Safe to defoliate or should i even bother?

Gburns · Sep 3, 2025

Hey all, just wondering when the earliest I can defoliate is. The plant im thinking about doing it to is just shy of 3 weeks old, im considering defoliation because I already have some leaves that are getting no light so I figured why not pluck them? But as im new to this i wanted confirmation either way before I do something that can harm the plant. Specifically talking about a couple leaves that are under the rest of the plant and arent really doing anything. Once they hit 7ish nodes is when i plan to start training. Thanks in advance!

LoveGrowingIt · Sep 3, 2025

I'd let it keep growing for a while longer.

Randyy · Sep 3, 2025

Defoliation is a subject that there is no clear guide or explanation as to how to best go about it. People have a million different opinions about this.

If it was my plant I would not remove anything just yet. Reason being that the lower leaves can give you a hint about a couple of different things. For example, if the plant is hungry or if the plant is underwatered then the lower leaves will yellow and wilt. So unless you want to remove the lower leaves to get better airflow or so it's easier to till the soil and water the plant, then I would prefer to keep the leaves in place. That being said, if you remove a couple of the lower leaves you likely wont hurt the plant too much, but in my opinion it's not really needed until it gets a little older.

KG1 · Sep 3, 2025

Bro it's barely got six leaves lol

katraiter · Sep 3, 2025

KG1 said:
Bro it's barely got six leaves lol

LoveGrowingIt · Sep 3, 2025

Randyy said:
Defoliation is a subject that there is no clear guide or explanation as to how to best go about it. People have a million different opinions about this.

Ain't that the truth! I often have a tough time keeping my opinion to myself. I'm in the less is better group. I find it helpful to watch the leaves to see how the plant is using nutrients.

Randyy · Sep 3, 2025

LoveGrowingIt said:
Ain't that the truth! I often have a tough time keeping my opinion to myself. I'm in the less is better group. I find it helpful to watch the leaves to see how the plant is using nutrients.

Yeah exactly, I'm feel the same! However, I do tend to remove a lot of branches though - you know the lolipopping method - so I won't get all those tiny flowers on the bottom. Not sure if people normally think of defoliating as only removing fan leaves or if it also includes removing branches?!

THCosmic · Sep 3, 2025

Randyy said:
Defoliation is a subject that there is no clear guide or explanation as to how to best go about it. People have a million different opinions about this.

If it was my plant I would not remove anything just yet. Reason being that the lower leaves can give you a hint about a couple of different things. For example, if the plant is hungry or if the plant is underwatered then the lower leaves will yellow and wilt. So unless you want to remove the lower leaves to get better airflow or so it's easier to till the soil and water the plant, then I would prefer to keep the leaves in place. That being said, if you remove a couple of the lower leaves you likely wont hurt the plant too much, but in my opinion it's not really needed until it gets a little older.

LoveGrowingIt said:
Ain't that the truth! I often have a tough time keeping my opinion to myself. I'm in the less is better group. I find it helpful to watch the leaves to see how the plant is using nutrients.

For sure!! You always want to have some lower leaves so you can identify signs of stress. Personally, I only defoliate for a few reasons:

-Pests/Diseases: Remove that crap of course.
-Airflow: I consider this most important during a grow. With proper airflow you can get away with many non-ideal aspects, such as temperature and humidity.
-Light Penetration: Leaves blocking other bud sites are removed.
-Necrotic/Depleted: When a leaf is so far gone it becomes useless and should be removed.

Randyy said:
Yeah exactly, I'm feel the same! However, I do tend to remove a lot of branches though - you know the lolipopping method - so I won't get all those tiny flowers on the bottom. Not sure if people normally think of defoliating as only removing fan leaves or if it also includes removing branches?!

I always think of "defoliating" as removing fan leaves and "pruning" as removing branches. Defoliating being the less stressful of the two. I tend to only prune once a week, while I defoliate twice a week.

THCosmic · Sep 3, 2025

Gburns said:
Hey all, just wondering when the earliest I can defoliate is. The plant im thinking about doing it to is just shy of 3 weeks old, im considering defoliation because I already have some leaves that are getting no light so I figured why not pluck them? But as im new to this i wanted confirmation either way before I do something that can harm the plant. Specifically talking about a couple leaves that are under the rest of the plant and arent really doing anything. Once they hit 7ish nodes is when i plan to start training. Thanks in advance!

Is your plant an autoflower or photoperiod?

No need to defoliate now. From the image it looks like the only leaves blocked would be the single leaflet leaves. You could remove them if you want, but it would just add stress to your plant.

LoveGrowingIt · Sep 3, 2025

Gburns said:
Hey all, just wondering when the earliest I can defoliate is.

My thinking is that defoliation practices depend on how the plant is growing. Some plants grow short and bushy, and need a lot of pruning. Other plants grow tall and thin, and don't need any pruning at all. So, I let them grow for a while to see what they're going to need.

ktram · Sep 3, 2025

KG1 said:
Bro it's barely got six leaves lol

This is where some clown usually replies: Bro you know you gotta stress them hard when they're young.

ktram · Sep 3, 2025

THCosmic said:
For sure!! You always want to have some lower leaves so you can identify signs of stress. Personally, I only defoliate for a few reasons:

-Pests/Diseases: Remove that crap of course.
-Airflow: I consider this most important during a grow. With proper airflow you can get away with many non-ideal aspects, such as temperature and humidity.
-Light Penetration: Leaves blocking other bud sites are removed.
-Necrotic/Depleted: When a leaf is so far gone it becomes useless and should be removed.

I always think of "defoliating" as removing fan leaves and "pruning" as removing branches. Defoliating being the less stressful of the two. I tend to only prune once a week, while I defoliate twice a week.

That's definitely the correct vernacular. ^_^

puertoesc25 · Sep 4, 2025

Randyy said:
Defoliation is a subject that there is no clear guide or explanation as to how to best go about it. People have a million different opinions about this.

If it was my plant I would not remove anything just yet. Reason being that the lower leaves can give you a hint about a couple of different things. For example, if the plant is hungry or if the plant is underwatered then the lower leaves will yellow and wilt. So unless you want to remove the lower leaves to get better airflow or so it's easier to till the soil and water the plant, then I would prefer to keep the leaves in place. That being said, if you remove a couple of the lower leaves you likely wont hurt the plant too much, but in my opinion it's not really needed until it gets a little older.

really solid advice. definitely too early to worry about defoliating imo. give it some more time :)

Mewnakpublic · Sep 4, 2025

Gburns said:
Hey all, just wondering when the earliest I can defoliate is. The plant im thinking about doing it to is just shy of 3 weeks old, im considering defoliation because I already have some leaves that are getting no light so I figured why not pluck them? But as im new to this i wanted confirmation either way before I do something that can harm the plant. Specifically talking about a couple leaves that are under the rest of the plant and arent really doing anything. Once they hit 7ish nodes is when i plan to start training. Thanks in advance!

I would let it grow more. Once I defoliated a plant and it died.

After that i only remove the dead leanes.

Mewnakpublic · Sep 4, 2025

I keep the small stems from the bottom of the plant pruned. It prevents the crappy little buds from the density from forming.

Once i defoliated a large plant and it died. Now i just take off the dead ones.

Safe to defoliate or should i even bother?

Safe to defoliate or should i even bother?

Gburns

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