Defoliation - removing fan leaves for higher yield

darkdestruction420

darkdestruction420

Well-Known Member
epicseeds said:
It isn't uprising a majority of you all attack something that so strongly goes against your beliefs, something that has been pounded into your brain since you first read how to grow marijuana. I guarantee 100% of you hating on this technique HAVE NOT tried this, or if you have you did not do it correctly. It baffles me how people will swear up and down that this does not work when you haven't even tried.

I was just like a majority of you. When I saw this thread on ICMAG I told myself "this is retarded" but I did a side by side test. And guess what out of 4 plants, the 2 that were defoliated averaged +20 grams than the non defoliated.

I don't see how this can be refuted. I urge you people to just try it on ONE plant. What's the harm in doing it to one plant - its not going to kill it, and the worst that could happen is you could lose some weight but it WONT happen i promise you.

Uncle Ben - earlier in this thread, and in other threads you say many things to the effect of "most of what is popular belief on forums or in growing culture in general is false." You made many valid points to this truth - especially when it comes to fancy nutes and such. Why can't the theory that defoliation will ruin your plant and not product heavier fruits be false too?

I can't begin to tell you why this works.... but I do know that when you practice this in veg an exponential amount of bud sites pop up after each defoliation. YOU MUST DO THIS DURING VEG...DO NOT DO THIS DURING FLOWERING ONLY. The main reason why this works is because all the lower branches will get much more light and grow up to the level of your main colas. I think this is the main reason I got more weight, because I had way more bud sites than the 2 that were not defoliated.

I will test out my next theory and I think I am on to something. I think if you were to defoliate during veg ONLY and let all of those bud sites pop up because of the leaf removal, then NOT DEFOLIATE DURING FLOWER I will get even better results. This will allow the fan leaves to continue to do their thing during flower when they apparently are needed the most.

I urge you people to give this a shot with just one measly plant. We humans think we know everything. The fact is we don't - and if you were to look at history you will see how strongly we held onto beliefs in the past and then eventually realized just how wrong we were. Why can't this be applied here? The truth is we really don't know much about the marijuana plant in terms of science. Laws and regulations has limited any real scientific studies....the only real scientific study on marijuana to date I have found is on the HEMP plant back in the 40s. And funny enough they found that cannabis grows best with the 9-3-6 NPK ratio which is exactly what Uncle Ben has advocated for so long. However this was done on HEMP plants which is grown for their stalk and not flowers...so this ratio is best for VEG and not necessarily the bloom stage.


Sorry for the ramble but it kind of irritates me when people will swear to something that they have never tried. Just give it a shot guys!
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I've tried multiple times, it irritates me when people just assume we've never tried something when we have, anyways no hard feelings.
 
bigv1976

bigv1976

Well-Known Member
New Grower 420 said:
i see alota people saying its bad to to but how many people have done a side by side? i see people say its basic botany well maryjane has never really been studied in depth by botanists diffrent rules may apply, there just alota factors that havent been studied or proven on bolth sides of the argument.
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What the fuck do you think we do every day? We are marijuana botanists studying marijuana. Well some of us.
 
N

NoobGrower416

Active Member
accountant said:
Leaves do have a purpose. They store nutrients and they protect the plant from the elements (and animals.) These things are not an issue for us indoors however, as we provide nutrients the entire cycle, and most of us don't have a deer that's going to come bite off our main cola.

Why would you put the 100 cubes together? Leaving space between them increases surface area.


(the surface area argument is my own hypothesis on why this works for me. Perhaps the plant feels like it's dying and just decides to pump out fatter nugs)
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hahahahaha Fdd says "I dont understand your reasoning" BAM accountant whips out a simple diagram, that made my night lmfao


What Accountant is trying to say is sometimes fanleaves are genetically huge and fully shade underlying branches...in my experience when this happens those branches look like complete garbage...shrivelled and wierd until I move the fanleaves out of the way.

I've noticed it in the first 2 weeks of flowering (the stretch phase) where the plant gains its final shape before bud production.

They say the energy the fanleaves generate travels throughout the plant...but its at such a slow pace compared to the leaves RIGHT NEXT to the bud....which almost instantly arrive.



its like ordering 2 packages, 1 locally, 1 from halfway across the world...with the same shipping method...we know which is coming first.
 
cadeneli

cadeneli

Active Member
Stupid mother nature, why did you put these leaves that serve as solar panels and store sugars and nutrients in my way. Let's cut them off. Geez what's next? Trying to grow without water.
 
