Heavy leaf stripping before harvest?

Southernuncle21 · Sep 16, 2022

Out of curiosity, I've had a old timer that has grown longer than I been alive tell me he heavily strips all fan leaf's a week before harvest. I know the basic defoliation techniques but never tried anything so aggressive. Today I tried it. I stripped everything except for bud and sugar leafs. Since I'm so close to harvest about a week out for one of my plants I don't see what it could hurt. This is a experimental thing I'm trying. Has anyone else heard of such a aggressive defoliation a week or two before harvest or is this guy blowing smoke up my ass? I tried it, too late to go back now. Most that would happen is I cut her a few days early.

growsince79 · Sep 16, 2022

Southernuncle21 said:
Out of curiosity, I've had a old timer that has grown longer than I been alive tell me he heavily strips all fan leaf's a week before harvest. I know the basic defoliation techniques but never tried anything so aggressive. Today I tried it. I stripped everything except for bud and sugar leafs. Since I'm so close to harvest about a week out for one of my plants I don't see what it could hurt. This is a experimental thing I'm trying. Has anyone else heard of such a aggressive defoliation a week or two before harvest or is this guy blowing smoke up my ass? I tried it, too late to go back now. Most that would happen is I cut her a few days early.

I'd be worried about herms and foxtails. 3-4 days is sometimes all it takes to ruin my buds.

Glomus · Sep 16, 2022

Southernuncle21 said:
Out of curiosity, I've had a old timer that has grown longer than I been alive tell me he heavily strips all fan leaf's a week before harvest. I know the basic defoliation techniques but never tried anything so aggressive. Today I tried it. I stripped everything except for bud and sugar leafs. Since I'm so close to harvest about a week out for one of my plants I don't see what it could hurt. This is a experimental thing I'm trying. Has anyone else heard of such a aggressive defoliation a week or two before harvest or is this guy blowing smoke up my ass? I tried it, too late to go back now. Most that would happen is I cut her a few days early.

Yeah I do a bit of that growing outdoors considering I have to remove them when I harvest anyway. I am a firm believer in aggressive trimming of the entire plant through out the grow to keep things healthy. There is a debate about the defoliation thing in late flower and trimming plants out in general depending on the stage of growth. I know it's common practice indoors. I have heard all kinds of different theories for both sides, not to do it, to do it etc. But I do know that if your plant has High Brix and isn't riding off the stored energy and nutrients left in itself and is still photosynthesizing, I'd imagine it wouldn't help that. I actually prefer to let my plants not continue photosynthesizing and let them draw from itself causing a yellowing and a bit of stress at the end. Which means cutting off the feeding at a certain point or sugars, I feel like that stress at the end helps the resin come out more and the overall flavor. I definitely defoliate yellowing leaves, but intuitively cutting off a ton of healthy foliage creates stress so maybe thats a good thing idk.

Whenever you remove a ton of foliage it throws off the metabolism of the plants and the root system has to shed off the extra roots. Stress can be a good thing tho at the end of flowering.

sambapati · Sep 17, 2022

Glomus said:
Yeah I do a bit of that growing outdoors considering I have to remove them when I harvest anyway. I am a firm believer in aggressive trimming of the entire plant through out the grow to keep things healthy. There is a debate about the defoliation thing in late flower and trimming plants out in general depending on the stage of growth. I know it's common practice indoors. I have heard all kinds of different theories for both sides, not to do it, to do it etc. But I do know that if your plant has High Brix and isn't riding off the stored energy and nutrients left in itself and is still photosynthesizing, I'd imagine it wouldn't help that. I actually prefer to let my plants not continue photosynthesizing and let them draw from itself causing a yellowing and a bit of stress at the end. Which means cutting off the feeding at a certain point or sugars, I feel like that stress at the end helps the resin come out more and the overall flavor. I definitely defoliate yellowing leaves, but intuitively cutting off a ton of healthy foliage creates stress so maybe thats a good thing idk.

Whenever you remove a ton of foliage it throws off the metabolism of the plants and the root system has to shed off the extra roots. Stress can be a good thing tho at the end of flowering.

