All information giving is for educational purposes for individuals who are growing medicinal marijuana for prescribed and recommended use by your doctor and pharmacists.. Any information giving is to be used by such patients and card holders to help themselves and their patients develop the purest and cleanest medicine available for use in curing debilitating diseases and pain from their illnesses..
Ok somhere we go the dreaded defoliation technique.. Defoliation works to a certain extent let me explain.. If you are running large plants in a scrog or sea of Green style grow then I recommend lollipopping the lower 1/3 of your plants to promote growth in the areas that are receiving the majority of your light and concentrate increased flower development and larger colas..while removing those unwanted Larfy budding sites that will drain your plant of vital energy under your canopy!!
Now with that being said DO NOT defoliate sativa dominant strains.. Sativas by nature are elongated meaning the have more stems and less foliar leaf structure by nature growing in low humidity high temperature regions of the world they don't need the large thick branching fan leaves required for respiration like indica dominant varieties..
It is important to understand why you should defoliate, how much and when.. It's only okay to defoliate larger inner fan leaves that are blocking flowering sites from receiving the light they need to promote flowering development.. The leaves are your solar panels and energy producing regions of your plant that also help your plants breathe and create the sugars and carbohydrates that drive your plants into growth and development... Would you want to cut a piece of your lung out or sever a section of your throat? The same reason you don't want to cut off the majority or partial amount of your leaves, it is okay to remove the sites and smaller lower flowering branches but leaving the leaf portion on the stem itself.. Hopefully that's not too confusing..
I have tried to defoliate all types of varieties have done numerous experiments on same varties in controlled climates and rooms and the defoliated plants always take longer to develop, you don't get the same growth or quality (resins sugars terpenes) from those plants which were simply stripped of lower flowering sites that are light deprived and taking energy away from the development of upper nodes and flowers..
The ONLY time you want to defoliate is 2 weeks or the last week before harvest when your plants have now turned yellow you are depleting the nitrogen and removing excess nutrients from your plants and flowers to promote taste and smell.. At this time you can defoliate 75-90% of all your fan leaves besides the main leaves that make up your colas which you will trim later on before they are dried and cured.. Taking these leaves off at this time will remove excess nutrient build up and create a natural flushing process while also stressing the plant a little to increase the resin production and terpenes that give your plants the smell funk and taste everyone is trying to achieve..
Try whatever you think will work but I promise you that unlike the cowpea or apple tree experiment you see online the plants we are pushing to promote growth size weight and yield do not react the same as those expirements making such claims as 30% more yield yada yada yada.. They simply are not true and also DO NOT forget that any idiot with internet access and a computer can make a website with someone else's pictures and tell you this works and do X-Y-Z but they are just lying.. Do your own HW make sure the information you read and people are credible.. good farming BOL.. Hope this helps everyone reading and trying to improve their yields and quality of life!! Cheers..
Also defoliating and those people making such claims are the same people telling you they got 2 lbs of flowers off their 600w new LED.. LED's are 3-5 years away from being capable of producing any results similar to a HID cando... hID are till King of the indoor jungles.. Another new product to look into are Rocket Plasma lighting.. You need to run 2 (900w) plasma per 1 HID's but you save double the money and can cover 4 times the amount of space.. A 900w rocket plasma runs 1 amp on a 240v circuit with a full spectrum bulb that is good for 20 years and never needs to be changed I will be doing some updates soon as the results from a couple runs are completed for accurate information!!