Flowering - How often to Defoliate?

[FuqStik]

Currently in week two of flower - they are all females!

Curious - how often should I be defoliating? Is Lollipopping a good and efficient technique?

Added a second SCROG but these ladies are starting to get bushy. One on the left is obvious massive and much bigger than the other 3.

 

[Porky1982]

This is a controversial topic.
Personally i don’t defol at all except a few big fans here and there but I’ve seen others do very heavy defols.
It’s up to you as the grower to decide what’s good for you.

 

[revfunk]

I pick any fan leaf blocking any bud site from day 1 through about day 21 flower. Have grown like this and with zero plant defoliation. The defoliation ALWAYS wins. Unless you enjoy trimming larf and popcorn

 

[FuqStik]

I pick any fan leaf blocking any bud site from day 1 through about day 21 flower. Have grown like this and with zero plant defoliation. The defoliation ALWAYS wins. Unless you enjoy trimming larf and popcorn

How low on that picture would you defoliate completely? I do not want popcorn bud lol. I've been stripping fans every few days or so and the growth just comes back obviously.

 

[revfunk]

basically any large fan leaf blocking light. Some people go a different route and trim off anything under the canopy. I try to do both slowly over time, definitely makes a difference.

If you're in week 2 I'd say you have another week to defoliate. After that runs the risk of too much stress on a maturing plant.

My most recent harvest shows you the outcome

 

[MHOGSMI]

Look into Shawazzie growing techniques. Might give you an idea of what you can get away with in terms of removing fan leaves.
I strip mine a week proir to flip. Day 21. And remove all fan leave the last week.

 

[JWM2]

Anything under the canopy isn’t going to get much light and will produce small buds. So I take it all Bud sites off under the canopy except the fan leaves. I’ll let the fan leaves go as they have stored nutrients for the plant. They’ll fall off when they are ready.

 

[FuqStik]

I ended up taking everything in the shade off

 

[TheGreek_978]

I defoliate a good amount and she handles it just fine. I haven’t touched her in a week tho and prob won’t the rest of her life

 

[XxHammer]

Bump

 

[Ponky]

I defoliate 2x in Veg. And 1 to 2 in flower. By week 3 flowering I stop. I remove almost all the leaves. Works well.