First Indoor/dwc Grow. Defoliation During Flower Help Plzzz

[croptopper11]

running a blue widow in a 4x2x6 tent under mars hydro reflector96. i flipped to flower on jan 7th, and seems to be moving along well. doesnt take well to high nute solution and growth during veg was unreal. had to trim leaves every 2-3 days. question i have is will i be ok to hit her 1-2 more times or will i do more harm then good. the bottom half of it still needs cleaned up a little in my eyes. thoughts?

 

[chemistry]

Plant looks fine, they do seem to slow after stretch, it won't be slower growing, just growing out instead of up. I would leave the trimming apart from the odd leaf that's getting in the way.

 

[croptopper11]

Plant looks fine, they do seem to slow after stretch, it won't be slower growing, just grow out instead of up. I would leave the trimming apart from the odd leaf that's getting in the way.[/QU

if it keeps puttin leaves out like it has since the start in a cple days its going to cover a majority of bud sights, 19" tall 27" wide, i cant afford much more side growth. ive done big trims at a time and its never skipped a beat, id hate for the first to be during flower but i dont wanna have leaves choking most of the light to the bud sights

 

[Clamwrangler]

I would trim heavily leave the upper most leaves on each cola and take out all the bulk in the centre to free up more light penetration to lower smaller bud sites. Its up to you. I trim and thin out through out the flowering period to get light all through the plants. Others reckon not.

 

[chemistry]

It's a 50/50 thing, do you pull off some of the leaves that feed your buds, and slow growth, or leave them? At 4 weeks in I leave them. Look at my grow, all the leaves are left on. The ropey ones that people are fond of telling me to pull off are tell tails. It's a personal choice.

 

[DGP]

It's a 50/50 thing, do you pull off some of the leaves that feed your buds, and slow growth, or leave them? At 4 weeks in I leave them. Look at my grow, all the leaves are left on. The ropey ones that people are fond of telling me to pull off are tell tails. It's a personal choice.

I have always wondered about this. Some experts say to pull the big fans all thru the grow to send more energy to the colas and some even defoliate pretty dramatically. Others say leave most of them cause they feed the buds. Have always wondered which is more true or is it somewhere in between?

My last grow I went after more of the fans because they started turning yellow/dying early but indeed the flowers seemed to take longer and started stacking on more than I expected so I am still unsure about these opposing ideas......They were DWC in 5 gal. buckets (indica dom. hybrid....Cheese Quake) with water temps in the sub 68F range and no root issues present, no overfeeding issues , PH between 5.8 and 6.2ish.

D

 

[chemistry]

Grow two cuttings, one with leaves on and one with leaves off and see which does the best, both in growth and smoke test and end weight. I like the fan leaves on, so when I get cal or mag def, or any def really, I can see it on the old fan leaves before it creeps up towards my bud, and I also believe that plants in veg store energy in them that they only pick up in veg, and go on to use in flower. The scientists among us may be able to shed more light on the subject, pardon the pun.

 

[DGP]

Grow two cuttings, one with leaves on and one with leaves off and see which does the best, both in growth and smoke test and end weight. I like the fan leaves on, so when I get cal or mag def, or any def really, I can see it on the old fan leaves before it creeps up towards my bud, and I also believe that plants in veg store energy in them that they only pick up in veg, and go on to use in flower. The scientists among us may be able to shed more light on the subject, pardon the pun.

Thanks, sounds like a worthy experiment.

D

 

[chemistry]

Thanks, sounds like a worthy experiment.

D

It's the only way to find out the truth about defoliation.

 

[erocknroll]

Take off any of those old fan leaves that are where a new branch starts. All of those can be removed after flipping (Did experiments of my own and found this method to lead to more light pen and air flow while not decreasing growth) As far as the leaves at bud sites, I normally leave them on unless they are covering another bud site. Usually in the first 2 weeks of flower I'll periodically remove any leaves that are covering up bud sites or that aren't getting much light.

I know there's the guys who did three a light and they remove almost all fan leaves but leave a lot of bud sites. Then I've seen guys in the advanced nutrients videos that say you have to leave the fan leaves on and they hit 3+ pounds a light also. I try and go somewhere in the middle, leave the leaves that seem useful and get rid of any cramming things up.

 

[croptopper11]

what are yalls ppm range during flower? this BW is so sensitive anything around 600 or higher and she starts to show some nute burn. ive been running fox farms line up: grow big, big bloom, with cali-mag+ and hydroguard. replaced grow big with tiger bloom after the switch.

 

[erocknroll]

Normally you wanna gradually raise the ppm for the first 5 weeks of flower then start to back off before flushing at the end. Maybe give it another week of 600 then try upping it. Your genetics might not like a lot of food but as the flowers grow it will be able to handle higher levels. Just takes some messing around with to dial in food levels for your genetics.

Did it look like nitrogen burn? If so the switch to tiger bloom should solve it and you should be safe to try upping food levels.

 

[croptopper11]

i just started 4th week of flower already. switched on jan 7th and eased out of the grow big while adding the tiger bloom. im running 3g of solution in 5g dwc bucket, 10-12ppm's before adding the juices.

 

[croptopper11]

i think im about done with the snips after trimming the last 2 nights. took 30+ smaller branches from the bottom or inner part of the plant. knowing it would help flowering up top still didnt make it any easier to cut them off. bumped ppms up closer to 700 ill check in the morning to see how its reacting,fingers crossed! i dnt have any idea of what to expect yeild wise from this led light and set up.

 

[bicky studs]

imo trimming later than acpl weeks in flower will mess with hormones etc... could promote nanas too.

 

[DGP]

imo trimming later than acpl weeks in flower will mess with hormones etc... could promote nanas too.

In this case I wonder cause I would have been concerned that those leaves could start molding and create a secondary problem. I have been in similar situations as this before and sometimes I saw plants go herm after trimming out the bad leaves and sometimes not but I suppose stress can induce them anytime there is a major issue.

BTW,

 

[bicky studs]

next time do ur lollipop, defol on day 14

 

[croptopper11]

i know one thing, this BW has turned into a cal-mag eating machine and still had leaves showing deficiency on a decent amount of leaves from top,mid, and bottom of the plant. pushed ppms to 700 and showed small nute burn on the tips. im running a mars reflector96, my reflector144 just got here friday. any suggestions on how to introduce the new light to the tent or just hang and fire it up?

 

[chemistry]

i know one thing, this BW jas turned into a cal-mag eating machine recently, and still have leaves showing the deficiency . little concerned with ppms still. barely reaches 700

If it was my plant, I would bump my PPM's up to 750 and watch for a change, that is some tree your feeding.

 

[chemistry]

Hang your light high, let it warm up, then lower it in stages until you get it to where you want it, both heat and brightness wise.