The Defoil method, is it sometimes just a little too much!

This is one method I do but not on a MASSIVE scale, but seeing it go down more and more now and some plants I see are just left with nothing on and look quite week and sorry for themselves. I just want to see what everyone else thinks on this. :Namaste:

Right so, when we grow inside our light doesnt move across the tent like the sun in the sky, so we have to trim here and there to expose bud sites. I have been using this method for a few years now and defo see the bud sites benefit from direct light!!

But on the plants side, these are its main solar panels and main source of light uptake and we put loads of light in our tents to maximize the size of our plants. This light needs pan leafs to catch and take into the plant.

IMO if the plant is small and young like yours there is no need for defoil as they are its life lines at that point and all our reflective materiel cover most of the plant anyway as we trap our light inside boxes and bounce it everywhere. I know when you got a mad bushy plant , you NEED to strip it qiute a lot to expose these bud sites. But on the same hand the plant still needs these for its own health or it wouldn't produce them.

I mean plants were doing just fine for billions of years before we messed with them. Now they are actually struggling in our human built world.

My point is, I defoil when they are bushy and I want light penetration but I think this whole defoil method is going just a little too far maybe and people aren't fully understanding it. Like if you was meaning to expose your bottom branches then wouldn't it be the top pans you would remove to let light in , not the bottom ones which are just passing nutes and energy.

Yes they bounce back and the small bud leaves do become sort of pan leaves again. But isnt that just the plant repairing itself and replacing what it actually needs, which is some decent size solar panels and places to pick and pass nutes.

Not slating defoil methods as I do it indoors and a little outdoors, but I still think you can take too much and actually slow the plant not benefit it. IMO anyway , what does everyone else think??
 
I just make sure the bud sites get as much lite as possible, and clean up some around the bottom.
Some growers really go at it, what ever works......:peace:
 
lol, all this because i went a little crazy with the scissors!

you watch, jbc! they'll be just as tough and lively as they were before their pruning.

in fact, as we talk about how poor these plants must be feeling after i took away three fourths of their body weight, they have explosive new growth today when compared to last night (when the massacre took place). its almost as if they didn't feel it. almost as if... what i did was beneficial to them ;)

give it few days and it'll look like i didn't even cut em. then i'ma really get mad!
 
I agree with you 100% JBC420. If plants have to (recover) from something then obviously steps have been taken backwards just my thoughts. I know they will recover and possible look better than ever but is the time that is lost at the end of the year worth it? thats what I would ask myself. I grow sog style so anything that is not getting light is removed after the stretch. About day 20 something
I remove more stems and buds that are not going to produce much. I also start removing a few fan leaves about the last two weeks of flower by the the time I chop they are almost naked. I think I do that more to make harvest go quicker than to benefit the plants lol.
You know what they say opinions they are like assholes... everyone has one! :rofl:
 
first time i use it and i like it!

can really see that its doing good for my plants, they are really tall and bushy so all the leafs are just blocking my bud sites.

before/after

pre.JPG

aft2.JPG



fl7.JPG
 
"but I think this whole defoil method is going just a little too far maybe and people aren't fully understanding it."

That is certainly the case with a few I have seen here. Tokist I don't think you went too far, maybe a little early
but like you said it will recover. In a week it will be back to where it was when you cut it.

"If plants have to (recover) from something then obviously steps have been taken backwards just my thoughts."

I wouldn't say it's backwards unless you over do it but it does extend your growing time.
 
I agree with you 100% JBC420. If plants have to (recover) from something then obviously steps have been taken backwards just my thoughts. I know they will recover and possible look better than ever but is the time that is lost at the end of the year worth it? thats what I would ask myself. I grow sog style so anything that is not getting light is removed after the stretch. About day 20 something
I remove more stems and buds that are not going to produce much. I also start removing a few fan leaves about the last two weeks of flower by the the time I chop they are almost naked. I think I do that more to make harvest go quicker than to benefit the plants lol.
You know what they say opinions they are like assholes... everyone has one! :rofl:

I do exactally that, wait for after the stretch as that will sort most of it out. But no need untill that time as there are no buds. You can just bend pan leafs down below up-coming bud sites.

lol, all this because i went a little crazy with the scissors!

you watch, jbc! they'll be just as tough and lively as they were before their pruning.

Mate it wasnt just that i've seen some plants completely butchered! I seen an instructional vid on youbube and the top comment was, "This is not how you treat a plant" top comment too many likes. Just a thought.
 
I still am amazed that these plants are so tough and can handle almost any abuse you give them. I have had critters dig my outdoor plants completly out of their containers for 24hrs. I put them back in the containers and watered them in real good a few hrs later they were back to normal.
 
IMO , this is what works for me<I love massive defoliation,but with a few limitations .
I use a combination of tricks duing veg ,I try to get a little streching in the first week , between the starter leaves and the first node) this is the first time I have used topping with supper croping, bending
1. 14-21 days from 12/12
2. at first trim, I look for 6-10 of the strongest branches, with good side growth, branches then of those I clean off . leaving 2 nodes and the top on each branch. ( I will be triming 2 plants later and will include detailed pics or vid)
:peace:
 
I've been mulling this over as well for my current grow and am considering doing an aggresive defoliation at around 21 days into flower. I'm using CFL's, which do not have very good penetration and that is the main reason I'm considering stripping them down. However, adding another week to flower time when my flower time will already be long due to using CFL's is a bit of a hassle. It all depends on what kind of gains in yield you get. If it was say 10% increase with denser buds, I say it would be worth it.
 
Canabinerd,
I do the same with my CFL I reveal all the bud sites during flower, I dont really defoil much until then, I do a bit if they get out of hand but not touching them keeps them at speed ant the stretch sorts most of it out followed by some LST and defoil few times during flower.
It defo works indoors, just I think too much slows it for too long and the plant never really fully recovers from too much shock.
 
I was a skeptic as well.... accually I pissed a few people off being a skeptic lol. :)
I realized that i might be missing something about the argument so I am doing some defoliation experaments currently. I really felt that there was only one way to know for sure and that was to do it and find out as opposed to assume I knew the answers.
I was very happy with the results. I currently have one more side by side experiment running but I have already decided that I will defoliate from now on, the benefits I saw out-wieghed the negatives.
You can check out the results here...

A continuation of the defoliation conversation

There are many opinions on this subject and it seems a new thread about defoliation pops up each week. I am glad some of the experienced growers here were willing to spread thier knowledge because I was clearly wrong in my assumptions.

I am Jonny, and I defoliate.... :)
 
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