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

[Bassman59]

I kill shit in soil man so don't ask me!

You have that oddball shape grow room I know. Mines in a 5x5 tent but they are held within about a 4x4. Some hangers down lower leaning on the tent but not much. I'm still 4" too tall I think. I'm at max height on light but this time the plants are a bit further off. Four inches lower would give me a better spread wide on the light and I could lean them out more for deeper penetration of the light. But this is still better than before. I just have to get used to this strain, Holy Grail Kush, a cup winner with very high thc content.

I'm using a 1000w HPS, Ushio bulb. But it's dialed down to 750w atm because I saw a few tip tops bleaching. Hence too close as mentioned before. But I bent them down too.

I'm sure you'll get the ph thing dialed in. I just don't know diddly for soil so I'm not the one to ask.

 

[Smokemupm8]

THANK YOU BID
Hey did you mean to write " EPSOM SALTS " or is there a product called Epsoma?? As I have some Epsom Salt in a blue n white box mate?? Sounds simlar but Ive not heard of Epsoma..
Much appreciated for your input mate - Ill try it if you are pretty sure it may have a lowering affect.. Cheers and will chat soon, SmoKemupm8

 

[Smokemupm8]

Thats cool Bass!
And yeah well in your space you could do pretty well, and as you can probably access your plant easier than me - You can keep an eye on all of her branching positon during the grow. For me, once they re over 4ft Im getting them ready for their final tie points for flowering but as they stretch abit I do have to adjust accordingly.
Your strain sounds tasty bro Wish I could get some HIGH THC/CBN content plants here - My girls are usually stronger than what im being shouted and what Ive tried around, So thats a good sign and when ppl are asking for more of my sample makes me smile I need a smoke that will put me back to sleep as I wake often, So if it s weak I dont want it!!
Thanks again Bass and chat soon. Smokemupm8

 

[Smokemupm8]

Sorry for bombing your page again Bass..
Just a quick post., my Teresa has had a bit of Defol. lately, most is just lower yellowing leaves but Ive had to trim a few that are just above the top canopy I want to make sure theyre ample covered with light. But gee she sure can shed some folaige!! I am not sure if by feeding diluted Vinegar or Lemon juice that it maybe killing off leaves?? I never do it strong but for some reson I stress on it :/
I had to raise my light before as it was about 6" above the larger tops, So now it sits about 1ft above the tops and its given me a bit more spread of light thankfully, thats one thing Ive learned you do need to pay attention as to how far you have your light above tops as you dont want a smaller focussed beam that covers only a few branches, you need it to cover as much as possible while keeping a safe distance - My 600w should hopefully have the penetration I need to fill Teresa out now as since being raised up all the top has lighting

Just some pics before I removed Perlite for cleaning - wanted to show you her main branchings, hopefully if she doesnt end up with any bad deficiencies she will fill them in??
Take care mate - Again Soz for BOMBING UR PAGE - I am just posting how my gal looks during my trimming.. It is neccessary if you grow like me or scrog and such to set up your branches and trim whats needed. Ive seen some plants stripped back to only flowers as they start 12/12 I have seen some that have slowed right down in growth due to repair and such and really the results I saw seemed more harmful than beneficial? But if done as you illustrate and detail then all should be well
TAke care guys - ALL THE BEST, FOR THE UPCOMING HARVEST!! Be good or good at it. Smokemup

 

[Voltrom]

Just want to say I also use this technique. It just seems beneficial to me to remove certain leafs. Totally natural, my ladies are all stripped well into flower.
Excellent thread+

 

[CascadianDank]

THANK YOU BID
Hey did you mean to write " EPSOM SALTS " or is there a product called Epsoma?? As I have some Epsom Salt in a blue n white box mate?? Sounds simlar but Ive not heard of Epsoma..
Much appreciated for your input mate - Ill try it if you are pretty sure it may have a lowering affect.. Cheers and will chat soon, SmoKemupm8

Epsoma is a brand name that makes lawn and garden fertilizers. Epsom Salts are different

 

[BigIrishDoode]

THANK YOU BID
Hey did you mean to write " EPSOM SALTS " or is there a product called Epsoma?? As I have some Epsom Salt in a blue n white box mate?? Sounds simlar but Ive not heard of Epsoma..
Much appreciated for your input mate - Ill try it if you are pretty sure it may have a lowering affect.. Cheers and will chat soon, SmoKemupm8

yes like cd said epsoma is a brand name for garden lime it has 2 forms of calcium and 2 forms of magnesium, epsomsalts are good for a mag def 1 tsp per gal water is how i use it, i add the garden lime to the coco before growing it usually resolves the calmag issues that can develop in coco and ca is in my opinion a macro nute i add several form to my coco, garden lime,calcium carbonate,gypsum,aand diatomaceous earth, ca is used in all plant processes from seed ling to trich formation oh and i use my local tap water it has a good amount of ca and mg ppm is usually around 150 theses a tad bit of iron and chlorine also a micro nute plants need tho they need a very small amount the local water is very good and they use very little chlorine undetectable after the water sets out for a couple hours
hope this helps

 

[Bassman59]

Hydro and ro water seems so simple to me after reading that BID. All good I mean. I guess I just latched on to hydro starting from zero ppm well.

