Defoliating In flower??

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
Next level irony ;p. How long do you flush for?.

I shouldn't mock, but think of it as an angled version of educating, since directly isn't working.
Indeed, starve the plants from the mobile nutrients stored in the fans and at the end when it's finishing it's bulk have a second go at starving the poor thing.
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
First off let me say that my "don't have a clue" remark was a little out of line. But the fact remains that a plant will take what it needs as it grows. Removing leaves does not send energy to the buds. Leaves provide energy. Photosynthesis 101.

I leave all the leaves and get huge buds because they are the engines of the plant.

I've posted these images before but I'll do it again. Not a single leaf was cut. 600 watt hps. Plants crammed into a 4 x 4 tent. No defoliation and huge buds thanks to the leaves turning light, water, and carbon dioxide into food for the plant.



Gorgeous and not a burned, twisted leaf amongst them, nicely done. Let me guess you don't 'flush' at harvest either LOL.
 

CannaBruh

Well-Known Member
Good luck everyone, no amount of uninformed (by practice) commentary will take away from my fresh fully defoliated harvest of pre98 :D
 

CannaBruh

Well-Known Member
Look closer at the fan leaves in the first picture. They are burnt and twisted. Plant physiology does not change because a plant is grown indoors. There are some nods to husbandry because we don't have the sun, however stripping fans is depriving your plant of the energy produced by those leaves. Mobile nutrients are stored in those fans, used and discarded as the plant grows. It's like throwing away charged batteries!
I would argue this.. have you not grown the same cut in a variety of conditions and witnessed how the expressions of the finished product change? What does this suggest? That plants don't change because environment? I would think not but open to your interpretation of these observations.

The pics referred to in my comment quoted was all inclusive, not directed in particular to one or another.. it was a way of saying "everyone do what ya do if it works for you"

Are you not going to point out the limey yellow colored larfy unders found in another photo on the same page in the canopy where no leaves were removed? Hash bin party. :D

all in love
 

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
Do you even grow? They look the way they do because of the flush...….. these phots were taken literally minutes before harvest...….

Yep and them leaves went downhill weeks before harvest, you aint fooling no one who grows here.

Removing leaves reduced the plants need for water and subsidized your plants bad health.

Thats as simple as it gets, now get your ass out of these myths and come back at me when you have all green plants at harvest.

Fucking plants defoliting itself dude, i got eyes :-)
 

WeedZen

Member
We grow flowers not leaves. So, by removing the leaves when the plant is really ready to take off in bloom you want to direct all the energy into growing the flower.
Wow that's an oxymoron. So your saying that by removing the very thing that produces energy for the plant, that you now have more energy going to the flowers...SMH. You do understand that these leaves your stripping are NOT using anywhere near the energy they produce for the plant and your buds. If the plant has No use for leaves that aren't producing (not catching light) it will cut them loose on it's own it doesn't need an ill informed noob doing it for them. Stripping sucker branches is logical because they only draw from the plant and don't give much back. Use some logic and reasoning before you apply this stoner Pseudo science and I'm willing to bet your a Supercropper as well.
 

CannaBruh

Well-Known Member
Wow that's an oxymoron. So your saying that by removing the very thing that produces energy for the plant, that you now have more energy going to the flowers...SMH. You do understand that these leaves your stripping are NOT using anywhere near the energy they produce for the plant and your buds. If the plant has No use for leaves that aren't producing (not catching light) it will cut them loose on it's own it doesn't need an ill informed noob doing it for them. Stripping sucker branches is logical because they only draw from the plant and don't give much back. Use some logic and reasoning before you apply this stoner Pseudo science and I'm willing to bet your a Supercropper as well.
Or.. use practice and application and make observations instead of insulting people based on no practice? Just a thought?
 

WeedZen

Member
In my experience the worse the run, the more need there is for leaf stripping, to harden the few small nugs you have.This past winter, the cold slowed things down a lot. Defoliation saved me.
Everything I didn't strip stayed fluffy. cause it was hidden in the leaves, not stretching even.

Also, it can be a tool in humidity management. When your equipment cannot keep up with humidity levels, removing a bit of surface area, sure helps keep the white stuff away.
LST and put a fan under the canopy blowing up into it, problem solved and you get to keep all those energy producing green leaves no stress to the plant more leaves for more energy bigger buds and healthier plants.
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Yep....chunky buds for sure,nice job.

What did every thing underneath what can be seen in that photo look like though?Not stripping any thing for sure provided you with some meat,that got exposed to your light.And i do believe(strain dependent)by stripping heavily or at the wrong time colas can suffer on yield but lower nugs get more meat to them so it almost evens out in the end.By stripping leaves i am able to keep shoots on plants that i would normally cut of as the would only amount to larf.Opening up the upper canopy to allow light to lower plant material allows that smaller stuff to turn out much better.So it's just a trade off.
Actually there was little larf. The buds under the canopy were not as solid as the colas at the top but once dried you couldn't really tell. They were still dense and sticky. I just strip the real larfy stuff off the stem and use it for dry ice hash.

The thing is that the plant will take what it needs from the medium it's growing in. Removing parts of the plant with the goal of having what the plant was taking for those parts and thinking it will just go to other parts isn't how it works. The plant will just take less because it has less to maintain. Cannabis is an annual plant. It doesn't come back year after year. Perennial plants are different and do benefit from
View attachment 4259606 View attachment 4259607
Fat colas of quality buds.... I'll just leave these here
I get buds like that without defoliating. Why are the leaves like that?
 

