Defoliation in veg

I recently asked if this plant should be defoliated and was surprised when no was the answer I got. I re-read the cannabis defoliation on growweedeasy and they show side by sides of defoliation in veg and flower and saying it was a good thing.

Searching google most of the posts I was able to find about defoliation were at least a few years old and most were very negative about it.
Was I told no because this plant isn't at the right stage for defoliation or something?

I thought defoliation was very common in flower. Am I mistaken?

Whats up with this leaf in the last picture?

Plant info:
Wonder Woman seed by Nirvana
Plant is 4 months old - it was a runt and neglected for most of its life
Growing in coco coir, dry organic fertilizers, azomite, and dolomite lime.
I plan to flower in about a month.

Teag said:

I recently asked if this plant should be defoliated and was surprised when no was the answer

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Defoliation is a personal choice issue. Some believe in it and some are strongly opposed. It's your choice, do it if you think it needs it.

Teag said:

Whats up with this leaf in the last picture?

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I wouldn't be concerned it's just a deformity.

well im i big believer in defoliation, (especially in limited spaces), i dont believe you have the vigor to be able to defoliate too much at this stage but i would personally remove 15% of the fan leaves, from the very top .(maybe lower your light a bit too/increase intensity)

Defoliation works when you have a full and healthy solar panel of leaf down low,(full canopy) you shouldn't remove any lower leaves in your grow. you remove the very top fan leaves to power the lower leaves, as carbohydrates flow upwards.

I defoliated the crap out of this grow every single week from veg to flower ...and in flower as you can see, notice no fan leaves with long stalks. they were removed, I personally hate the strain, one of my worst grows, but still semi decent. and a good example for this thread.

but you must know and feel your plants, they need to be strong and vigorous.

you simply cant get results like this in a tight space without leaf defoliation. notice no leaves with a stalk, maximum light penetration . all leaves are directly growing off bud stems.

your variegated yellow leaf is what they call a sport in horticulture terms, it natural and many other varigated plants have been propagated.. created as new varieties using sports.

The above Photos are not typical of the strains, these plants have been highly trained with defoliation and HST (high stress training) , (bending)

10 day veg, then flower 12/12 , fem seedlings, flowering in a shallow 15cm deep tray of basic potting mix ....( Bruce Banger and Cheese) both of which I wont be growing again as they dont suit the way i like to grow but they were free seeds so what the heck.

Always wanted to grow Wonder Woman heard its a great high yielding strain. Good luck in whatever you decide regarding Defoliation.

Side note :Keep your eye out for Pink dinosaurs and spray if need be.
(They make good compost, high in magnesium)

Teag said:

I recently asked if this plant should be defoliated and was surprised when no was the answer I got.

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That is because Cannabis defoliation is pseudoscientific nonsense. The evidence amounts to "my bro defoliates and he grows fire."

Bro's gonna science though.

Observe & Report said:

That is because Cannabis defoliation is pseudoscientific nonsense. The evidence amounts to "my bro defoliates and he grows fire."

Bro's gonna science though.

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I used to think defoliation was retarded. I now see some use for it. Some strains are super leafy. I took two triple nova plants that were pretty much identical in size and structure and 2 days into flower I defoliated one so it looked damn near naked, knowing it would make a bunch of new leaves anyway during stretch. At harvest both plants had the same size buds except for the inner bud sites that on the defoliated plant got more light. So it did help that plant make some more nug weight. That was my first experimentation with defoliation in flower, I will be doing more for sure, on strains that need it.

RangiSTaxi said:

10 day veg, then flower 12/12 , fem seedlings, flowering in a shallow 15cm deep tray of basic potting mix ....( Bruce Banger and Cheese) both of which I wont be growing again as they dont suit the way i like to grow but they were free seeds so what the heck.

Always wanted to grow Wonder Woman heard its a great high yielding strain. Good luck in whatever you decide regarding Defoliation.