So hey, my last harvest, Two girls cut down. Yield over 16oz dry of good bud and about another 4-5 oz of small or airy bud and trim I made hash from for some friends, and all the rest is in the freezer for my weekly mix of a qt or so of canna-milk I make for mom and add in small amounts to her fruit smoothies.

I've got 4 girls of Holy Grail Kush (Kosher Kush x OG#18) on day 55 or so with 15-20 days to go looking absolutely awesome and from the looks of it, if I can open them up just a little bit more these last two weeks, I see over 2#'s as a real possibility and it's all really really frosty good!

 

[waknbak88]

Man that is crazy........looks awesome!

 

[Smokemupm8]

Hi Voltron
How are ya?? Wow - your girls will be done soon my friend Theyre looking nice n chunky so far, hope they fill in all the gaps for you!!
I do have a suggestion tho, the girl in the copper color pot, IMO maybe using the light overhead as opposed to side lighting should give better slightly results, unless you cant hang the reflector/globe overhead of course!
Or do you rotate your plants so sometimes the others get side light, and other gets overhead?? Anyways hoping you get some great smoke from em Later bud, Smokemup

 

[Smokemupm8]

Ok cool thanks BID
I thought it may not have been a typo, Ive not heard of it so thats why I assumed you meant to write Epsom salts as the epsoms we can get happens to come in a blue/white box too!!!
I have off set my soil from not noting my work properly and I can only pray that I am not left with tiny tattered popcorn cola's She is over 6ft in height x 4.5ft W atm, her stretch has stopped and flowers are coming, But as Ive been so fussed on this PH shit I didnt note all Ive done and yesterday I found some mildew/mould forming on some top soil that had become attached to some soil amendment and made a solid surface and with the crap conditions overnight it popped up.
I scraped off all the top soil, and then used a brush to strip the soil from the tops of the roots on the surface, I broke and separated most of it but the top is fairly solid to penetrate, possibly roots, but maybe from crap soil I added?
Anyway after that I let her warm up and dry the top soil bit more then I fed her - I SHOULDNT HAVE BUT HEY THATS ME - I figured she needed Nitrogen, her upper leaves are struggling to maintain green color, it maybe another Defic. symptom, Or that her sheer size may require more N as I still have alot of small crappy shoots that are dying off daily - Should I go KIMOSABE STYLE AND REMOVE THESE USELESS SHOOTS? They will form maybe A flower - But certainly not a BUD....
I may go to stripping a few each day for the next 2 weeks, But yeah Im gunna try dry the top soil as to hopefuly not get anymore mold, hoping the water earlier gave me a clean slate so to speak, it looks better than it did before theres loose soil now ontoop, not much but its aerating the soil I hope better than before. My PH showed me about 7.3 - I am not gunna feed her vinegar or any other acids as the dying off of some leaves is crazy. Overnight a leaf can go from yellowish to crispy curled up overnight??? NOT GOOD AY BASS
Im just going with what I hope will work, in a few weeks flush the crap outta her till the soil sparkles at me and then wait to dry out then SMASH her prob with about 10ml of each Liquid Blue/Early bloom p/10L.... Or some of my Seaweed extract Power version.. Not sure?
Anyways what are your thoughts mate - Apart from how Hydro s simpler!!! lol.. I only had probs when I started to check and try change my soil, Thats what shits me! Never had a PH meter and never checked it only moisture, and my girls did ok - Think I overkilled her with my love.. I asked her to marry me - She ran away :'( Waaaahaaaahaaaa
Cheers mate, Chat soon. Smokemup

 

[Hiker]

Don't soil plants want ph more in the 6.5-7.5 range? 6.4 is the upper limit for hydro that I use, but I thought soil wanted much higher. I haven't checked the ph in my mother's runnoff (my only soil/soiless plants) ever.

If you were always fine before, what's making you worry now?

 

[donpaul.p]

very nice bassman, as always you produce some very nice dank looking buds, them on the last page got a way to go and their nice and frosty all ready, well done mate.

