Remove about 80 percent of the leaves between weeks 2 and 3 of flower, depending on variety. Dramatically increases yields Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Allow me to put it in simple words- Plants make food in their leaves. Remove the leaves, and you remove the plant's source of food. Granny
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... Guess I really screwed the pooch on that one! Same plant 28 days later... Crip - April 8, 2018 Crip - April 8, 2018 - Top Shot Crip - April 8, 2018 - Developing Cola Crip - March 11, 2018 That means I also f'ed up with Crip's 5 brothers and sisters too!?! All plants pictured below are 77 days from sprout... Don - April 8, 2018 Gimpy - April 8, 2018 Gimpy Developing Cola - April 8, 2018 Lefty - April 8, 2018 Gretchen - April 8, 2018 Prince - April 8, 2018 Are you referring to that big yellow, hot ball in the sky I keep staring at? Allow me to put it in simpler words... Check the grow bro, it's all you need to know...
Imagine what they would of been like if you had left their food factories in place, and they didn't have to make new ones, bro. FYI- My first seed went in the ground in the late 1960s. Were you even born then? And that you call me "bro", shows a certain lack of reading comprehension. Granny
"Imagine what they would of been like if you had left their food factories in place, and they didn't have to make new ones" Unruly, inefficient and unproductive. Cut 25 more leaves off each plant today "FYI- My first seed went in the ground in the late 1960s" Did it sprout yet? "Were you even born then?" I think so "And that you call me "bro", shows a certain lack of reading comprehension" Is it the reading comprehension or the colloquialism that bothers you? Ya know, a little more humor and less condescension goes a long way in life....
Couple month ago I had to give a friend one of the plants that wouldn't fit in the tent and she did something very very similar to ur photo there. At first I was thinking to myself, oh my goodness. However after a very short time, that girl had new leaves and ended up getting chopped yesterday. The plant cane back and produced some rather big and dense colas. I don't defoliate as much as you did with ur girls but I keep plucking for sure up until after stretch in flower. If I didn't, there would be air circulation issues, poor light penetration etc. That's just for my own personal situation. Btw ur ladies look fantastic. And I'll never have an "oh my goodness" moment when I see such defol methods. I'm a believer that if it's working for you then go ahead and do what works for you. #shuttle420express Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I say leave em and tie and move your buds. I defoil a Lil but not to much. I use leds Sent from my VS425PP using Tapatalk
Thanks for taking the time and providing your input, swag. Being that this is my first indoor, this entire grow has been one big fat experiment. Each time I pushed the envelope on a technique I made sure it was just on a single plant in order to mitigate any damages. I should've kept count on how many leaves I removed from each of these 6 plants. Easily 200-300 per plant over the last 2 or so months and most likely more. Hell, I took 25 leaves off of each of the 3 manifolded plants just a few hours ago and I was taking it easy on em because I'm in the 4th week of flower. Tomorrow the 3 LST'd plants are on the chopping block for what should be the last time I touch more than three or four leaves on any of the six plants from here on out. Thankfully, the buds are just starting to fatten up so it's a pretty exciting time when you get to really slow down on the training and defol and you finally get to kick back a little and see the fruits of your labor. And you hit the nail on the head by pointing out the circ and light factors and how both of them have a direct correlation to better overall plant health, higher quality buds and bigger yields. The other two manifolders looked like this back on March 11th, the same day I went postal on poor ol Crip... All 3 Manifolders After Defol Mar 11, 2018 | Crip, Don and Gimpy Don After Defol March 11, 2018 Gimpy After Defol March 11, 2018 They've come a long way...
How does defoliation increase yields? what causes this? do you have any links to the science behind this phenomena? I'm not being sarcastic i really want to learn about this and how/why it effect yields. have you done a side by side to compare yields?
My thought on this is it depends on growing condition. If you are growing the plant as it was intended to grow, under the sun, then I believe a very limited defolaition is needed. There is no stronger light source than the sun, it naturally moves throughout the day allowing better light penetration top to bottom of the plant then any indoor grow. In order to get the maximized light level penetration in a small indoor growing space, I feel this is acheived by allowing fewer branches to grow bigger than more branches to grow smaller. In other words larger denser colas and less larf. I want the light to penetrate the canopy as much as it can to make the buds more dense instead of the leaf mass more dense. It seems to me it is generally accepted that you want to trim all of the bottom 1/4 of your plants to increase productivity. Same theory applies for me when selectively removing large fan leaves which are blocking other nearby budding sites. The theory that they are food reserves and I'm restricting the plant does not make sense to me. In my mind if stripping leaves depletes it's if food reserves, than there would be a "food" shortage and my plants would start yellowing or showing deficiencies however this is never the cases. Instead the plants explode in growth. I'm no scientist and I don't have documents to back up my claims. I''m just going of my own observation and experiences in my 6x6 tent. Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk
I defol only a little up to week 3 of flower..I found that by removing some of the very old fans, the plant re-leafs itself (up til when stretching is over), with new leaves that will act as the food when she needs it..JMO
I've defolatied this crop 3 times and they bounce back fuller and thicker each time. I chop any fan leaf with a stem longer than an inch and blocking light to other budding sites. I did a defolaition last night, 1 week into flower. That should be it for my defolaition until harvest. I'll get a photo tonight of the defolatied plants. Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk
The plants do not need all of there leaves after week 2-3 flower. That is just good plant hygiene and will increase yields dramatically Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Sure just don’t strip anymore. It will regenerate once it stretches. Leave a little more on next time and don’t cut the nodes off just the leaves. U want the light to reach the bus sites , that is the whole point in defoliation Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
And they will eat what after they can't feed from their roots the final week or 2?? Compare this shot with the one I previously posted..about 10 days apart. Note the Pineapple Xpress2 in the rear right..She is about 2 weeks from the end and has stopped drinking/feeding from her roots..Note how her leaves are being cannibalized as she takes food she needs.
Oh yea and do all the defoliation at once and then leave the plant alone. Don’t pick off a few every day just get it all done at once so if the plant experiences stress it will just be for about a day then it will resume fast growth Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I'm not trying to cause an argument but that is the 1st time I have heard plants stop up taking through their roots during the last couple weeks of flower. If that were the case flushing would never be required. I will have to respectfully disagree with that statement The only way she stopped up taking from er roots was if there was motimg to up take pr or was blocked. Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk
It increases yields by letting light penetrate farther down the plant . I’ve been doin this for years and I never lollipop my plants and I have very few larf if any at all. I consistently pull over 2 -2 and a half per 600 watt led Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum