Some autos can take the defoliation while others cant. Ive grown a bluedreammatic from fast buds that I stripped about half its leaves in one go and I still yielded around 350ish grams, dry, of it.I know bluedream is a strain that can tolerate stress well. Was a perfect plant for me when I first started growing autos.
Do not make this mistake and assume that by removing all of the existing leaves that new ones won't form, they do, and quickly, and do so in a way that the uninformed would never know the plants were stripped come some short time after the stripping.
Well after reading everyone’s replies on here and reading on gwe I decided to do some light defoliation. First pic before second after. I didn’t take much.
Okay..so they grow back...so why take them off in the first place?
if they grow back then the plant is probably trying to tell you something..
The point is to thin the canopy. If you leave the leaves there the leaves over lap over each other and can create pockets where humidity gets trapped. Ive tested and seen this before. I topped a plant many times and did not remove a single leaf whatsoever. A couple weeks into flowering I started noticing pm on a plant out doors in 20-30% humidity. I was succesful in keeping the pm back with a safe fungicide until harvest. As I was chopping the plants down I found a many pockets of PM on leaves that overlapped each other. If you dont believe me do not defoliate a single leaf and see what happens. If you have good airflow then I think you wont get pm.
Have you tried stripping a plant(s) as I've described, what about it don't you like? Did you see significant reduction in yield or quality?
I tried it on a photo Sour Diesel and a Bubblegum. Both from RQS. It stressed the hell out of both plants and the yield suffered. I am a bit of a klutz though so it could be that..I don't have a strong feeling either way but i do like to help people out when I can. Newbie growers are chronic tinkerers with things like nutes and lst, defoliating..blah blah...leave it the frig alone and it'll probably be better off for it. I see it all the time. The K.I.S.S. principle has always worked for me
Relax. It's a friendly debate on a slow day at work. I don't think it makes sense and veteran growers like Jorge Cervantes seem to concur but knock yourself out. Strip em down to the nub for all I care
Avoid rqs now.
It was a long time ago. Now it's strictly Dinafem, Mephisto and HSC. All autos.
I'm guessing it's never happened to you but do you think stripping leaves could stress a plant to throwing nanners? I'm neutral in this convo,I see benefits in both,but it just seems like such an unnatural process for the plant to lose a lot of leaves at once.i also see it as a hindrance having huge amounts of leaves covering sites.just a thought
What’s wrong with rqs? I have one strain from them. Had heard they were good?
Must be a record yield for autos.
Not even close. Look up "Growpotcheaply" on youtube. He has the records.
Please explain to me how photosynthesis now takes place in this case? My understanding is leaves photosynthesize and buds don't.
Because the leaves around that bud aren't getting the light to feed it. I do a progressive harvest just like picking the ripe apples first and waiting a week or two for the others to ripen.
while I'm not yet a fan of removing leaves
photosynthesis takes place in any plant material that is green