Good answer and agree that stressing at the end is beneficial. Putting screws or nails through the stems, branch break, bud cutting, drought, additional darkness with plants remaining in their pots prior to chop are all offered as 'end games' for the plant. I confess to using almost all of these so far in my current grow, but I kept what fan leaves there are intact on the plant. I think most people here are looking to maximize the potential of whatever plant we're growing, because we're responsible for that 'optimal' grow. No one else will likely know (or care) that we've done this because it isn't like a face tattoo. I would also speculate that different techniques go in and out of favor except for Miracle Grow which is often damned with faint praise. I know weed makes you hungry and forgetful so torturing the plant for the blunders you are likely to commit in the future makes sense.

Southernuncle21 · Sep 17, 2022

Before and after leaf stripping

nashobaTHC · Sep 17, 2022

To be honest…I have no freakin clue whether it’s beneficial to do major defoliation of outside grows in the final 2-3 weeks of flowering. I’d estimate that based on posters on this site it’s a 50/50 call. Bottom line…like humans, animals, plants, amoebas, life is a bunch of bio-chemical feedback systems. Remove a key component and your system reacts to it (for better or worse). I’m hoping for better.

I’ll be doing major defol on a few of my 6 plants to test this technique based on the recommendations of a longtime local grower. One plants plate leaves are at first stages of yellowing (first pic) so removing those likely will be fine for the plant. The other 2 plants (pics 2&3) leaves are large and green so I’m reluctant to pull all large leaves so I’ll do a medium defol on those. One potted plant (pic 4) is a sativa with thin leaves and lots of stretching so no defol needed there. My situation has about 5 hrs direct sun in the main growing area so maximizing sun to buds and providing better airflow seems to make sense. I’ll let you know how things work out.

HippiHemuli · Sep 17, 2022

I like to defoliate fan leaves few days - 1 week before chopping, never seen any issues and if good genes they wont herm cause defoliation. But many want dry plants with leafs on for slower dry.

Southernuncle21 · Sep 17, 2022

HippiHemuli said:
I like to defoliate fan leaves few days - 1 week before chopping, never seen any issues and if good genes they wont herm cause defoliation. But many want dry plants with leafs on for slower dry.

I don't think it's going to Herm. This particular plant is been pretty tough. When it comes to my drying method. I usually take off all the big fan leaves. Anyway, leave only the sugar leaves. So I don't think that part's going to make any difference. It's just going to make it easier for me to do a trim job. Plus wherever I chop since I got rid of all the big fan leaves. I don't even have to do any trim. Just wash the bud and hang them up to dry.

CrazyColas · Oct 14, 2022

I did exactly that this year. Proof is in the smoking!

nashobaTHC · Oct 14, 2022

So my defoliation experiment was a mixed bag because I lacked good side by side control plants of same strain in same grow area with same sunlight amounts. One plant getting only a couple hours of sunlight had heavy defol but buds are thick as coke bottles with no bud rot or pm. Another plant had virtually no defol, got purple hue leaves, and is now slow drying. Pics 1 and 2 show defol plant in ground and buds drying on stake. Pics 3 and 4 show non-defol plant in ground and buds hanging to dry.

My ultimate conclusion is to defol a few days before chopping because it’s easier to cut leaves on an upright living plant than an upside down hanging plant.

I think I need migrant trimmers or a trim machine.

sambapati · Oct 14, 2022

nashobaTHC said:
So my defoliation experiment was a mixed bag because I lacked good side by side control plants of same strain in same grow area with same sunlight amounts. One plant getting only a couple hours of sunlight had heavy defol but buds are thick as coke bottles with no bud rot or pm. Another plant had virtually no defol, got purple hue leaves, and is now slow drying. Pics 1 and 2 show defol plant in ground and buds drying on stake. Pics 3 and 4 show non-defol plant in ground and buds hanging to dry.

My ultimate conclusion is to defol a few days before chopping because it’s easier to cut leaves on an upright living plant than an upside down hanging plant.

I think I need migrant trimmers or a trim machine.

Elon Musk has some robots...

Heavy leaf stripping before harvest?

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Heavy leaf stripping before harvest?

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