I think we have sufficiently beat the defoliation debate to death. Kind of saw that one coming. Consensus? do whatever you want, they are your plants. I guess there is a time and place for everything. Maybe the message is that the more your grow varies from "natural" conditions.. i.e one plant per 8 square feet outdoors, the more you may benefit from these techniques that are not necessarily covered in the literature.
But anyways, since a few are flexing their botanical knowledge muscles, I do have a question that requires some knowledge to answer. It gets back to this fundamental practice that I see LOTS of people employing and rationalize under botanical principals that don't make a whole lot of sense.
What I am referring to is the dumping of shit loads of sugar in their watering solutions. Some have this notion that if we "give them sugars" then they won't have to make them and they will spend all their energy forming flowers. Others claim the feeding of fungus and other biologicals in the rhizosphere.
Here is what I do know:
1. Sugar is produced in the leaves and transported (primarily) to the roots via phloem. 2. The primary mechanism is both differences in turgor pressure and concentration gradients between sources (leaves) and sinks (roots). If you are lost already then read here:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/mar99/sugar0399.htm or here
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071221163216.htm
(please note that these processes have just been proven in the last ten years)
3. Plants have a VERY limited ability to absorb sugars in their roots due to the presence of the casparian strip.
For this reason, I typically foliar feed sugars as leaves don't have a casparian strip.
Ok, so here is the question (fucking finally): Does the presence of high amounts of sugar in the rhizosphere actually serve to DECREASE uptake and dispersal to flowers?
My thinking is that because plants transport sugars from the roots via the xylem through the mechanism of transpiration (which is driven by osmosis and not active transport (like sugars into the ). Wouldn't the increased salinity of the rhizosphere from adding shit fuck loads of sugars actually serve to hinder uptake and transpiration due to a lower concentration gradient or is it not that sensitive. I mean, I haven't seen plants wilt from sugar introduction but I run the plants hot and dry during flower and need to maximize the ability for transpiration (and thus nutrient and sugar transport to flowers).
I'm basically trying to decide if I should bother adding any sugar at all in the rez. yeah, feeding biologicals is always nice but the roots exude sugars for them to eat (that's how the exist in nature as, in least in my area, it doesn't rain sugar water).
https://www.rollitup.org/t/giving-defoliation-during-flower-a-try.839655/page-203#post-12089644
