Best way to defoliate for flower

GockBuds · Nov 6, 2020

I have 3 Blueberry headband girls from Humboldt seeds.
1 cherry cake (wedding cake x cherry pie) from eleven8 seeds
And one clone of grand daddy purp
All are coming up on 7th week of veg, getting ready to flip them. Was wondering the best way to defoliate to allow the most light penetration during flower. They are super short and bushy as hell, as I've trained them to be, constantly bending over and tying down the main stem and higher branches to let the lower ones catch up. I have a pretty even canopy now for the most part. They are in 7 gallon smart pots, soil, with (2) 315w CMH lights.

gorillaglueaaron · Nov 6, 2020

Lollipopping doesn't allow for better light penetration but will definitely help you get a better end yield. It also makes light penetration less important because there won't be any low buds that need more light. I defoliate all the fan leaves that attach to stems and leave all the sugar leaves and the ones that are connected to buds.

GockBuds · Nov 6, 2020

That was basically my plan. I plan on cutting away the bottom 1/4 or 1/3 and trimming away the bigger fan leaves on the main stem. Wondering if its best to do all at once or do it little by little, and if it matters when I do it. I know its a pretty simple thing, just seeing if anyone has a preferred way that worked best for them.

GockBuds · Nov 6, 2020

Cheekiestsauce said:
This topic varies from grower to grower and you’ll hear and see a lot of different things. Is this your first grow? I see a lot of people recommending to not defoliate much on your first grow and you’ll see where you need to for your next grow by seeing underdeveloped or popcorn nugs. Personally I took off the bottom 20% roughly when I grew my first round.

lots say to remove anything not getting light and just go bananas. I’ll show a pic below of how a friend defoliates. He’s 100% quality over quantity.

Not my first grow, but only my 4th. I used to only remove a small amount from the bottom and defoliated the majority of the fan leaves to open them up. But yea, trimming up tiny little popcorn nugs isn't very rewarding so I'd rather do a more extreme lollipop than I have in the past

GockBuds · Nov 6, 2020

Also, I tried my hand at organic soil mix when I started these. They did not like it. My soil mix was fucked from the get go. Didn't cook it long enough and definitely went too light on the ammendments, they had obvious deficiencies early on. After a few weeks I transplanted to a mix of fox farms ocean forest and pro mix, and perlite, and added some alphalfa meal.. got some bottles nutes and got them healthy again. They are looking good now with no signs of deficiency, except for purple stems all over. I give them cal/mag every other watering for that

gorillaglueaaron · Nov 6, 2020

Worst thing that could happen with lollipopping is you lollipop too much and get a lower yield but better quality and bigger nugs.

Madmax · Nov 6, 2020

Just tidy up a little bit underneath spread it out over a week or so .i only take the leaves thats shading bud sites and i dont take them off all at once...just here there so not to stress them out too much..

Your plants look good mate..

GockBuds · Nov 6, 2020

Madmax said:
Just tidy up a little bit underneath spread it out over a week or so .i only take the leaves thats shading bud sites and i dont take them off all at once...just here there so not to stress them out too much..

Your plants look good mate..

I like it, kinda my thoughts exactly. Thanks !

GockBuds · Nov 6, 2020

Cheekiestsauce said:
I’m going with a pre made organic mix for my next grow. Company up in Canada here called stepwell. Heard nothing but wonderful things I’m excited to try it out

Nice, yea man I really want to go the organic route but the more I looked into and tried it, the more I realized I know NOTHING about soil! Its complex, the microbiology, the bacteria, the fungai, there's a lot involved. Done right im sure it can be easy, and simple, just add water if the soil is on point, but knowing your soil and how to create that ecosystem with all the right stuff in it takes some knowledge

GockBuds · Nov 6, 2020

Cheekiestsauce said:
You could try different amounts on each plant? That’s kinda where I’m at cause I still don’t really know. Just learning as I go

Yea it might be worth it to try 3 different ways with the same strain and see what produces the best results

gorillaglueaaron · Nov 6, 2020

GockBuds said:
Yea it might be worth it to try 3 different ways with the same strain and see what produces the best results

If you do that post updates please, I'd like to see the results.

quirk · Nov 6, 2020

Before and after a light trim. Organic soil auto grower.

gorillaglueaaron · Nov 6, 2020

quirk said:
Before and after a light trim. Organic soil auto grower.

What would a heavy trim look like then, you took off all the fan leaves.

RR1 · Nov 6, 2020

GockBuds said:
I have 3 Blueberry headband girls from Humboldt seeds.
1 cherry cake (wedding cake x cherry pie) from eleven8 seeds
And one clone of grand daddy purp
All are coming up on 7th week of veg, getting ready to flip them. Was wondering the best way to defoliate to allow the most light penetration during flower. They are super short and bushy as hell, as I've trained them to be, constantly bending over and tying down the main stem and higher branches to let the lower ones catch up. I have a pretty even canopy now for the most part. They are in 7 gallon smart pots, soil, with (2) 315w CMH lights.

For what it's worth, I do two big haircuts in a plants life. The first is about 3 weeks before flower. This does not count earlier trims to make them bushes. I thin out the insides and very bottom pretty hard at this point. Lets airflow in, and takes away places for bugs to hide. The second one is at week 4 of flower. I get medieval on them and take all leaves and popcorn crap off the bottom third of all the majors. Again, good airflow, and all energy goes to the tops.
Then give them a good feeding, and a quick spray with 1 tsp epsom salts(magnesium sulfate) to 1 gal of water. They love the magnesium, and it washes off any dust or dirt going into the last half of flower. No small crap to trim. Not worth it anyway. This timeframe is different in hydro. Have to kind of wing it.
RR1

quirk · Nov 6, 2020

gorillaglueaaron said:
What would a heavy trim look like then, you took off all the fan leaves.

Heavy is when I remove the apical meristem to promote lateral bud growth.

SKPRO · Nov 7, 2020

Removing all fan leaves is the way to go.. buds buds n only buds

Blakeja · Nov 7, 2020

IMO I have seen great results with two defoliation periods. I would imagine it’s not advisable to constantly be taking little by little. You want the stress to premier your plants horemones upward to canopy growth. I trim heavy bottom and all major shaders couple weeks before I flip to give them time to recover. Once recovered and flourishing I flip. Then 21 days into flower all leafs not growing from buds are removed opening up light pen and alleviating popcorn airy buds.
Just my opinion and others will disagree but have seen good results in my garden and others running this method. I believe it’s called “shwazzig”? Something similar will show in google.
Good luck!

Blakeja · Nov 7, 2020

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