Opinions on Defoliation During Flower

[guitarguy10]

What are your opinions on defoliation during flower?

I havn't defolaited them at all this grow so far but was planning on doing a heavy defoliation when they finish stretching. Would it hurt to defoliate today (day 17)? I am growing tired of the massive mess of leaves that is covering the canopy, and I think they are almost finished stretching, but how would i know?

 

[ChuckGrowis]

You can cut 1/2 to 2/3 of the leafes, like you do it with clones.
This produces less stress for the plants than removing the hole leaf.
I did it at my last grow as a kind of a last defoilation and it worked well.

 

[guitarguy10]

No one else? too polarizing a topic? lol

 

[Dr. Who]

Go ahead and remove the plants "food factories" from it's life.

Now how would you look if you lost a large percentage of your food?

News flash - The buds don't need direct light to grow or mature.

It does help with RIPENING.

So, I ONLY remove SOME leaves in very late bloom for the buds to ripen evenly. This only happens with CERTAIN strains that block them heavily.

I have a friend who practices defoliation. His buds are smaller and very dense. They seriously lack the bag appeal of my buds. He gets all his increase in yield from the density of the bud... His plants look funny (sad) too.

If you feel a need to try it. Simply FOLD the leaf sets under and away from the buds - leaving them still connected to the plant.

The idea that the "energy" that was going to the leaves. Now goes to the buds" is a load of BS in the results of the defoliated plant vs a non defoliated plant.

Learn to grow properly and you will learn you don't defoliate much at all, if any.

 

[dbz]

I'll give you all the answers, because I have read this topic a lot.

Don't take away the plant's leaves it uses them
Defoliate twice before flower
Use a cat to trim your leaves
Don't defoliate, lollipop
Don't defoliate or lollipop let it be natural man
Use a deer to defoliate with
Just add some leaf-miners to keep your leaf content down

I think I covered most bases.

Also HID is better.
No LED is better

Flush always
Never flush

On one line or another, I'm pretty sure I'm right.

 

[twentyeight.threefive]

I defoliate as needed. Have 4 plants jammed into a 32”x32” tent. Need to keep good airflow moving through the canopy.

 

[Wizzlebiz]

Selective defoliation is fine. But know what your doing and more importantly why you want to do it.

 

[smokinrav]

No, don't do it. Defolition is a result of our loving a plant too much. Trying to beat mother nature is fools gold, regardless of how much human energy has been consumed to prove otherwise.
Do actual farmers go out and remove the solar panels from their plant, regardless of species? They dont. You shouldn't either.

 

[Wizzlebiz]

No, don't do it. Defolition is a result of our loving a plant too much.
Do actual farmers go out and remove the solar panels from their plant, regardless of species? They dont. You shouldn't either.

Farmers have a sun moving in the sky hitting the crops at different angles.

 

[smokinrav]

Sorry, I edited before your reply

 

[SnidleyBluntash]

I left my leaves on because I knew I would screw up and I wanted to make sure I have as many leaves as back up for when it starts dying from screw ups.

 

[ChuckGrowis]

The topic defoilation is indeed quite controverse. I made good experiece with it, less mold because of better airflow for example.
The buds are also getting more light, but i don't know how important this is.

Just in general: we Indoor growers have other conditions than outdoors. As mentioned before, the sun light is hitting at different angles.
Outdoors the plants have to be prepared for accidents like storms, animals who eat the leafes, etc., so they need that extra energy saved in the sugar leafes.

But indoors we can gererate perfect conditions, so we can manipulate them to get better results. There's no need to save energy for "bad times".

 

[madvillian420]

i would do it. For airflows sake if anything. Dont go crazy and youll be fine. Focus on the stuff below the net and consider if a leaf can be tucked somewhere else instead of plucking it before you go picking randomly .

Ive had grows where a bud was covered by leaves and the one directly next to it wasnt, the one exposed to the light was absolutely positively frostier and denser and had better color at the end.