K

kromm

Member
personally i might try using a laser to burn a little bit of the pesky fan leafs stem each day till it dies and falls off. that way it doesnt shock the plant. might even try taping a little magnet to the opposit side of the branch to help keep it from growing back. i wonder if i could also crush up a 50mg viagra in my plant water if it would make the males show sex earlier? know what i mean? eh? :)
 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
I wish folks would not start their threads without doing a search first. I think there are 3 on-going threads on this topic.

Mods, can you combine the active threads regarding defoliation?
 
xxxcmackk

xxxcmackk

Active Member
actually i expeienced all this last year....

i picked fan leaves of a plant and left them on another..2 plants of same strain and planted same dates...

the plant i didnt pick the leaves off of towered over the other one that i did takes leaves off of..
and yes there were popcorn buds on the bottom but the rest of the plant made up for them..

this year i started tieing back individual leaves ,branches, and whatever i could to get more lite on them bottom buds without cutting any leaves and worked out just great,,

im in favor of not cutting leaves..
 
T

TheTokingKing

Active Member
I have done both, I agree with both. Sound funny? I cut SOME fan leaves for the obvious, airflow, less bug issues(important for someone who uses NOTHING but mother nature for control) and more reasons... ONLY ON INDOOR PLANTS, I believe the benifit of trimming leaves indoors outways adding more lights. I run a very nice grow thats cost effective and the more lights the higher the overall costs. Outdoor I thin lower branches and leaves along with crossing center branches just as its going to flower. I think the sun puts out enough light to cover all of the plant.
 
darkdestruction420

darkdestruction420

Well-Known Member
Uncle Ben said:
I wish folks would not start their threads without doing a search first. I think there are 3 on-going threads on this topic.

Mods, can you combine the active threads regarding defoliation?
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Indeed, "I'm going to make my plant grow faster/better by giving it less energy to grow with......." just doesnt make a whole lot of sense when ya think about it for a minute.
 
freethoughexchange

freethoughexchange

Active Member
Uncle Ben said:
I wish folks would not start their threads without doing a search first. I think there are 3 on-going threads on this topic.

Mods, can you combine the active threads regarding defoliation?
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UB...I see and feel your frustration. I must have just come across three to four other posts where you state the same thing over and over again about defoliation. Maybe they are waiting for you to change your mind, lol. But, as you and others have stated, some choose to grow by trial, error, and experiment rather than gaining the knowledge it takes to understand the plants and learn what's needed to grow and keep them thriving. That's probably why they keep asking the same silly questions!
 
freethoughexchange

freethoughexchange

Active Member
cadeneli said:
Stupid mother nature, why did you put these leaves that serve as solar panels and store sugars and nutrients in my way. Let's cut them off. Geez what's next? Trying to grow without water.
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Cadeneli, this is hilarious. After growing without water, let's try to grow in 24 hours of darkness. I'm sure we'll find somebody that has had "success" doing it...lol
 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
freethoughexchange said:
UB...I see and feel your frustration. I must have just come across three to four other posts where you state the same thing over and over again about defoliation. Maybe they are waiting for you to change your mind, lol. But, as you and others have stated, some choose to grow by trial, error, and experiment rather than gaining the knowledge it takes to understand the plants and learn what's needed to grow and keep them thriving. That's probably why they keep asking the same silly questions!
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Yep. In the following link is what RC Clarke has to say about "leafing". (the two threads should be combined and folks that start a lame thread on this topic again should be banned for a week!)

https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/367996-pruning-when-do-you-take-5.html
 
obijohn

obijohn

Well-Known Member
xxxcmackk said:
this year i started tieing back individual leaves ,branches, and whatever i could to get more lite on them bottom buds without cutting any leaves and worked out just great,,

im in favor of not cutting leaves..
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Bingo! Gets light everywhere, develops more colas WITHOUT taking off leaves and slowing the plant down
 
DudeLebbowski

DudeLebbowski

Well-Known Member
I tried doing that on my first grow.
I guess I did it wrong.
The only effect it had on me is, because of the lack of fan leaves(which I found out are the powerhouses of overall production in the plant), I actually had less developed branching

A lot of my shit was dying though, but hey if its still green it still goes through photosynthesis
 
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