Side note :Keep your eye out for Pink dinosaurs and spray if need be.
(They make good compost, high in magnesium)

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I just planted a Bruce Banger!
I'm not sure This WW plant will be a great yielder but we'll see. It seems like its going to turn out like my other plants witch have all been lots of small buds. This has 15'ish tops due to all the topping. And after re-reading some more old articles I guess I should have been going for 8 main colas.

I ended up doing about a 10% defoliation. A lot of leaves were stacked on top of each other and it seemed like a good idea to do it just to avoid powdery mildew.

Lots of differing opinions on defoliation.

I can say from personal experience, I find it increases my yield, quality, and density farther down the plant.

For probably 10 years I only trimmed up the bottoms. I always ended up with lbs of larf that costs me money to have trimmed and just ends up as personal hash anyway. But over the last couple I have been experimenting with leaf removal. I find if I take most of the leaves around day one and then after the stretch my gardens do better.

less places for pests to hide, big issue when you have a big plant or room. Much better airflow throughout the canopy. No larf at harvest giving me more product I can put into lbs that will sell much quicker without an oz of larf in each one.

I defoal wanna get that light through the canopy although I remove all pop corn.
. Does me no harm at all

The context really matters with defoliation. Indoor growing in a scrog or any flat type of canopy it seems beneficial to remove lower leaves around the time of stretch. How much up the plant you remove depends on the penetration of your lights. For 600Whps If I recall, you can remove anything that is below 1 foot from the ''flat'' canopy top. With led or cob you tend to see top shelf stuff within the first 6-8 inches. Removing upper leaves to allow light down below the optimal reach of your lighting choice is completely counter productive, never do that. The occasional leaf here and there sure, but very occasional. Most of the reason for this type of defoliation is linked around light penetration, you don't have it.. so why run the risk of keeping extra foliage that will require more water/nutrients and increase pest/disease chance. It's got nothing to do with increasing yield, defoliating reduces yield, but subjectively we don't count larf or slightly less mature bud as top shelf yield. If defoliation is increasing top shelf yield you are doing something wrong in the first place, while I don't even buy into the concept that it increases yield even in that circumstance.

If you have a leafy strain then you need to account for that, correct spacing between plants but also the correct topping and opening of the plants at the right time. This better ensures you don't get mass amounts of leaf over lap. Mass leaf over lap isn't a reason to defoliate, it's a reason to re-asses your over all growing practice, including veg duration and humidity control.

If you don't want to top/train your plants the Christmas tree shape is already the best you are going to get (in that context) for light distribution, removing leaves is pointless. What you should do, is adjust lighting position so that it is closer to more of the leaves. Drop the light between the row of plants as best you can. This only applies to bulb growing with open hoods that you can manipulate angles with. Led/cob you could achieve the same but it's not worth the hassle... easier to go scrog style at that point. but if you insist on xmas style plants, then you are going to have to customise angled cob/led set-ups to get more surface leaf area within optimal light range. You can try SOG and keep lights directly above, but all the plants will have to be flipped/stretched at a height that is within your lights optimal reach, or else you lose leaf/light surface area.

Some reasons not to defoliate are as follows. Leaves block light down to the soil/medium. If you defoliate too much, light gets past and you allow shit to grow on the soil that would not have. While algae isn't much of an issue, other things are, especially if over watering.

With fewer leaves you also have less heat buffer between canopy and root zone. This means upper and outer soil volume dries quicker, potentially killing off parts of the root system. This does depend on watering frequency but it's a very possible issue.

Leaves also act as an amber light, simplistically. Having lower leaves can give early warning signs that you can catch, before upper more important leaves are effected. During late stretch and a few weeks after, lowest leaves also start dying off. This could be due to lack of light, but also as a sign that the plant needs more nutrients and is taking from the lower leaves. Those leaves can then be considered as a more natural ''boost''. If you don't have a fine grip on your nutrient ppm ratios and you remove a lot of leaves, you lose the buffer effect. I leave a set amount of lower buffer leaves on purpose, so that the plant can take them if it needs them and also as an early warning.