TheFrizz
Well-Known Member
Hello friends and wonderful 420 Magazine community! 
First off, a bit of introduction. I am a high school science teacher from the Seattle area, and my long term goal is to create an easy-to-follow grow strategy optimized for medical patients who require large amounts of high quality medicine. My first grow taught me that manifolding along with defoliation in DWC and a strong light is a recipe for a big yield. However, many medical patients grow auto flowering strains, and I want to find out if these same training methods can be employed with autos.
The purpose of this grow is to investigate the effects of defoliation on autoflowering cannabis. Why? Well, I have read (and personally experienced) that strategic defoliation can increase yields for photoperiod strains (see my first grow and many others for evidence
) However, the general rhetoric towards autos seems to be "remove as little growth as possible because this can stunt the plant" 
. I have done research and I have not been able to find a grow where someone runs a controlled experiment to test out the effects of defoliation on autos. So I decided to answer my own question by conducting this grow! 
Grow setup and methodology:
Light: 1,000 watt MH/HPS, air cooled, possibly some small 30w LED's for supplementing
Light cycle: 20 hours on, 4 hrs off
Grow Room: 4x4x7 sealed tent w/ carbon filter
Strain: Girl Scout Cookies Auto by FastBuds
Medium: Recirculating DWC+ Hydroton, 4x5 gallon buckets, 1x5 gallon reservoir
Nutes: Jack's Hydroponics (had read a lot of good things quality-wise and powder based nutes should save money as well!)
Below is an image of what the tent will look like, as you can see I will be using LST (bending and tying branches) as well as topping each plant twice. The difference is that with the two plants closest to the tent opening, I will be removing fan leaves consistently throughout the grow. I will start from the bottom and work my way up to the top. By harvest day there will be little to no fans left. The other 2 plants will be left untouched other than the initial plant training.
Here are the babies in Rapid Rooters waiting to sprout! I have them under the MH set to 500 watts, approximately 3 feet above them. I have germed under lights before and appreciate the nice sturdy seedlings that result from it
Washing out the Hydroton....so much silt, but so worth it!
I am experimenting with soaking the Hydroton in water with EarthJuice Catalyst (contains enzymes, hormones, vitamins, amino acids, nutrients etc) and HydroGuard (friendly bacteria that promote healthy roots) added (2 ml each). I am hoping that this infusion of gentle "boosters" will help the roots spread through the hydroton more quickly. For my grow strategy to be successful, the roots need to be established ASAP and the faster they hit the water, the better!
Expectations and goals:
I am hoping to achieve the same yield as my first grow (roughly 2 lbs dry/ 8 oz per plant avg). I believe that well trained auto's in RDWC can absolutely reach 8oz on avg. My prediction is that the defoliated plants will out-perform the un-trimmed plants by at least 25%. I am still unsure WHY defoliation works, whether via extra light exposure, a hormonal reaction to stress at the budsite, or otherwise, but I am convinced of its efficacy after my first grow. Now we get to find out if autos can handle it, or if I will end up with two Derpy's!
Peace, love, and happiness to all of you, and thank you for joining me on my new journey!
~TheFrizz
First off, a bit of introduction. I am a high school science teacher from the Seattle area, and my long term goal is to create an easy-to-follow grow strategy optimized for medical patients who require large amounts of high quality medicine. My first grow taught me that manifolding along with defoliation in DWC and a strong light is a recipe for a big yield. However, many medical patients grow auto flowering strains, and I want to find out if these same training methods can be employed with autos.
The purpose of this grow is to investigate the effects of defoliation on autoflowering cannabis. Why? Well, I have read (and personally experienced) that strategic defoliation can increase yields for photoperiod strains (see my first grow and many others for evidence
) However, the general rhetoric towards autos seems to be "remove as little growth as possible because this can stunt the plant" . I have done research and I have not been able to find a grow where someone runs a controlled experiment to test out the effects of defoliation on autos. So I decided to answer my own question by conducting this grow! Grow setup and methodology:
Light: 1,000 watt MH/HPS, air cooled, possibly some small 30w LED's for supplementing
Light cycle: 20 hours on, 4 hrs off
Grow Room: 4x4x7 sealed tent w/ carbon filter
Strain: Girl Scout Cookies Auto by FastBuds
Medium: Recirculating DWC+ Hydroton, 4x5 gallon buckets, 1x5 gallon reservoir
Nutes: Jack's Hydroponics (had read a lot of good things quality-wise and powder based nutes should save money as well!)
Below is an image of what the tent will look like, as you can see I will be using LST (bending and tying branches) as well as topping each plant twice. The difference is that with the two plants closest to the tent opening, I will be removing fan leaves consistently throughout the grow. I will start from the bottom and work my way up to the top. By harvest day there will be little to no fans left. The other 2 plants will be left untouched other than the initial plant training.
Here are the babies in Rapid Rooters waiting to sprout! I have them under the MH set to 500 watts, approximately 3 feet above them. I have germed under lights before and appreciate the nice sturdy seedlings that result from it
Washing out the Hydroton....so much silt, but so worth it!
I am experimenting with soaking the Hydroton in water with EarthJuice Catalyst (contains enzymes, hormones, vitamins, amino acids, nutrients etc) and HydroGuard (friendly bacteria that promote healthy roots) added (2 ml each). I am hoping that this infusion of gentle "boosters" will help the roots spread through the hydroton more quickly. For my grow strategy to be successful, the roots need to be established ASAP and the faster they hit the water, the better!
Expectations and goals:
I am hoping to achieve the same yield as my first grow (roughly 2 lbs dry/ 8 oz per plant avg). I believe that well trained auto's in RDWC can absolutely reach 8oz on avg. My prediction is that the defoliated plants will out-perform the un-trimmed plants by at least 25%. I am still unsure WHY defoliation works, whether via extra light exposure, a hormonal reaction to stress at the budsite, or otherwise, but I am convinced of its efficacy after my first grow. Now we get to find out if autos can handle it, or if I will end up with two Derpy's!
Peace, love, and happiness to all of you, and thank you for joining me on my new journey!
~TheFrizz
If they want to drop a leaf or grow up into the lights I typically let them. Well not grow into the light, but damn near. 
I also welcome your input in selecting which one to cull. I am obviously leaning towards snipping the one that decided to wear her seed as a hat for 2 days (far right one) but I kind of also want to keep her as a cool underdog that we can all root for...