CannaBruh

Well-Known Member
Lmao, Just a thought!!
There's theory and then there's practice. I see no new evidence to suggest flowers cannot be grown in cases where leaves have been removed even in edge cases where all leaves have been removed we find flowers still grow.
 

rsvp_gardens

Well-Known Member
Wow that's an oxymoron. So your saying that by removing the very thing that produces energy for the plant, that you now have more energy going to the flowers...SMH. You do understand that these leaves your stripping are NOT using anywhere near the energy they produce for the plant and your buds. If the plant has No use for leaves that aren't producing (not catching light) it will cut them loose on it's own it doesn't need an ill informed noob doing it for them. Stripping sucker branches is logical because they only draw from the plant and don't give much back. Use some logic and reasoning before you apply this stoner Pseudo science and I'm willing to bet your a Supercropper as well.
Light gives the plant energy not leaves. Light is plant food meaning light is energy
 

rsvp_gardens

Well-Known Member
Actually there was little larf. The buds under the canopy were not as solid as the colas at the top but once dried you couldn't really tell. They were still dense and sticky. I just strip the real larfy stuff off the stem and use it for dry ice hash.

The thing is that the plant will take what it needs from the medium it's growing in. Removing parts of the plant with the goal of having what the plant was taking for those parts and thinking it will just go to other parts isn't how it works. The plant will just take less because it has less to maintain. Cannabis is an annual plant. It doesn't come back year after year. Perennial plants are different and do benefit from


I get buds like that without defoliating. Why are the leaves like that?
Because of the flush. Do I really have to break this down for people? When you stop feeding aka flushing you're now forcing the plant to use its reserves which are stored all throughout the plant not just the leaves but it shows through the leaves. Yes there is a bit of a deficiency in the first plant that showed during the flush. When deficiencys show during the flush it means I didn't feed enough in veg because in veg is when the plant is taking in all of these reserves. Both these plants were from seed and when growing from seed growers hardly ever knock it out of the park, it's why we cut clones and do better next time because we have a better understanding of how that specific plant is
 
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rsvp_gardens

Well-Known Member
Next level irony ;p. How long do you flush for?.

I shouldn't mock, but think of it as an angled version of educating, since directly isn't working.
No please educate me directly. What does defoliating in early flower have to do with flushing towards the end?
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Because of the flush. Do I really have to break this down for people? When you stop feeding aka flushing you're now forcing the plant to use its reserves which are stored all throughout the plant not just the leaves but it shows through the leaves. Yes there is a bit of a deficiency that showed during the flush. When deficiencys show during the flush it means I didn't feed enough in veg because in veg is when the plant is taking in all of these reserves. Both these plants were from seed and when growing from seed growers hardly ever knock it out of the park, it's why we cut clones and do better next time because we have a better understanding of how that specific plant is
I grow 100% from seed and my leaves never look like that and the weed turns out great.
 

CannaBruh

Well-Known Member
I noticed yesterday when putting my hand through the plants my hand seems to get wet like there’s droplets of water on the leaves I think it’s down to the plants touching each other and holding moisture the humidity is about 30 percent I did try to give them as much room as I could but they went mental when I flipped em and grew way more than expected I stripped some leaves last night to create more air flow through the middle what’s everyone’s thoughts on heavy defoliation I’m 3 weeks into flower don’t want to end up getting any mould or anything??
^ did anyone read the OP?

For this scenario defoliation, removing a few leaves, removing all the leaves are all valid options as are leaving all leaves and leaf (ha) it to chance.
 

WeedZen

Member
There's theory and then there's practice. I see no new evidence to suggest flowers cannot be grown in cases where leaves have been removed even in edge cases where all leaves have been removed we find flowers still grow.
The point to this is the claims you get bigger yields when you defoliate. Sure the buds will still grow when defoliated but think about how much better they would have been if you just left it alone. No where else in horticulture is this a practice only in the cannabis world for some odd reason. Metaphorically speaking if you have an array of solar panels on your roof and using the defoliating logic your efficiency and power output would go WAY up if you climb up there and smashed out the majority of the receptors on the panels....doesn't make much sense and neither does stripping most of the light receptors on a plant. IMO!
 

Puff_Dragon

Well-Known Member
I generally avoid defoliating in flower (especially when growing 'el natural') but I'm sure strain has something to do with it too.
If I'm using a net/scrog, I will remove some (very early on in flip ..or slightly before for larger defoliation). In flower, if I need to defoliate, I aim to just cut any leaf 'fingers' covering other bud sites (rather then remove the whole leaf) or to help air flow down into the lower canopy.

I'm partial to a bit of fan leaf tucking in veg too, with 'standard' grown plants it seems to help the lower branches reach higher up the plant (as the upper fan leaves cover the lower branches through a lot of veg - I guess this is part of nature shaping the plant). For me, that helps create a low and even canopy by simply bending/tying down the top of the plant (near the end of veg) so most of the branches (with a little physical adjustment of the branches by interweaving them) sit at the same height when I put them in flower (I like this as, to my mind, it acts a little like a scrog but no net). I rarely need to defoliate anything when I do this.
 

CannaBruh

Well-Known Member
The point to this is the claims you get bigger yields when you defoliate. Sure the buds will still grow when defoliated but think about how much better they would have been if you just left it alone. No where else in horticulture is this a practice only in the cannabis world for some odd reason. Metaphorically speaking if you have an array of solar panels on your roof and using the defoliating logic your efficiency and power output would go WAY up if you climb up there and smashed out the majority of the receptors on the panels....doesn't make much sense and neither does stripping most of the light receptors on a plant. IMO!
You're so far out from the scope of the thread and OP.

What doesn't make sense to you and what is observed from practice don't have to agree ;)
 
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