Can a plant recover from defoliation early flower

dopeleader

Well-Known Member
ok so basically as the title says, I currently have 4 plants 9 days into flower at approx. 2.5-3ft.
I have just taken 12 clones for my next grow and then continued to remove all of the lower growth tips and fan leaves.
The growth tips were removed because as they are clones I applied combinations of what ive read from LST/Mainlining/Fim and give it my own twist.
early during veg I created my own ''Manifold'' and tied 8 branches to the same level to create my own canopy and my own ''mainlined'' clone, as I couldn't find an actual guide on HOW to mainline a CLONE.
So now about 5 weeks later im early in the flower phase and the clones have done what they do best and spat out tens of growth tips everywhere.
Now that I've tried to explain the situation as well as I can, could somebody please help let me know...
Will my plants now bounce back and respond the way that I want them to about this defoliation, will my energies now be focused on the growth tips left in place or have I completely fucked up?
I Don't think what I've done will kill the plant as there are HEAPS of fans left but I do however think I may have stunted my flower phase?
 

srt8666

Well-Known Member
i'm a bit high and kinda confused. are you asking if a plant will recover from defoliation in early flower? if so, i usually cut the lower 1/3rd of the plant all the up until the stretch stops. i've yet to have a problem. so if thats your question, it worked fine for me. i'm sure some will come on here and say dont do it, its bad, etc....and that may be the case for them. for me, its never been a problem, and i've done it with multilple strains.

mainlining a clone has nothing to do with a clone. a clone is just a plant and an exact copy of the mom. so if your asking if your "homemade" mainlined and manifold'ed plants will recover from defoliation in flower, i dont see a problem with it as long as it had time to recover from the training in veg.

sorry, this probably didnt help you one bit lol
 

mattisreal420

Well-Known Member
Depends on how much you actually cut off, but I doubt you did any substantial damage to growth, if you did you would notice it. Have any pictures of plants after deflation?
 

gardengardian7

Well-Known Member
One thing to keep in mind, you want to do all youre going to do starting a week before you switch stages. Then finish all youre going to do by the end of the two-3 week stretch period. I failed to do what i just told you and ended up with 4 foot almost five foot plant that grew past lights. Thus yeilded low. This forced me to have to make changes into mid bloom. But your plants should be good. Defoliation by the way is more unkindness than helping. It does not do right. And those guys who do alot defoliating is working and growing under 1000nd+ watts of HIDs. Cfl NO. Led, im not sure if they are supportive yo the defo... Pruning is dif... GGwing
 

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
One thing to keep in mind, you want to do all youre going to do starting a week before you switch stages. Then finish all youre going to do by the end of the two-3 week stretch period. I failed to do what i just told you and ended up with 4 foot almost five foot plant that grew past lights. Thus yeilded low. This forced me to have to make changes into mid bloom. But your plants should be good. Defoliation by the way is more unkindness than helping. It does not do right. And those guys who do alot defoliating is working and growing under 1000nd+ watts of HIDs. Cfl NO. Led, im not sure if they are supportive yo the defo... Pruning is dif... GGwing
You should have simply Bent them to fit at safe levels under the light.
"Supercropping"

With care - pinch the stem to help the stem "fold" over and not break or crack till you have the stem bent to your height.
Lower then intended is good as it (the stem) will rise back to a 90 deg or less angle.

Doc
 

Old-School

Well-Known Member
Plans will throw out new growth after changing to flower mode. The issue is that the plant will redirect energy to throwing out the new growth from flowering.
Keep this in mind as well, the flowers are made up of leaves as well as the flower components...so it will not be detrimental to the life of the plant unless the defoliation is too extreme. Photosynthesis will still occur from the flower leaves.
 

dopeleader

Well-Known Member
thanks a bunch everybody for the helpful replies.
I guess ill give it a few days and see how she responds!
I cut off about 1/3 of all the lower growth, basically anything that was growing little growth tips and bud sites which weren't receiving much light due to being covered by the canopy etc were removed.
everything in full view of the light was kept, trying to avoid little poo nuggets.
 

Alienwidow

Well-Known Member
Why didnt you leave one as is? Personally i think youd have noticed a much higher yield from the control plant. But i doubt you want to hear that right now huh?
 

dopeleader

Well-Known Member
ive only just started week 2 of flower, I have 8-12 colas per plant each with a strong support branch to hold some chunk.
surelyyyy I can pull some fat nuggets from this first grow.
 

bird mcbride

Well-Known Member
None of that stuff at the bottom ever amounts to anything anyway. Not enough light. If anything it's a good place for bugs and stuff to get started. Myself personally do the LST to get more light to the bottom by tipping them outward, shifting them by the roots from the center of the table while the table is flooded.
 

harris hawk

Well-Known Member
Plants will all ways bounce -back after defoliation if done correctly - once in flower many do a "heavy" defoliation in week 4 of flower (remove only fan leaves NO sugar leaves) and in Vegation stage one heavy week 4 + removing leaves thru-out grow that block the light (remove no more than 5-6 leaves at a time) Also rememeber to feed plants after you defoliate
 
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