YieldMax -- Striving for Maximum Single-Plant Yield in a Micro Space.

aggreenvln

Active Member
so how is cuttin the leaves in half instead of off working for ya?
It seems to be working just fine. Some of the inner leaves are starting to get some pretty nice trichome development, so I decided to cut off as much as I could without removing resinous portions. Leaf tips are long and produce lots of shade. Cutting off the tips sort of "halts" outward growth of the leaf and directs more growth hormones to the buds, where they really should be. In theory it should work pretty well, but we'll see how she looks when I get back home :). Maybe I'll have my roommate send me a few pictures.

Keep up the good work bro !

Everything is looking great ! Miss Rotty Stem is kicking ass !!!
Thanks, greenpower000! She sure is! This grow has really showed me how remarkably resilient these plants are.
 

micro.grower

Well-Known Member
that sorta what i was thinking... i think there may be two portions to this defoliation thing... vegging is pretty much removing fan leaves till appropiately bushed, then when canopy is evenly bushed trimmin half the leaf for a couple of weeks to fill them out may be the key.. good thing guys like us experiment... we will have this micro thing down to an exact science one day... we too will be called pioneers in this genre... lol...
 

MVNuggets

Member
It seems to be working just fine. Some of the inner leaves are starting to get some pretty nice trichome development, so I decided to cut off as much as I could without removing resinous portions. Leaf tips are long and produce lots of shade. Cutting off the tips sort of "halts" outward growth of the leaf and directs more growth hormones to the buds, where they really should be.
just be careful not to cut off too much, a plant needs light to grow/feed buds. the leaf itself is what brings in the most energy to the bud to grow it big an fat for our smoking pleasure ;) so some fan leaves that are blocking the light can be removed, but say a leaf on a node site, maybe not as good to remove. Course you have to decide which you want more, the leaf or light on the bud... just my 2 cents from all my homework... you can call me a noob tho, im just putting my thoughts out there.

Course my man here aggreenvln has enough madskillage to not need my thinkings lol

MVNugs
 

micro.grower

Well-Known Member
thats a good theory agreevin.. the big thing i wanted to point out, and i noticed this throughout mine, the leaves that had the most frost in the beggining of flowering grew out and the thc on the leaves dissapeared... is this normal? or did the plant turn what would have been its sugar trim to fan leaves? that was all i noticed with mine and honestly couldnt even tell you if it was genetic related or something i was doing to it...
 

gumball

Well-Known Member
thats a good theory agreevin.. the big thing i wanted to point out, and i noticed this throughout mine, the leaves that had the most frost in the beggining of flowering grew out and the thc on the leaves dissapeared... is this normal? or did the plant turn what would have been its sugar trim to fan leaves? that was all i noticed with mine and honestly couldnt even tell you if it was genetic related or something i was doing to it...
i think the leaf may grow into it, or it deteriorate's because it ripens, so to speak, first because it started first. so i guess those leaves should maybe be inspected for the clear/cloudy/amber states similar to the buds. we all know sugary leaves aint bad to smoke. my thoughts on that...
 

micro.grower

Well-Known Member
thanks for the advice... i did notice the trichs going on amber on trim quite awhile before the trichs on the bud changed to amber... good theory... i guess its something im gonna have to keep an eye on next time around...
 

micro.grower

Well-Known Member
agreed... last year when i was getting my first one harvested, i mentioned that i smoked the fan leaves and trim and somebody was like... "you smoke those?"... its sorta funny because due to the defoliation process i was afforded alot of "trim" early on in this grow... no shit, this trim kept me stoed for awhile... i think there was about a week span of me not having my meds, and the trim didnt replace bud, but it helped alot when i wanted to smoke... does that make since? it basically gave me a mild buzz... lol... i got some queen dream packed in muh bowl... i might be back on later homie... if not, ya know where i went... got stoned outta my mind... lol....
 

aggreenvln

Active Member
that sorta what i was thinking... i think there may be two portions to this defoliation thing... vegging is pretty much removing fan leaves till appropiately bushed, then when canopy is evenly bushed trimmin half the leaf for a couple of weeks to fill them out may be the key.. good thing guys like us experiment... we will have this micro thing down to an exact science one day... we too will be called pioneers in this genre... lol...
It really seems like the more I defoliate, the more leaves pop up a few days later. I don't have any problem taking off every mature fan leaf on the plant. It looks haggard as hell for a day or two, but you can really tell the difference in terms of branching and pistil/bud development early on in flowering. My roommate did a little pruning last night and sent me a text: "Now I can see why they call it sticky icky!" Haha :). I chuckled. I can't wait to see how the little girl is doing. Pioneers, you say!! I want to play Oregon Trail now.

just be careful not to cut off too much, a plant needs light to grow/feed buds. the leaf itself is what brings in the most energy to the bud to grow it big an fat for our smoking pleasure ;) so some fan leaves that are blocking the light can be removed, but say a leaf on a node site, maybe not as good to remove. Course you have to decide which you want more, the leaf or light on the bud... just my 2 cents from all my homework... you can call me a noob tho, im just putting my thoughts out there.

