day 42 strip and it keeps my air flow and humidity levels where I want them. Dependant on strains I will go back around week 8-9 and pick off any large fan leaves that were missed. When it comes time to harvest the plant doesn't have to much leaves yet and can be hung whole without any prior prep work.
 
#8
mikeross said:
I can only speak from my experience and the reasons why I defoliate at certain times in flower. I veg for about 4 weeks, and lollipop pretty aggressively at week 3 of veg. At day 18-21 of flower I will do a pretty heavy deleafing. I run 9 plants per light and with a 4 week veg it gets very tight so I need to go aggressive with the deleaf to really open up the plants and get some much needed airflow through the canopy. Around this time my humidity is slowly creeping up and by day 42ish the humidity is at it's peak where I like it and air circulation drops big time. Around day 42 I do another deleaf. Nothing really grows back after the day 42 strip and it keeps my air flow and humidity levels where I want them. Dependant on strains I will go back around week 8-9 and pick off any large fan leaves that were missed. When it comes time to harvest the plant doesn't have to much leaves yet and can be hung whole without any prior prep work.
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Awesome, doing sea of green and my pants go to big, so I stripped of a lot of leafs. Appreciate the reply. Thank you
 
#10
I prefer buds grown under huge fan leaves. Imo the resin and terps are much better. Sometimes I get a plant that's so ridiculously stout that I do defoliate a bit.
 
#11
DirtKing said:
Would you mind posting a photo of the plants?

When I grow outdoors I tend to allow the plants to grow naturally throughout, only removing leaves on select plants, for various purposes unrelated to what defoliation is generally used for. Indoors is another matter, and how I'm growing is a factor in what, when and how much I remove... SCROG, SOG, LST, etc.

Generally speaking, if I'm only growing a few plants indoors, I'll tend to defoliate them well into flower. Once or twice a week I'll remove two leaves per branch in one session. I only remove the ones that are shading buds, and undergrowth that still isn't receiving enough light (popcorn buds) gets snipped. When I grow indoors, I keep my plants short - without topping... at most they grow 8-10" tall. These are not autos, but photoperiod sativa. The strain I grow, Maui Haze, takes it all like a champ.

My outdoor plants are massive, over six feet tall and as burly as a 55gal drum with huge colas. Indoors, the colas average the size of a TP tube. The light source plays a big part in this, as the sun is far better than my lights.

Like Neuro said, there are many things that play into it. My response is merely to add info to help make your decision, I don't generally recommend defoliation unless it's applicable to the particular grower.

I'd suggest researching defoliation and figure out if it's suitable for you and your plants. If you have a room full of plants I can't imagine having to defoliate all of them... too much work.
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#13
Nice plants. Yeah, that's a lot of trimming! Are you defoliating below the nets too?

Depending on how your strain handles it, just keep an eye out for stress/hermie potential. Should be fine but always wise to keep that in mind.
 
#14
Different style of growing than my style but it looks like more needs to be done.

Remove have the room and leave the other half. (Defoliation comparison)
 
#15
Travis420 said:
What is everyone’s opinion on defoliating starting the end of week 3 of flower? Trying to make more light for the inner plant.
Click to expand...
Depends on strain, however, generally I take off the bottom third of a 4 foot plant. If you know the strain, go ahead and go medieval on em. Also, just watch them. By the time you get to flower you should have an idea what you have, and what you can get away with. Keep notes.
 
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