A bit late for me to reply, as I've already defoliated.I tend to grow dense canopies and have no choice but to schwazz (leaf strip) everything I grow 3-4 times during flowering or I would end up with half of it turning into a bunch of unwanted larf if I didn’t. The process is not for every grow situation but it definitely works for me and I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without all the excessive pruning.
There is some truth to the leaves being solar panels providing photosynthesis to the plants but the question is how many leaves do healthy cannabis plants actually need to grow into full maturity with large dense colas. IMHO, the answer is none… and I have hundreds of pics of large beautiful autos grown without one single fan leaf on them as proof.
After I schwazz and remove all the fan leaves from a plant the entire plant is still covered with green plant matter which I would think acts as solar panels as well and I think there comes a time in a cannabis plants growth cycle where precious light and air flow is more important than using energy to keep large fan leaves alive. We also prune a lot of what we grow from flowers to trees to improve healthy growth and to increase yield so why wouldn’t the same principles apply to growing weed?
Like most of you here, I’m interested in growing phat dense colas and not a bunch of foliage. Lol!
Can you post a pic or two of the plant or plants you are considering to defoliate? Hard to say yes or no without seeing what you’re dealing with.
However, I agree with your sentiments, generally. I believe that if they're green, they have chlorophyll and are in the business of soaking up light. Thanks, 420autoflower!
