Week 6 - Defoliate or not?

[Maximus420]

Hi all, my first grows are just getting bushier than expected and tho I think some defoliation is necessary (I wasnt planning to defoliate them at all) im scared it might be too close to flowering for that.

• These girl is a Original Cheese (auto), on Cocoa perlite, being fed GH trio (GH is for soft water with RO water + a little cal-mag bumping ppm from 10 to just under 100).
• They are now on day 44 from sprout, being fed around 500-600 ppm total daily (1 to 1.5L of solution), PH im keeping around 5.6 - 5.8 (i dont need adjusting, comes this low naturally after mix, tho it seems to bump it to 6.4 once starts flowering for more phosphorus availability).
• 250W Samsung leds, 18/6 lights, extractor and a small fan on.
• Started pre-flowering nutes last week.
• The plant next to it is a white widow under same conditions.
• My temps are kept around 20-24c (cant go any higher atm unfortunately)

That being said, Im posting some pictures, there way too many leaves, im starting to find wet spots in between leaves and know this a no no. Being on day 44 and they are still growing by the day, minding this is my first grow. Is some defoliation recommended at this point? Is it riskier to leave them as it is? Since i have two similar plants, would it be worth defoliating just one of them so a noob can experience both grows?

There is a bit LST going on, mainly on the main stalk, and ive been leaf tucking daily to expose more buds site on top of fan leaves and ive removed 2 or 3 unhealthy leaves from them couple weeks ago (they were in bad shape for being in contact with wet cocoa most likely). All in there, apart from the main defoliation question, any help to improve what im currently doing will be highly appreciated.

I’m just finishing my first grow and i wish I would have defoliated the bottom third. A lot of the buds down low are quite underdeveloped.

But I would definitely try to keep as many good healthy leaves you can.
I would start by trying to tie as many branches to the side as you could..carefully.

Remove dead and unhealthy leaves.. which don’t look like a many.

And then lastly if you are still concerned remove some of the leaves on the bottom third closer to the main stock, but I believe it will be just fine

And in that process try to get to the point where your happy.

when it flowers it will stretch and you won’t have the moisture build up. That you are worried about.

Try to keep your temp and humidity in range and get fan blowing on it shouldn’t have any problems

 

[Alwayslearning08]

I just started using the scrog nets but have always used lollipop indoors. Here's some examples of what/why you should remove lower branching and bud sites. Plants only have X amount of energy why not focus it on the most important spots?

Not trimmed as well, lots of larf:

View attachment 1314138

Trimmed better, barely any larf:

View attachment 1314139

View attachment 1314140

SCROG nets & lollipop are typically used in combination due to the way that indoor lighting penetrates or spreads out. At a certain height horizontally there will be a sweet spot for PPFD levels. Every inch of grow space that a plant fills up underneath that "sweet" spot will get less and less par intensity as you go down the plant with traditional grow styles. The trellis nets help you maintain all of your tops/important growing bits in the "sweet spot" for par intensity.

Lucky I stumble upon this. Thank you