@smokem, go with the cheese strain if you want something with high thc and cbn, the UK cheese is potent stuff mate and most seasoned growers cant smoke much of it, go with big buddha cheese or exodus cheese as it all from the same clone only uk cheese, i got one growing at the minute so im keeping my fingers crossed it is the real deal, if not i can still get clones from the original uk cheese but means i got to take a weekend trip to go and pick some up then drive back with some clones or get on a coach with clones,

cheese stared life as skunk#1 and after generations the strength and smell totally changed and its now known as cheese, ive tried a few cheese strains and nothing have been like the true uk cheese, but big buddh and exodus should be the same strain as it all from the same clones,

that should be nice and strong for you mate, my sister has smoked bud for well over 10 years and has always smoked an 8th or more a day with her mates, she smokes cheese and cant finish a joint, im the same it just puts me on my backside every time i smoke it, never found a seed in any i bought so had to go with big buddha cheese, its not expensive to buy either and its femenised only, ive just flipped mine to 12-12 and its been stinking all the way through veg, but i cant go on that alone as my own strain the gdp cheese has also been stinking just as much so the proof will be in the testing at harvest, so keeping my fingers crossed big buddhe didnt mess around with it to much before her produced the seeds,

 

[benny blanco]

Thanks for the info, I said Fuck it and defo 30 Tahoe og and 1 Chemdawg d. After I seen how well it works in veg I have to try it in flower. I'm at 13 Days in 12/12 just waiting for 21. Btw the Chemdawg really loves it, the og does too. Doesn't make them grow so lanky

 

[Bassman59]

Nice to hear benny. read & re-read is my moto. Take notes, learn how they respond and dial it in for your room, plants, conditions. I've got some girls right now that the lower parts we would normally call popcorn or wasteful is at least thumb+ big nuggets. I believe it's from getting light to them from defoliation.

I've got Kosher Kush and Holy Grail Kush going and they respond well.

 

[fault]

So I removed all of the fan leaves on both plants. One plant won't grow new leaves or the leaves aren't getting bigger. But the buds are growing very slow. On the other plant her leaves are growing bigger and starting to bud. So why won't my first plant grow new or bigger leaves and is this Ok?

 

[Smokemupm8]

Hey Fault..
Now I am NOT a plant genius!! But I do defoliate my plant for my growing method to some degree. Guys on here really strip down their plants at certain times to try achieve a better yield.
But IMO there is a point where if you take too much at say flower time, your plant may hermie as some of mine started to, as I remove branches also, So thats extra stress on the plant on top of its training. Ive seen plants stripped bare to flowers, and they have also showed slow growth of buds and extra leaves, where as I find if I gradually remove some fan leaves the plant doesnt slow as much or shock as they are naturally used to be able to lose a leaf or 4 and be fine, it is a weed!!
I wont tell you to do any actions as I dont want to hinder you further, But maybe just have to wait another day or so and it should show some new growth??
Best of luk, Smokemup

 

[Bassman59]

So I removed all of the fan leaves on both plants. One plant won't grow new leaves or the leaves aren't getting bigger. But the buds are growing very slow. On the other plant her leaves are growing bigger and starting to bud. So why won't my first plant grow new or bigger leaves and is this Ok?

Fault, glad to see ya here, welcome. I bolded the part that I want to question you about. "Starting to bud". Indicates to me you're still in stretch period which is not the time to strip the girls down during the flowering period. You probably hit them too early and you'll just have to be patient. Please, go back to the beginning and re-read the hell out of this thread.

The timing most often sought after is around days 21 and 45 of flower. This generally is when the stretch has ended, and then one more time with a few weeks left of bloom period and max plumping.

Defoliation does in fact slow things down. That's fine. They releaf in a week with a vengeance. But all those lovely buds get tons more light too. Not just for that week but for that entire 20 odd days till the next defoliation.

I'm a huge proponent of starting defoliation in early veg. Doing it at least twice in veg, and then not flipping until they've re-leafed. Then wait for day 21 or end of stretch.

Occasionally hitting them early if they are getting too tall and you can't super crop them any more. This too slows or brings an end to the stretch period. But this is for the practiced grower to judge really.

I also AM a proponent of hitting the hard all at once. Neither method is bad. I actually strip and bend at the same time and in fact did this morning before coming to the thread. My girls were literally hitting my light as I hadnt done anything but add water the last week as I have been chopping the other tent. I've not experienced any hermie's from this.

 

[silverrocksta]

Just thought i would share some of my pics. This is before.

This is immediately after my defol

And here they are 3 days later.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but this thread has been monumental in my defolating experience.

 

[fault]

The slow growing bud plant was beyond 21 days I think it was like I month. I don't no the exact day tho. I'm trying to be patient I check the plant every other day. Would the bud grow fast like when the plant is in stretch?