Product420
Member
I'm almost 2 weeks into flower, is this to crowded or should I trim any leaves back.
Defoilate or not defoilate, that isnthe question
- Thread starter Product420
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speedwell68
Well-Known Member
Maybe, but only a few here and there. Your Lollypopping job looks good, I do it just like that and then flip to flower. But once they start showing buds I tend to leave them be, sometimes I take the odd big fan leaf that is blocking decent bud sites. Generally I am of the school that thinks the plants needs them to harvest light.
dbz
Well-Known Member
Personally. I don't think it looks crowded
xtsho
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't cut anything more off those plants. I don't understand the cut off all the leaves mentality. It does not increase yield and reduces the amount of food the plant is able to make that would be used to fuel flower growth. Photosynthesis happens in those leaves. Photosynthesis is the process where plants convert light into food for the plant. Less leaves = less food produced. That's not something I made up that's science.
bk78
Well-Known Member
Why?
PadawanWarrior
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't trim anything now.
hotrodharley
Well-Known Member
Your older bigger leaves will show if you have a deficiency of mobile nutrients. Most modern grow lights have good penetration of the canopy. I wouldn’t cut anything else off those plants.
King Avitas
Well-Known Member
Personally I wouldn't trim anything else. No need to take anything off from this point on unless it is blocking bud sites below it. Even then I would try to tuck the leaves out of the way before removing anything else.
UpstateRecGrower
Well-Known Member
Actually looks just about right, there's a couple lower bud sites I can see that look really small and will probably be undesirable that you could remove. Maybe a couple fans blocking bud sites I would remove but not many at all, I'd say you could just leave it..
lusidghost
Well-Known Member
The leaves return in less than a week. Just smaller and less shady. Those big fan leave are only created in veg. This tells me that they are for building the structure of the plant and not so much for building the colas.
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
Unless you did a 3 way test with identical clones, then that point is moot. It didn't seem to phase the plants, but you have no idea if it did or didn't.
So they return in a week, but are smaller. So the plant uses up a lot of energy and time to produce the leaves it needs to feed itself, you pull them off and then it uses up more energy producing more leaves that are smaller and because of that will feed the plant less well. In that time it could have been using that energy to produce bud. Sorry, but the whole idea seems counter productive and goes against the basic science I was taught at school.
xtsho
Well-Known Member
Science apparently doesn't apply when growing cannabis.
Star Dog
Well-Known Member
My primary use for defoliation is to slow down growth.
Also to lower humidity, i don't subscribe to it's beneficial to the plant.
Yesterday i defoliated leafs from around the canopy but it was a last resort to get humidity under control, it works but in working there's less transpiration and in turn less nutrients get pulled in to make starches, that's how i see it anyway its logical and in practice it slows growth.
Eta...I forgot to mention the Co2 that leafs absorb.
Also to lower humidity, i don't subscribe to it's beneficial to the plant.
Yesterday i defoliated leafs from around the canopy but it was a last resort to get humidity under control, it works but in working there's less transpiration and in turn less nutrients get pulled in to make starches, that's how i see it anyway its logical and in practice it slows growth.
Eta...I forgot to mention the Co2 that leafs absorb.
speedwell68
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I'd noticed that. I am struggling to see why.