Fuzzy Duck
Well-Known Member
Mmm 
Defoliation
- Thread starter BAKIND
- Start date
Slowpuffer
Well-Known Member
Defol for me is like an ongoing, never ending, experiment. What I'm doing now is removing all those tiny bud sites, but leaving all leaves. I'm trying to train the plants to where there's no need to trim, and that old getting light to bottom buds, well as far as I'm concerned, there's no reason for bottom buds, ever, as they don't add up to almost nothing. But there's no good reason to remove a leaf, unless it's going to touch the soil. I have heavily defoiled before with decent results, but I think yield will be better with more solar panels.
Who would have thought, that at 76, I'd be trying to figure out how to grow a dam weed.
Who would have thought, that at 76, I'd be trying to figure out how to grow a dam weed.
sfgiantsfan
Well-Known Member
I defoliate every grow. My space is small and my humidity can run too high if I don't. I've also had minor issues with powdery mildew. I usually clip a week or 10 days prior to flower then around week 3 or 4 of flower. I only take the big fan leaves though so it's not stripping. I've always had good results.
Remystemple
Well-Known Member
So it's ok to do it after the stretch? Im having a really hard time seeing into the future of my plants lol. what i mean is i really have no clue what to expect from the stretch so i don't want to chop anything before putting into flower.
4 plants. 2 have 8 branches the 2 bottom branches almost as high as the top ones. i can train easy enough with a scrog to be level. one plant is super short but very bushy, but again not sure if she's gonna double in height or not. and then another that's a really nice table top and extremely bushy.
Feeling like it would be much easier to decide what if anything to chop off after the stretch. don't want to shock them just into flowering tho either.
sfgiantsfan
Well-Known Member
I've always defoliated around the 3rd to 4th week of flower. As I said in my previous post, due to lower humidity needs in flower and a limited vertical room, I take the remaining big fan leaves and anything not integral to the bud structure. If it has a stem, I cut it off. This stops whatever stretch is left and then the buds start filling out after about a week of recovery time.
If I had not already pruned in veg, I don't think my approach to defoliation would be same in flower as it is. Taking that much plant matter off in flower will not make your plants happy. If you haven't already defoliated in veg and you're in flower, my recommendation is to prune gradually so as to not upset the apple cart growth wise. It could affect your yield but I have no idea how much.
Please keep in mind this is my opinion. There are a lot of them out there!
Conradino23
Well-Known Member
If you use training in veg as in topping, fimming and LST pruning is necessary to stimulate secondary growth. And once you got the structure you want you should try and make it more even and uniform, where pruning helps again. But I'd never defoliate completely, cause it's too much stress for the plant. However if your plant got used to losing few leaves in veg then you can do it in flowering to uncover shaded areas. This is what I consider good practise.
Remystemple
Well-Known Member
I've watched a lot of videos on it and read a ton of threads on it, but after doing it ( probably not the best job lol ) I feel like it's something that for me at least can only be instructed so much. the majority of what i'm gonna learn about defol will be from trial and error.
Diggler420
Well-Known Member
I watched a video on YouTube by Two js kicks. It was on a grow in Nevada, where they are pulling 100 pounds every 3 days.
I was shocked at how they defoliated their plants. They would defoliate at day one of flower and day 21. Those plants, at day 21, were aggressively pruned. Like, everything but the bud sites.
They got my attention when the owner said they had a supplement feed that would replace what the fans were giving to the plant. It did allow very good light penetration but I have no idea what this supplement is or how it works. But something worked out because he had very good looking plants that finished great.
I always thought that the photosynthesis, that occurs in the fans, activated the nutes from the leaves.
Anyone have an idea of a supplement that I could feed if I were to do a heavy defoliation
I was shocked at how they defoliated their plants. They would defoliate at day one of flower and day 21. Those plants, at day 21, were aggressively pruned. Like, everything but the bud sites.
They got my attention when the owner said they had a supplement feed that would replace what the fans were giving to the plant. It did allow very good light penetration but I have no idea what this supplement is or how it works. But something worked out because he had very good looking plants that finished great.