Course my man here aggreenvln has enough madskillage to not need my thinkings lol

MVNugs
Hey, thanks MV. I'm not currently equipped to handle it, but it would be really cool to see a triple side-by-side with clones. Plant one is left alone, plant two is partially defoliated (as you suggest) and plant three is fully defoliated (like I've been doing). Don't get me wrong, I generally don't worry about leaves that aren't blocking anything, but I like keeping my workspace clean and tidy. My first plant got way too cluttered to be feasible in my space after a while. I think I'll be able to come to a very nice balance next time.

thanks for the advice... i did notice the trichs going on amber on trim quite awhile before the trichs on the bud changed to amber... good theory... i guess its something im gonna have to keep an eye on next time around...
I've noticed that as well. Trichomes on sugar leaves tend to "shrivel up" and degrade a bit well before the plant is done. I'll let you know what I observe this time.

yeah, i love smoking those little sugary leaves :mrgreen:
agreed... last year when i was getting my first one harvested, i mentioned that i smoked the fan leaves and trim and somebody was like... "you smoke those?"... its sorta funny because due to the defoliation process i was afforded alot of "trim" early on in this grow... no shit, this trim kept me stoed for awhile... i think there was about a week span of me not having my meds, and the trim didnt replace bud, but it helped alot when i wanted to smoke... does that make since? it basically gave me a mild buzz... lol... i got some queen dream packed in muh bowl... i might be back on later homie... if not, ya know where i went... got stoned outta my mind... lol....
Haha, for sure dudes! Trim is perfectly fine to smoke -- in my previous grow I made a giant ball of iso hash out of it, but I could have just as easily puffed away. In fact, when dispensaries do "joint giveaways" for various occasions, they're generally giving away trim joints.

Thanks for stopping by everyone! Under 48 hours until I'm able to get some picture updates for ya'll :).
 

micro.grower

Well-Known Member
thanks for the responses homie... i may end up doing the side by side thing to figure out the best defoliation style, if any improves yeild or not... it.ll be sweet to find out i guess...
 

PUKKA BUD

Well-Known Member
Hey aggreenvin

got a couple of Q's about defoliating in my thread buddy think you could help me out..... you know your shit!

cheers peace
 

aggreenvln

Active Member
Hey guys,

I got home, did a bunch of stuff and then worked up the courage to open up my case. I think it would just be best if I show you what I saw:
IMAG0476.jpg

Pretty cool :). I took a bunch of pretty pictures which I'll share with you later. I think she'll be done in one to two weeks, so I did a rinse and started my plain RO flush tonight.

More details later.

Blazed [9] on some Sour Diesel, about to watch Exit Through the Gift Shop on my 46" plasma with two delicious subs and a Mountain Dew. Yummmmm.
 

aggreenvln

Active Member
Okay guys, here's the scoop. I'm at day 48 from sprout. That means tomorrow marks seven weeks. I'm pleased to announce it appears as though Miss Rotty Stem is of the short/fast phenotype! She must have recovered much more quickly than expected from the stem rot, as she promises to be quite the harvest. Based on my previous estimates, I think it's safe to say that I'll harvest her either next weekend or the weekend after depending on how she looks.

Attached is a smorgasbord of pictures I took while experimenting with different lighting/flash configurations. You'll notice some close-up shots of trichomes and pistils. It's fairly obvious in the pictures that roughly 25-50% of the pistils on all of the primary colas have adopted a very pleasing yellow/orange color. Although not very noticeable in the pictures, I'm seeing as many as 20% amber trichomes in places and none in others. I foresee a staggered harvest, as can be predicted by the shots of undergrowth and slightly immature buds. I'll harvest primary buds first as soon as they are done, and then give secondary smaller buds a bit of time to plump up. In order to facilitate this, I'll probably be adding a bit of molasses to my reservoir throughout the flushing process to keep some organic nutrients flowing.

If you compare with the "teaser" picture from earlier, you can see I did a bit of defoliation/cleanup. I didn't take off too many complete leaves as many are beginning to be covered with resin, but I did trim off lots of leaf tips as that appeared to work fairly well while I was away. I must commend my roommate for doing a stellar job too; brava!

Enjoy the pictures!
 

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PUKKA BUD

Well-Known Member
hey buddy so glad you didnt chop old miss rotty stem down!.....she's turnin out real pretty an looks like she'll yield good!

If she's got 2wks left id be tempted to feed her nutes for another week but its your call bud good luck

peace
 

gumball

Well-Known Member
hey buddy so glad you didnt chop old miss rotty stem down!.....she's turnin out real pretty an looks like she'll yield good!

If she's got 2wks left id be tempted to feed her nutes for another week but its your call bud good luck

peace
not only that, he gained the insight of tending a wounded plant. now hes an MJ-medic!!
 

Norcal Grower

Well-Known Member
This is one of the most ridiculously cool grows I've seen on this site. Just read through the whole grow, you've got some nice frosty buds man
 

aggreenvln

Active Member
looking stellar there agreevin!!!
Thanks, gumball!

hey buddy so glad you didnt chop old miss rotty stem down!.....she's turnin out real pretty an looks like she'll yield good!

If she's got 2wks left id be tempted to feed her nutes for another week but its your call bud good luck

peace
Oof, you're telling me PB! I learned waaaay more from this grow after I made the decision not to chop than I would have if I had simply taken the clippers to her after three weeks. I'm pretty optimistic about the yield too :).

I sort of agree with you regarding feeding. I noticed a tiny bit of nute burn starting to show up when I got home, so I think a day of fresh water will treat her pretty well. I'll be making a final decision later today after I do a more thorough trichome check, but I will probably end up feeding for 3-7 more days before flushing for ~5 days with an addition of dissolved sucanat (1/4 tsp. per liter of pure dried sugar cane juice -- same general effect as molasses without changing the final taste of the bud).

I'm also tempted to do a dark period for three days before harvest. Thoughts?

not only that, he gained the insight of tending a wounded plant. now hes an MJ-medic!!
Cer-ti-fied! :D
 
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