 

[wee_m]

IMHO take off only what is covering the lower buds or bend upper ones out the way ,they are there for a reason if removing any don't over do it as said some at the bottom ,put it this way there is no one in the wild defoliating any of them if green its keen PEACE

 

[RadicalRoss]

I don't truck with the "at 20 days i remove 25% of my fan leaves" nonsense. During the stretch I'll pop leaves off if it seems like they're covering lower budsites and I can't tuck them out of the way. I will usually walk away with a handful of leaves every time I open the tent during stretch, but after a couple weeks the plants largely stop growing leaves so I largely stop taking them.

 

[RadicalRoss]

Do actual farmers go out and remove the solar panels from their plant, regardless of species? They dont. You shouldn't either.

This isn't true, at least not entirely. Some crops benefit from defoliation. Cotton, for one, is defoliated. There's lots of info online about it, but here's a discussion from Missouri State about proper time and technique and such

Defoliation General Discussion | Mississippi State University Extension Service

Deciding when to defoliate a crop is an important decision from several stand points. If the crop is defoliated too soon, yields, quality and profits suffer. On the other hand, depending on the location and the field condition, delaying defoliation may increase likelihood of additional insect...

extension.msstate.edu

 

[wee_m]

I don't truck with the "at 20 days i remove 25% of my fan leaves" nonsense. During the stretch I'll pop leaves off if it seems like they're covering lower budsites and I can't tuck them out of the way. I will usually walk away with a handful of leaves every time I open the tent during stretch, but after a couple weeks the plants largely stop growing leaves so I largely stop taking them.

AS i said remove ones at the bottom ,But you seem to have things all covered

 

[guitarguy10]

Damn shit is controversial, calm down guys it's just a plant and some leaves lol.

I did end up doing a pretty aggressive defoliation but it was all under the net to clear it out for airflow cuz there was just a shit ton of crap jamming underneath the net getting no light, in fact the leaves near the bottom of most plants were yellowing.

Unfortunately like the noob that I am I accidentally cut the string making up the screen when doing this, but hopefully it will be ok since they are basically done their stretch and the screen itself is only like 15" from the bottom of the tent (read: even in a 5' tent Ive still got some height to spare).

Also I need to add that that star that heats this planet that we call our Sun is *SO* much more powerful then ANY artificial light that your strange metaphor about solar panels is silly. Plants have had literally MILLIONS of years to evolve to be efficient with the photospectrum of the sun, not to mention it comes with it's own light mover (aka we orbit it) . For one thing most farmers produce acres and acres of crop, they can't exactly go from plant to plant defoliating each plant, that is just far too laborious. Also I am growing indoors, the conditions and everything indoors are not comparable.

 

[RadicalRoss]

Damn shit is controversial, calm down guys it's just a plant and some leaves lol.

I did end up doing a pretty aggressive defoliation but it was all under the net to clear it out for airflow cuz there was just a shit ton of crap jamming underneath the net getting no light, in fact the leaves near the bottom of most plants were yellowing.

Unfortunately like the noob that I am I accidentally cut the string making up the screen when doing this, but hopefully it will be ok since they are basically done their stretch and the screen itself is only like 15" from the bottom of the tent (read: even in a 5' tent Ive still got some height to spare).

Also I need to add that that star that heats this planet that we call our Sun is *SO* much more powerful then ANY artificial light that your strange metaphor about solar panels is silly. Plants have had literally MILLIONS of years to evolve to be efficient with the photospectrum of the sun, not to mention it comes with it's own light mover (aka we orbit it) . For one thing most farmers produce acres and acres of crop, they can't exactly go from plant to plant defoliating each plant, that is just far too laborious. Also I am growing indoors, the conditions and everything indoors are not comparable.

I generally just use my fingernail and pinch the leaves off rather than mess around with anything sharp. Too easy to accidentally cut something you don't mean to.

 

[guitarguy10]

I generally just use my fingernail and pinch the leaves off rather than mess around with anything sharp. Too easy to accidentally cut something you don't mean to.

when I do that I always end up splitting the leaves branch and like skimming a layer of the stalk. Many if the leaves I removed had *thick* and woody branches.

I didn't accidentally make any unanticipated cuts but I was amazed when I found a branch in the very back that was literally hanging on by a thread but the whole branch was super healthy with nice budsites starting all over it. it's amazing how resilient plant can be to like an entirely broken branch.