I have 4 plants that are doing amazing, I have been defoliating them a bit throughout, however now I'm week 2 into flower and ,am debating if i should take out some of the thing shitty branches, they have reached the top of the canopy, however their inter node spacing is like 1.5-2x my main stalks which each plant has 10-14 of on top of those little ones, the little ones all reside in the center as I LST'ed the shit outta my plants to make them grow pretty, however now these this stalks are blocking out alotta light that could be captures all the way up the stems of my main colas, here is some pictures to give you all an idea. I'd prefer the comments of some pro-defoliaters as I'm pro defoliation, I'm just debating what is most likely to yield the most in the end, the more light main stalks or all the stalks together?
It's sort of like this...I feel it comes down to bud size. If you don't mind a lot of small to med nugs, then trim minimally. If you want giant buds up top then go nuts. Yield shouldn't be affected too much because the energy will be diverted to the surviving branches. That being said, I only take unhealthy looking branches off. I worry about powdery mold on giant, thick/dense, moist buds cause I'm indoors and in a basement, but I have plenty of wind going at all levels of my trees...so smaller buds are a plus for me. I've only been going about a year so we can let some more exp'd folks sound off. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Interesting, that's a good insight, yeah I'm a bit worried about mold, I have a clip fan in my tent, blowing, and a inline carbon filter system so there is good airflow, my days humidity in tent is 46%ish, and nights get up to 55% temps range 68-75 at the moment so pretty prime condition all in all, but it's still a worry for me, a few leaves that have been touching have gone all soggy overnight, so I've been trimming a bunch, as I have 4 plants that literally fill my tent (3 and around 2foot high +- 2") my first grow, and they are doozies =), my one thing is removing those small branches allows 10-14 main colas to get direct light along 2feet of the stem then that seems like a lot in change for a few small tops no?
That is one sexy-ass pic! Incidentally my numbers are almost exactly where yours are. I've only got four ladies in my tent so I'm not quite as crowded as you are although your space looks plenty roomy! Sent from my SM-T320 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I'm at week 8 of veg. Normally I wouldn't go so long but I had a late blueberry starter due to some germ difficulty (bank is replacing the failed seeds). Your grow looks sweet. Don't over think it and if you're going to be doing this long term try it one way on this grow, try it a little differently on the next one, and see what you like best! Sent from my SM-T320 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
LST and defoliation are my friends too... But.... I'm getting out of the "indoor" growing... gonna use the equip for growing winter tomatoes or something... Outdoors..... Defoliation doesn't work the same as indoors... BUT... it CAN be used.... LST is very helpful also... Seems like I never just let a plant grow... what'a waste THAT would be
I'm pro defoliation and pro removing branches. I like to treat them like Bonsai trees. I too am a bit over crowded with the same issues. You seem like you already know what is going on, so go with your gut. You can tell when a plant isn't liking what you are doing. Outdoors never had any problem defoliating, and indoors, it is yet to be seen. Keep that fresh air coming in!
Take a peek at the buds 5 days apart.... for two months https://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/7...
nice yeah I removed a few branches, I decided it best to super crop the rest however, here they are a few days later
I gotta say , on my last run I was really tight on space, ( 4 plants in a 2x2 tent I started training, defoliation and supercropping early on in veg, the last super crop I did was 2 weeks into flower, snapped anything that stretched up, tried to keep the canopy as even as possible, the defoliation helped me a lot, kept air movement nice, the biggest thing that worked for me however was the supercropping, the branches I supercropped were twice the size, at least of everything else, I did over a g per watt( kinda, I am not counting the few cfl's I had for side lights), people get very upset with those who defoliate, suppercropp etc, very hotly debated issue, It worked great for me though