defoiliating in week 5

[evu80]

so i got some huge fat girls going in 20 gallon pots and its the start of week five. I notice there are tons of smaller popcorn buds and stuff on the lower half of the tree and on the inner branches where not much light is getting through. I'm wondering if its a good idea to start clipping and removing fan and water leaves to allow more light to penetrate through the thick foliage.

 

[Seamaiden]

That, or remove some of those bud sites that, frankly, just won't reach their potential. That should have been done at least two weeks ago, but this will serve as a learning experience for you.

 

[evu80]

If I began to cut off too many branches and bud sites all at once, will that cause the plant to shock and turn into a hermie or revert back into vegging?

 

[sincethe80s]

i take a alot of branches and sites of all the way to the last 2 weeks in flower even on week 3. i once had hermie issues when i heavily defoliated all throughout flower. just depends on strain.

 

[SweetTooth]

You can also double crop meaning harvest all of the tops and let the bottoms go a couple more weeks to fatten up