I always thought that the photosynthesis, that occurs in the fans, activated the nutes from the leaves.
Anyone have an idea of a supplement that I could feed if I were to do a heavy defoliation
- Thread starter
- #29
BAKIND
Well-Known Member
Wow, I didn’t think I would get so many excellent responses when I started this thread. Excellent, I actually learned a lot from it, and look forward to implementing these one day.
lxcpanda
420 Member
i do the lollipop. defol lower 1/3 right before flip to flower or generally 2 wks into flower if growing from clones. better lower leaves than higher leaves because of inverse square law. light has less intensity the further you go from the source.
BTzGrow
Well-Known Member
I've been working with some pony-tailing with my current grow and I'm seeing a significant growth on the lower nodes.
The difference especially with an Indica Dom has shown significant results.
Bottom picture is at 5weeks since seed drop in my 5th grow journal.
I tried a defoliation comparison grow with my third grow and came away with the thought that defoliation in certain situations are the direction for me. Then again isn't that what this whole experience is about. Seeing what works best in each individual grow. My current grow I'm going with an almost complete natural grow with very little training and cutting. Also reducing number of plants in the small tent to gain better control on the environment with the hope of increasing yield.
I tried a defoliation comparison grow with my third grow and came away with the thought that defoliation in certain situations are the direction for me. Then again isn't that what this whole experience is about. Seeing what works best in each individual grow. My current grow I'm going with an almost complete natural grow with very little training and cutting. Also reducing number of plants in the small tent to gain better control on the environment with the hope of increasing yield.
MickFoster
Well-Known Member
First pic is before defoliation. Second pic is after defoliation. Third pic is 5 days later.
Diggler420
Well-Known Member
Great visual images and good looking plants
MickFoster
Well-Known Member
Thanks a lot.
Greenlizard
Well-Known Member
Thank you for this thread and all who have contributed to it. Good debate guys & gals. I am still going through my first grow and learning as I go. I had chosen to try defoliation. I did a little during veg here and there just to open up more bud sites but since I started flowering I did it twice. My first major defoliation was on day one of 12/12 flip. This undoubtable opened up many lower buds that otherwise never would have made it up into my scrog and end up being later snipped off. However without previous grow experience I can not tell if it stunted my stretch. I believe it did somewhat stunt my stretch because I didn't get a whole lot of additional height (growing indicas though). The foliage grew back in just a few days and the plants remained healthy. This past Tuesday night my plants were day 27 of flower. I could see many, many nice bud sites shaded under fan leaves (probably 40% of them). I did another defoliation on this day. I did however not go to the extreme I have gone to in the first defoliation. I only removed what was covering buds (still a lot of fan leaves). I left as many fan leaves as I seen not affecting bud sites. Both times that I have defoliated during flower I have done a feeding at the same time to help with recovery. This seems to work and the plants don't show any signs of stress. I can't help but believe that allowing direct light to reach more buds will increase bud production. Perhaps leaving fan leaves on would increase bud production on my main tops but with a scrog my main focus was to produce as even of a canopy as possible.
Here are some photos of before and after defoliating my plants. Time will tell I guess. In the future I will not defoliate prior to stretch because I do believe I have slowed down my stretch but what is more important... stretch or bud site exposure?... A question to be asked for years to come I suppose.
Here are some photos of before and after defoliating my plants. Time will tell I guess. In the future I will not defoliate prior to stretch because I do believe I have slowed down my stretch but what is more important... stretch or bud site exposure?... A question to be asked for years to come I suppose.
Attachments
- Thread starter
- #36
BAKIND
Well-Known Member
Greenlizard
Well-Known Member
Thank you BAKIND.
sativuhhh
Well-Known Member
Ok, I did my F21 defol last night, how do all you more experienced growers think it looks?
Before:
(F20 night)
Right before trimming (F21):
And some after shots:
Before:
(F20 night)
Right before trimming (F21):
And some after shots:
Similar threads
