Defoliation
- Thread starter shane b
- Start date
Yes.
ProPheT 216
Well-Known Member
I do more tucking and moving of leaves than I do removal ideally. Sometimes a plant hardly needs messed with and some turn into bush monsters. Depends on the situation
HydoDan
Well-Known Member
Same here, I only remove what is absolutely neccessary to keep good air flow..
Don't really believe in total defoliation.. Yes, I have tried it but was not impressed..
calvin.m16
Well-Known Member
This is super situational. If you have a very tall canopy then defoliation IMO is mandatory. I don't ever suggest stripping all leaves even though in the past I have practiced this at day 21 of flower. I would suggest training the canopy to not need defoliation and keep as much as those leaves as possible. Now there are situations where say you have to veg longer than usual due to whatever reason, your canopy may grow very tall and thick, in these canopies if you notice the lower buds being shaded and your not able to fix it by either using a trellis net, stakes etc to spread out the colas then I really suggest doing some plucking of fan leaves, but only pluck fan leaves that are not able to be tucked/moved out of the way of buds.
The point of defoliation is to get more light into a thick canopy that has buds being completely shaded out by foliage. If you don't have this problem then definitely don't pluck the leaves. I do go through the first 3 weeks of flower and snip away any lower spindly branches and pluck any fan leaves that are clearly not getting light. This not only helps reduce the overall humidity in the room but will make the plants a lot easier to process come harvest.
I don't use any 1/3 or 1/2 lolipop rule or whatever, I just go by eye on each strain and take what I know isn't going to develop well. I do believe there is some basis to removing scragle growth to increase energy directed to other parts of the plants. If you look at topping for example, the Auxin hormone in the heads of the branches will redistribute to the other heads beneath it, so if you are to pluck away scraggly unlit branches and leaves, this should in theory direct the plants hormones in higher concentration to sites that matter.
No guaranteed science behind what I posted, just my personal experience and knowledge. I'm not a PhD or horticulturalist nor do I have a degree in it.
The point of defoliation is to get more light into a thick canopy that has buds being completely shaded out by foliage. If you don't have this problem then definitely don't pluck the leaves. I do go through the first 3 weeks of flower and snip away any lower spindly branches and pluck any fan leaves that are clearly not getting light. This not only helps reduce the overall humidity in the room but will make the plants a lot easier to process come harvest.
I don't use any 1/3 or 1/2 lolipop rule or whatever, I just go by eye on each strain and take what I know isn't going to develop well. I do believe there is some basis to removing scragle growth to increase energy directed to other parts of the plants. If you look at topping for example, the Auxin hormone in the heads of the branches will redistribute to the other heads beneath it, so if you are to pluck away scraggly unlit branches and leaves, this should in theory direct the plants hormones in higher concentration to sites that matter.
No guaranteed science behind what I posted, just my personal experience and knowledge. I'm not a PhD or horticulturalist nor do I have a degree in it.
Grower1974
Member
I used to defoliate 40-60% of foliage on my plants. After a few years of growing, I found my plants maintaining better health, while a much more noticeable increase in bud quality AND yields when defoliating LESS. I now try to keep defoliation between 10-20%. Removing perfectly healthy green leaves, is basically removing the plants reserve storage (buffer) that it may need later in its maturity stages.
Hobbes
Well-Known Member
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I defoliated twice a grow for a number of years, and got good yields.
I decided to run a test to see how much more defoliation was yielding me, I took 4 clones and ran them side by side.
To my surprise the two defoliated clones yielded within grams of the 2 undefoliated clones.
So I now see defoliation as busy work, unless you're sorting out your sinks and sources.
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I defoliated twice a grow for a number of years, and got good yields.
I decided to run a test to see how much more defoliation was yielding me, I took 4 clones and ran them side by side.
To my surprise the two defoliated clones yielded within grams of the 2 undefoliated clones.
So I now see defoliation as busy work, unless you're sorting out your sinks and sources.
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What was the goal here? where, did you defoliate? what was the aim and purpose? There has to be a goal in mind when defoliating. We defoliate for a purpose. Aimless defoliating is busy work. Defoliating with a specific purpose provides exponential yields.
What are you under? led or hps? what grow style are you using?