defoliating large outdoor plants

Tightly_Wound

Tightly_Wound

Well-Known Member
Hi gang. I have 16 plants outdoors in somewhat close proximity. im in sw ontario. these aren't california big but big for ontario! They are in the ground and are slightly touching but i have used this plot many years and it works. Maybe not spaced ideally but it works great. They are all 6-8 ft tall atm and its a jungle of vegetation. the past few years I have had better buds by cutting off everything on the bottom 2.5-3 ft of the stalk. I just find those branches grow 4 ft long just to poke out from under these plants and just amount to tiny wispy buds that take more time to trim than big ones. I also believe that cutting off these wispy lower branches/bud sites concentrates more volumes to the upper buds that receive better light.

My question is..: things are just starting to flower a touch. as far as defoliating outdoors goes.... what should i do? Keep removing branches that aren't getting much light starting from the bottom and going up? Just remove 30% of the big old fan leaves? I don't want to stunt these things but they are already going to be monsters as flower hasn't even really settled in. I guess my goal is to have less bud sites with bigger buds and get rid of the stuff that is lower down and doesnt get much light and just results in a 4' branch with a g of popcorn on it

thanks
 
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mr. childs

Well-Known Member
i am far from an expert, but i have never defoliated outdoors, but i also have all day sun. even at the bottom i get chunky nugs. my thoughts when it comes to outdoor defoliation is extremely big nugs that would be prone to mold due to defoliation and sending so much energy to the top & other branches. since i have gotten older i no longer want 2 liter bottle sized colas
 
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macchiatto

Member
I just recently defoliated and LST'd my two bubba's gifts in 65 gallon containers. The strain is supposed to exhibit slow growth so I'm hoping that's the reason they're 2.5-3 feet tall after 90 days and some LST, and not an error on my part ;-)

My reasoning for doing it was that they were small to begin with, and since they've gotten quite bushy and I've watched the cannabis chiropractor supercropping video one day, I decided to defoliate to provide extra breeze at the soil level, and to focus the energy on buds that will grow the best anyway.

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Norcal86

Well-Known Member
I grow in 30 gals with fencing for support. Topped once at like 6th node and then I top again down the road and pull every brand sideways through the fencing. (default LST every branch....) once flowering sets in everything goes straight up and even.

I defoliate the 1st and 2nd growth on each branch and then selectively go through for shaded out branches/leaves and remove them periodically when watering . I do another larger pull once in flower about Sep1st.

As long as you don't remove to much to fast the plants bounce back in 2-4 days and come harvest you only have COLAS and no popcorn to speak of.


The space under the canopy helps prevent PM and removing dead leaves prevents mold from forming on the ground or in grow bags.

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This is today.
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This is 2019's results almost done.
2019 Harvest.png

tie them down and they will stay small(ish).... (plant in the back is a G13 Haze Sativa, the others are hybrids or indicas)
 
canadiantoker420

canadiantoker420

Well-Known Member
Damn eh.. if everything goes as planned I should be hauling around 10 pounds and I don’t want to deal with pounds of shit buds ,so I’m gonna clean up some my lemonades and Durban’s today even tho there week 2 of flower on sum of em...last chance to clean em up a bit more, now that there crowding each other I can’t leave those few branches on bottom there’s no point..I never did any huge defoliations This year been a struggle outdoors I almost lost most my crop mid June to frost one morning, all my small ones leaves got fried rite off and the plants were stunted.. so I had no real chance to clean up like crazy and wait for them to bounce back from it, I jus been picking here and there (under the canopy)
 

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Tightly_Wound

Tightly_Wound

Well-Known Member
canadiantoker420 said:
Damn eh.. if everything goes as planned I should be hauling around 10 pounds and I don’t want to deal with pounds of shit buds ,so I’m gonna clean up some my lemonades and Durban’s today even tho there week 2 of flower on sum of em...last chance to clean em up a bit more, now that there crowding each other I can’t leave those few branches on bottom there’s no point..I never did any huge defoliations This year been a struggle outdoors I almost lost most my crop mid June to frost one morning, all my small ones leaves got fried rite off and the plants were stunted.. so I had no real chance to clean up like crazy and wait for them to bounce back from it, I jus been picking here and there (under the canopy)
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your plants look similar to mine. I clear cut everything off the main stalk so the stalk is bare till about 2’ up. Those branches just grow like 4’ just to pop out from under the plant with the tiniest buds so I hack them off and concentrate on the higher stuff.
 
canadiantoker420

canadiantoker420

Well-Known Member
Tightly_Wound said:
your plants look similar to mine. I clear cut everything off the main stalk so the stalk is bare till about 2’ up. Those branches just grow like 4’ just to pop out from under the plant with the tiniest buds so I hack them off and concentrate on the higher stuff.
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yeah I don’t clean em out harrd but I make sure I got no little straw size branches growing up tho, most stuff that ain’t getting light slowly goessss, I prune in intervals try not to stress them to much.. here’s a time lapse of my c99 x blueberry fast version, that isn’t flowering yet for some reason lol it went into a stretch last few days so maybe she is bout to start! first pic is when she was just transplanted into that 150+ gal hole , she would be a lot bigger I believe if she had morning sunlight like she has now (cut tree’s out to give her 2-3 hours direct in the morning then all of 12-8 ..from early am like 5-9 she probly gets 60/70% direct rite now actually it’s ALOT better and much needed for flowering, could giving her more light be why her veg period is seemingly prolonged?
 

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Jjgrow420

Jjgrow420

Well-Known Member
I wouldnt have used tires I'm sure that's leaching some great stuff into your plants... They look good despite that. I always try to mush them down and seperate the branches so they get good airflow through the whole plant. It's humid here gets cold at night in Oct and warm during the day. Ideal for mold so I try to keep that air moving. I don't defoliate much outdoors other than a few leaves here or there covering budsites or that are too deep/low on the plant not getting sun anyways. You have to remember everytime you snip a leaf you're opening up a wound where pathogens can enter.
 
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