Defoliation

[matt6320]

A friend suggested I take a load of fan leaves off and any bud sites that are in the lower half of the plant.
I've just read that I shouldn't remove them once it's started flowering.

Can anyone advise? They are big bud autos

 

[Death The Cultivator]

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A friend suggested I take a load of fan leaves off and any bud sites that are in the lower half of the plant.
I've just read that I shouldn't remove them once it's started flowering.

Can anyone advise? They are big bud autos

Personal choice. I remove low branches that won't produce but I don't defoliate as I don't have air circulation issues or recessive excessive humidity.

I think you could super crop or LST a lot of those branches outward and increase your yield. I'm just not a fan of defoliation aside from the aforementioned issues.

 

[CannabisMingus]

I'm on my 4th grow so take that into account, but I do consistent defoliation throughout flower because I grow in a cabinet with a 14x24" footprint so air circ. and light access issues present much more risk than if I was growing in a more spacious tent/area. I have not observed any problems with this and am generally happy with yields and flower quality. YMMV, IMHO, HTH, etc.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

I tend to only do lower leaf removal if its on the smaller side but most ofte I do finger/Blade removal and cutting the leaves leaving as much as I feel is necessary to have enough light and stored foods since the plant will tap into it eventually. have some pics somewhere.I thought you might be able to look at the leaves some ad gain some insight. but the other pics are far small plants to see early structure play.

 

[NorthernLights_420]

I usually only defoliate up top to let more light to the lowers. I leave every little leaf and big leaf and branch on the bottom. They may not produce much but I think something is better than nothing if you remove it. Just my theory. But I think your friend is talking about Lollipopping. That's removing all the lower growth so the tops only focus on budding, I have never tried lollipopping cuz I feel it cud reduce yields by stripping branches and leaves. And I also 2nd you should supercrop them branches outwards to allow more light to the lowers and it will definently make your yields better 2. Or low stress training works great also 4 better yields. Plant training is a must one way or another. If they get too tall supercropping will become your best friend!

 

[matt6320]

Thanks for everyone's replies. I decided to do a little cleaning up and removed most leaves on the lower half on 2 plants to and left 2 so I can compare once fully grown.

As for super cropping, I imagine you mean where I would manipulate the stems by gebty pinching and bending it to fold it down?

 

[NorthernLights_420]

Thanks for everyone's replies. I decided to do a little cleaning up and removed most leaves on the lower half on 2 plants to and left 2 so I can compare once fully grown.

As for super cropping, I imagine you mean where I would manipulate the stems by gebty pinching and bending it to fold it down?

Yeah you don't wanna break the branch off so be careful. If you crack a stem a little tape will fix her. But you gotta pinch the stem pretty hard to weaken it first and then once its weakened in that spot you bend it slowly over where you want that branch to go. Just be careful to not break branches off. Other than that I've never broke a whole branch off myself but I have cracked quite a few stems in theprocess. A little tape job does the trick. Take the tape off like a week later.

 

[matt6320]

Yeah you don't wanna break the branch off so be careful. If you crack a stem a little tape will fix her. But you gotta pinch the stem pretty hard to weaken it first and then once its weakened in that spot you bend it slowly over where you want that branch to go. Just be careful to not break branches off. Other than that I've never broke a whole branch off myself but I have cracked quite a few stems in theprocess. A little tape job does the trick. Take the tape off like a week later.

Great, I'll have a go, thanks mate

 

[Micro.OG]

Defoliation moves energy that was gonna be wasted on popcorn buds to actual bud sited u wanna see grow, IMO. I wouldn’t do it very far into flowering, personally though.

 

[matt6320]

I just took some photos, I've been chasing a deficiency in 2 plants for weeks now to no avail. You can see which plants were trained and which one I left alone. The one I did nothing too is extremely slow growing compared to the 3 that were topped and LST.