For those that don't want to read it, it basically says what I said. Taking big Green leaves off is beneficial as the leaf at 50% of the leafs life span, it has reached its photosynthesis peak and then begins to decline and is detrimental to tthe plant and worthless. So taking it off is actually good.
Took some time off from the non sense glad to see everyone still arguing over cultivation techniques they probably never even tried just read somewhere it didnt work and they stick to that belief lol!! But.. For those who want results keep reading!!
Defoliation *CAN increase yield but it absolutely can hurt it when not done correctly, but that is all strain dependent as previously mentioned. Defoliating your plants removes potential problems such as moisture build up during respiration process of fan leaves in tightly packed canopies and also gets rid of the small popcorn nugs on bottom of plants. As that article or other explain that these plants do not need all of those fan leaves after initial peak flowering is complete. The plant no longer is using these leaves for root production or foliage growth and focusing primarily on bud development which doesnt require the same processes it did during veg and early flowering so removing them after peak bloom wont hurt anything, and can be beneficial in several ways.
Fan leaves store nutrients which feed ur plant, but when ur feeding ur root zone everyday in hydroponic and drain to waste systems it doesnt matter anyways after peak flowering is completed the leaves begin yellowing and dying off as flower maturation and ripening begin. After flower production has came to a hault or reaches its peak (ripening stage) which ends roughly about week 5-6, removing of rest if these fan leaves to begin maturation provides stress that causes plants to increase resin and terpene production. Defoliating at this time also helps ripen and finish lower flowers that were deprived of light to help them finish maturing at same time as the rest of the plant, while also providing ample air flow throughout your garden which in turn helps ensure that the flowers produced are hard & dense colas throughout your plants from top to bottom!!
Yes that article is 100% accurate. As i mentioned before roughly 2 weeks prior to the end of bloom when most flowers have ceased growing and expanding i remove all of the fan leaves except ones inside the flowers themselves. So i basically just have stalks and flowers, then i reduce the light cycle down to 11/13 or 10/14 on 9/10 week strains which allows me to harvest sooner. When I see that the flowers are no longer "swelling" to reduce the wait time to ripen and force them to finish I reduce the dark cycle by 1 then 2 hours. If anyone is running 10 week strains and wants to finish them a week earlier if u do this u will have no ill effects and finish ripening much sooner with same end product!! Been doin it for years.. It also reduces the potential for some phenos that produce those unwanted banana flowers such as chemd, sours etc.. Which are all very common amongst those varieties, that are triggered by lengthy flowering times and prolonged ripening process (another little technique that works wonders, without sacrificng yield!!)..
*im sure uncle ben and others love to chime in with their information from the 70s before we had proven scientific research and better cultivation methods but when done properly defoliation serves many highly beneficial purposes it provides optimal plant growth and flower production, produces harder denser colas, relieves potential mold and funguses and can directly impact yield and resin quality increases dramatically (as it is a stressor which leads to more resin output).
Ill put up some pics tomorrow of one of my room in week 7 right now and show u how much bigger the colas have swollen before and after leaf removal. They almost double in size with only about 15% of fan leaves remaining on the plants which were all stripped on day 42-44. Got about 12 days left in bloom til the chop!! Ill give a final weigh in and count too. With (AN nutes) lmao... BOL and Happy Harvesting