What happens when you stress a plant?

[the123321]

I have 2 autoflower plants on day 60 that I did a very heavy defoliation on a little over a week ago and the plant looks like it has stopped growing. I know that many people do not defoliate autos but the 2 plants were very bushy and I wanted to improve the air flow in the plants as I did not want mold problems on there. The next grow I plan to defoliate only a few leaves at a time and wait a few days between each time I do it. They are only like 1 - 1.5 feet tall at 60 days though I did very heavy lst on there. The plants have also had deficiencies on there.

Does the stress on the plants make them take longer until it is ready to harvest or does it still take around the same amount of time and just yield less on there?

 

[Death The Cultivator]

I have 2 autoflower plants on day 60 that I did a very heavy defoliation on a little over a week ago and the plant looks like it has stopped growing. I know that many people do not defoliate autos but the 2 plants were very bushy and I wanted to improve the air flow in the plants as I did not want mold problems on there. The next grow I plan to defoliate only a few leaves at a time and wait a few days between each time I do it. They are only like 1 - 1.5 feet tall at 60 days though I did very heavy lst on there. The plants have also had deficiencies on there.

Does the stress on the plants make them take longer until it is ready to harvest or does it still take around the same amount of time and just yield less on there?

Not saying you did but defoliation has been shown in other species of plants to decrease root activity. If you had deficiencies while you did this it could have exacerbated the problem. Imo it signals vegetative growth that extends flowering time, but seems to increase yield anecdotally, rather than enhancing it.

Removing leaves can inhibit metabolism, transport, transpiration, and photosynthesis. If mold was a concern then maintaining VPD would alleviate those concerns. Everyone's environment is different so general guidelines are arbitrary versus following the chart to some degree.

Watch this video at 6:20

 

[the123321]

Thanks. The tent is small. I defoliate to fit the number of plants I want in it in there and keep good air flow. With the amount of heavy lst I do it is very bushy and was hard to even water it without moving lots of leaves. I know many people do not defoliate autos but I have read that many do and it looks like most of the images I see of people growing the plants that the plants look defoliated on there. I have not grown enough to know what is better I just do it to fit my needs in the small tent and also to help it have good air flow and I like the neat organized look. I mainly wanted to find out if when you stress the plant and it stunts does it make the plant take longer before it is ready to harvest the plant or does it take around the same amount of time and you get less yield due to how long the plant was stunted and did not grow during that time on there. I have plants in veg and flowering in the tent and try to keep the tent around the middle of the range to work for it. The temperature is around like 75-77f and the rh is around 55-60% in the tent on there.