Increasing yield with defoliation indoors: What's it mean? How to do it?

[OG13]

Bennies got no business being in a hydro setup. Your high dollar nutes are formulated to supply what the plant wants, in an easy to digest manner. You take care of the when based on when you add/how you mix. Bennies/Microbes live in soil to make raw nutrients available to roots (bone meal is not readily assimilated for example) by breaking the nutrients down. The nute makers just sell what people think they need....they also know people want to use all the additives they can afford to make the plants more better. Gigabane, just dose them hard, as long as you need. The H2O2 breaks down to water overnight.

 

[Smokemupm8]

0_o Shit.. Well thats a first - Ive never seen someone strip a seedling down to its rude bits!!!

I do not like to do this, well not at that early of growth stage. Id let them grow a little upto around 25cm before attempting it, but of course, THATS ME..
With my last 2 LST grows Ive trimmed way more from them than ANY plants Id grown previously, they responded and replaced them rather quickly, JOKERJ - How long did it take from your first strip of seedling til it got them few shoots out and was tethered in the other pics you added after?
See I set up my branches growth vertically, and once theyre at a height I attach them by tethers and clear leaves blocking all bud sites.. Usually the first foot or so of the branch is stripped, but as Ive grown this with less Veg time, she s not as big, but hope to get a good solid yield from it. From what Ive seen personally growing, they respond better to trimming ( not stripping ) over a week or so, but always leave some on their as the plant needs the leaves for sugars,photosynth,nute storage etc; So by removing them, the plant may need to be fed more nutes earlier which may cause other problems in itself..
So I usually trim off a leaf from 1 branch and if needed 1 or 2 from an opposing branch to clear out space rather than do it to 1 branch totally.
Im into flower now, and am taking off small sugar leaves from bud sites - I do not want to do much of this, but currently I have to, but if I were to strip a load off her she would still have enough leaves to build herself with.
IT IS A PERSONAL CHOICE - EVERYONE DOES THEIR OWN THING, AND ALSO WE NEED TO EXPERIMENT AND LEARN FROM THEM TOO!!
So do not do something just bcos of what I write, but its just a post stating my style/methods. Here s my latest just having a bloom:

LATER GUYS, happy toking Smokemup..

 

[Bassman59]

Here's my latest stripping of two Martian Kush girls. Now this is a little different from the norm. We generally speaking don't strip during stretch. However, because they are stretching way more than the two Master Kush in front of them and I'm getting near max height for proper 1000w HPS (29" tall now) light penetration, I want to shut down their stretch as much as possible.

So at 15 days of 12/12 I hit the girls hard. This will really slow down the stretch. Thus allowing the Master Kush to catch up for a more even canopy. Tomorrow I'll bend the hell out of some of the tall branches to widen them out and lower them more, then lower the light for max penetration.

 

[Bassman59]

Joker haze

before

After

17 days later

JJ

JJ, Too early imo. I don't strip before 5-6 nodes at least and you hit her at 3. I think waiting until 5-6 nodes and hitting her you would have seen more bushiness and certainly a much faster recovery.

 

[Smokemupm8]

SHIT.. I WAS ON THE MONEY THEN That is what I was thinking Bass. IMO they do need to somewhat start to establish themselves before you should start to trim/train etc; A week or so under a couple CFL s will get it big enough to start working on.
When I was looking at the pics, the plant looked to be struggling and this much stress so early Ive seen create males??? Lanky stretched out and then - BALLS!! Not in all cases and I hope not for you!
But yeah, maybe just let em grow a little longer and as bass says too - YOULL SEE BETTER RESULTS Goodluk, Smokemup

 

[Smokemupm8]

Heres a pic of my grow @ about 18 days:

Mate, She was an awsum plant!! I miss her

 

[JokerJohn]

thanks bass i did it on purpose to slow her down alot to catch up with a few recent sprouts but i def see a big difference infact in the last picture if you look in the background you can see the other plants and how good the timming ended up being

Here she is a few days ago and even exploded more last few days

 

[bladesmith]

Thanks bassman, think i've read this whole thing 5 times now, this is exactly what i been looking for to get higher yield with lower plant count, when i first read this thread i just put mine in 12/12 so i stripped the hell out of them, per your directions. Have new run about to come out of cloner and will have about 5-6 weeks of veg to try this from the start, going take lots of pics might start mini journal, i know the strain pretty well and think i can pull it off. Also ran this stain few times now and know what yield should be so will be exciting to see difference with this run, i'll be sure to share what i learn with ya'll...

 

[spring2012]

Been watching for some time. I read the main blog and hope this was done correctly. The plant is a sleestack X freebie. Not sure of sex yet. I wanted to give your method a try as I'm growing regs for the first time. I have a fem Kandy Kush and a Fem Critical. They may be next. I did this at 22 days into veg. I only took the larger fan leaves. Hope I did it without taking too many.

 

[Bassman59]

Looks fine spring!

 

[Bassman59]

Thanks bassman, think i've read this whole thing 5 times now, this is exactly what i been looking for to get higher yield with lower plant count, when i first read this thread i just put mine in 12/12 so i stripped the hell out of them, per your directions. Have new run about to come out of cloner and will have about 5-6 weeks of veg to try this from the start, going take lots of pics might start mini journal, i know the strain pretty well and think i can pull it off. Also ran this stain few times now and know what yield should be so will be exciting to see difference with this run, i'll be sure to share what i learn with ya'll...

I do that too when I'm trying to learn new things. Best wishes, keep us informed!

 

[crashnfool]

Great news... The third strip was successful and we have a full bush where once there was a stick about ready to die. So next week I will flip over to 12-12 and wait for the fun to continue!! Once again thanks to all who shared the knowledge they have found!

 

[bladesmith]

-UPDATE- been in 12/12 for 2 almost 3 weeks now, been twisting branches and pulling leaves, looking sweet so far, all under growth taking off now filling canopy, looks like should end up thick, using low overall count to check yield, hope to match last run with half as many, fingers crossed, camera broke so no pics, hope to get some up before done though, thanks again bassman for info...

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

I learned something from an hem policy lecture. If u veg in the 12 light then 1 hour to prevent flowering then when you flower go strait to 10 on 15 off, your plants will only grow 10 percent larger and grow no new leaves. They also finish a week earlier. The guy has experimented and grown this way a while with great results. U also save power\money.

This way u don't have to stress ur plants.

 

[Vick074]

I learned something from an hem policy lecture. If u veg in the 12 light then 1 hour to prevent flowering then when you flower go strait to 10 on 15 off, your plants will only grow 10 percent larger and grow no new leaves. They also finish a week earlier. The guy has experimented and grown this way a while with great results. U also save power\money.

This way u don't have to stress ur plants.

Can you explain a little bit more about this, or provide a link?

 

[Hash Hound]

hey,,, wait,, 10 on 15 off? thats a 25 hr day

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Sorry ment 14 off. Vick, once I get home I will link to the video.

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Vick, here ya go.

Dan Broughan Lecture - Growing Cannabis - YouTube

 

[GigaGrew]

i will watch more of this later. but the first part of this is just "Gas Lantern Routine" which we are already very well aware of on this site =)

 

[Bassman59]

Watched the whole thing, not intently, but while getting ready for work. yes he somewhat describes GLR, but also says why to go straight to 14/10. And gives some indication of why less leaves is good, not unlike what we achieve here with defoliation.

I may try growing taller in veg, still with use of defoliation, but then going to within 10% of max height and flipping to 14/10 (also with use of GLR in veg) and see if this works well to control height and fast-bud in conjunction with defoliation as normal.