Hey guys i'm on my first indoor and decided to do an experiment on one of my bushes, some people say week 5 is too late in flower to defoliate but this plant has been just pure health its whole life, recovered from topping/LST/early defoliation in no time and never had any deficiencies so its definitely healthy. Would love to hear anyone's opinion on what this may or will do, this is just an experiment i know i might lose a bit of yield or who knows what but i like to learn from experience since these are just bag seeds and i want to get the hang of growing better in the future. I did a bit of defoliation on just the bottom 1/3 of the plant, mostly big fan leaves with the odd small fan leaf that was blocking a bud site, last time i defoliated was around week 1-2 of flower and i haven't touched her since. Before and after, first pic was taken 2 days ago so you might notice a difference in bud size if you look closely Also makes watering less of a pain
those are solar panels for the plant and should not be removed unless they are blocking a good top trying to come up
Seems like many think the same and it does make sense. We'll use this as a personal learning experience for me and anyone else who sees this because there is a big argument on this topic. Some people believe its better to defoliate heavy even around this time of flower, others say never defoliate after week 2-3. So many mixed opinions lol Has anyone had any experience with stronger buds even if it resulted in less yield from this?
Without a control group you cant really come to any conclusions from this "experiment" regardless of what your end result will be, since you will have nothing to compare it with.
There is a lot of 'stoner science' floating around, and most of it has no merit or basis, except in a random grower's non-controlled "experiment". Stoner science advice is often repeated in the same echo chambers among amateur growers, perpetuating poor growing practices. Personally, I do as few things that may stress my plant out as possible after week three of flower.
Thanks guys! I'll take your advice and learned from my lesson, but you have to admit my plant looks a bit nicer to look at without those out of place solar panels lol! With the help of this forum i can't wait to see where i'll be with my grows in a few years, i'm the type of guy that just loves to experiment and have my own experience with bad or good results, these are bag seeds so i'm using them as a test subject before i buy expensive seeds and find that one frosty momma i really need to take care of the right way. I was thinking the same, should i stress my plant this late in flower? Why did i cut off so many leaves? I'll post new pics in a week or 2 to show the results. For reference, the bigger plant closer to the camera is the one i left alone and havent touched since week 1-2 of flower. And yes i will be vegging longer next time if thats what you're thinking, i should have twice as big plants that are lollipopped correctly for the next grow.
I defoliate all the way through. Personal preference. I feel it allows the lower buds to get some light and density. To each their own. Just have fun doing it Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I defoliate as well to allow lower tops to get light. But do it as little as possible. You can kinda see in the pic where I just cut off the top suckers, and others too, to allow the plants to get wider and more class A bud and B bud. I also tie them down when I do this too. I'm about 9 days into 12/12 or something like that.
I tried a side by side years ago. The result was cutting off a bunch of fan leaves made the plant try to regrow them. Where did they grow you might wonder... In the buds. Something I always notice when I push defoliation too far. You'll probably get more weight and more trichomes to make oil, but also leafy bud. Sent from my XT1093 using Tapatalk
here are mine after defoliation/lollypopping on day 10 of 12/12 four plants in an 800mm x 800mm shower recess . i like to wait for the side bud to get a couple of leaves before taking out the fan leaf and then only on one side and to expose those tops underneath. i would usually use a net but i got lazy and haven't put any hooks in the corners after putting new mylar in.
The results 10 days later, didn't see any signs of stress the buds still grew the day after the heavy defoliation.
Update: My results are leading me to believe that i caused my buds to be smaller from the extra stress and less energy from not having the fan leaves. The plant i left alone and just tucked leaves under buds that were blocked is MASSIVE, week 6 - 6.5 flower and its growing so big everyday, buds look almost twice as big and fill out the branch much more than the little colas i had on the one i defoliated This is a pic of the one defoliated harvested 2 days ago here is the one i left alone Its not even close to being ready too! The damn popcorn buds on bottom are bigger than my colas on my other plant LOL
Nice to see a side by side comparison. Looking at the one you defoliated it appears it grew all its leaves back. My conclusion from this is all the energy that was going to bud production on the one you left alone was split between bud production and leaf production on the defoliated one, resulting in smaller buds. Not to mention all the energy that wasnt being produced from the removed leaves until they grew back.
I didn't touch any of the fan leaves on the top half of my plant, i just defoliated the bottom but took off a good amount of leaves as you can see from the pic which put unnecessary stress on it. That must be a big part of why my popcorn nugs are so tiny
Can they get any bigger? Lol!!! I already harvested the smaller purple plant with much less buds and size but still got 25 grams of trimmed bud from it, my goal of 0.5g/watt is beat! I know this one is going to yield much more, maybe even twice as much. Imagine if i beat my goal with just this one, excluding the 25 grams of harvested bud i got from the purple one i took down early for more of a head high. I'm never defoliating late in flower again, its so simple and obvious that more leaves = more energy for the buds. Was a fun experiment though! March 17 today March 1st Just to give you an idea of the growth.
I remove dying leaves and occasional fan leaves if in the way of a nascent cola. I remove early popcorn but i do not lollypop. My results have been the same or very close in yield but increase by 2 weeks flower time in some cases with heavy defol! Thank you for the side by side. I’m running one with my next cycle to prove that total heavy defol is unnecessary and even dangerous. I got some seeds I think will work perfect here.