Advice on defoliation & scrog

Ok so im not gonna get into all the details bc its pointless. Long story short im in week 4 of flower and im worried my colas aren't getting enough light at the bottom. Im scared to just start ripping leaves off bc its my 1st scrog and ive already lollipopped the shit out of them up to the screen. I don't wanna start taking away the only leaves it has left but to me its to crowded at the top so i figured id ask someone whos been in this situation b4. Any advice is appreciated. It's strain is NL & its under a 400w hps cooltube.

Just my opinion here,
I don`t see anything in those pics to worry about.
Just get the light as close as you can safely and still cover the footprint.
A certain amount of light will penetrate the leafs.

Every plant I've ever grown has had blind spots and areas that didn`t develop fully.
I call that hash material

Ok yea it's been a learning process for sure tbh i really aint impressed with Nirvanas NL like ive always thought it would be. It was hard knowing when to stop tucking & let them go bc it's the first time ive grown this strain but i ended up with mostly 6" colas i just hope they fill out nicely. Thanks for the input ill just leave them be for now

Alot of development in the last couple weeks, even days. One technique ive used is when they loom like theyre about ready to come down, 3 days, 5 max, defoliate the canopy a bit. You may end up losing enough fan leaves during fade to not need to though. Be patient, they look good! If you use the tec i just mentioned, dont go crazy, just thin out a bit starting with the least healthy leaves. You need something on there! Good luck

JimmyTheNewb said:

Ok yea it's been a learning process for sure tbh i really aint impressed with Nirvanas NL like ive always thought it would be. It was hard knowing when to stop tucking & let them go bc it's the first time ive grown this strain but i ended up with mostly 6" colas i just hope they fill out nicely. Thanks for the input ill just leave them be for now

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Not sure how many times you have grown that strain but if it is a strain you really like
work with it at least a couple times before you give up on it.
Just saying it took me a few times before I produced a good likeness of certain varieties.

One time I could get huge colas then not etc...
Eventually you figure out light, training and feed schedule to a point where you are consistent
by then I'm bored though. lol

Yes they have syarted moving along pretty good from the little experience ive had I think the most important thing is the environment. Once you get it dialed in it really is smooth sailing and I keep it simple on the nutes. I am impressed with the WW but the Big Bud i manifolded is my favorite. It took off quick and is still going strong. Everyone hates on my 300watt blurple but i think its doing better then my hps tbh. Just started week 4

You will get mix answers,

But i am all for defoliation, i defoliated them on day 1, today is day 15, will defoliate them again on day 21-25 if they are done stretching.


Alot can happen in 14 days.


You answered your own question,

“Lower colas not getting light “

Give them a hair cut, see how they like it.

Since they are in week 4, dont be mean to them

theflowerman.dc said:

You will get mix answers,

But i am all for defoliation, i defoliated them on day 1, today is day 15, will defoliate them again on day 21-25 if they are done stretching.


Alot can happen in 14 days.


You answered your own question,

“Lower colas not getting light “

Give them a hair cut, see how they like it.

Since they are in week 4, dont be mean to them

Click to expand...

Yea ive done both on plants in the past defoliate and just let it grow naturally but with a scrog I was scared to start taking leaves off the top bc there isnt any at all on the bottom 2/3rds of the plant. I know a plant does need some leaves lol.Your set up looks nice i wish i had that space and I love them blurple lights.

In a scrog if any light is getting through the canopy and hitting the floor its wasted light. (makes u wonder why your wasting what you pay good money for doesn't it?)

Trim and prune and tidy but don't defoliate.

Lucky Luke said:

In a scrog if any light is getting through the canopy and hitting the floor its wasted light. (makes u wonder why your wasting what you pay good money for doesn't it?)

Trim and prune and tidy but don't defoliate.

Click to expand...

Agreed. I try ti fill the canopy and around day 21 i lollipop up to where i start seeing light coming through. I may pluck a couple leaves here and there from what i guess you could call the second layer of canopy if i think it will create better coverage with whats beneath it but never take prime canopy leaves until the very end.

If you can loose the cool tube you will gain more light (approx. 10 to 15% more). Its unfortunate but a 400w HPS dos not have much penetration. Its OK, it is what it is, its surprising how much the lowers end up weighing at the end.

Look at a staggered harvest to if you can.

The shadows our eyes see are not seen by the plant. Even if a part of the plant looks shaded PAR light may still be present. Which is what a plant uses for photosynthesis.

throwing in my 2 cents, my experience with trimming was a definite decrease in over all yield..i didnt even go too crazy like ive seen some do here. best yield(and quality overall) was with no trimming, and a staggered harvest where i harvested tops and let the lowers go another 1-2 weeks.

i think the garden looks great as is btw

Thanks yall Yea It makes since about the PAR light still being visible to the plant but not us. Theres very little light hitting the ground and I stuck little clones down there to catch that little bit lol. I started with LED and I loved it but it just didnt pack on the weight like i knew hps could and my brother upgraded his hood system so he offered it to me all i had to do was buy a ballast and i had a almost new 400w cooltube for 70$ and with the shape of my closet it works better that way. Ive taped areound it very good so no light leaks but ive always known it wasn't as good as a regular hood. I already had a 4" vivosun carbon fliter ran right where the cooltube was goona go so it was to convenient not to take it so now i got 400w hps 2x 300w galaxyhydro (270) actual watts and 3x 36w blurple spotlights with 3w chips same as galaxy and they are actual watts if im not mistaken. 1 far red 12w flowering booster bulb. So roughly 780 watts on 3 plants.Ill be happy with a half lb on this run ive learned a lot and i just ordered some Original blueberry and sour diesel seeds today so ill be coming out strong next run. Heres some pics of them today if anyone cares lol i took a blurple spotlight and put it shooting across my NL under the hps just experimenting with resin production. Btw I live in a trailer this is a 2.5 x 8 ft narrow ass closet in my room.
WW
Big Bud Manifolded

Down the line BB WW NL

WW

NL under hps