Defoliation

misterbrandon

Active Member
All my plants resemble that squatness early on from heavy and continuous LST. Great job on keeping a perfectly even canopy! It wouldn't hurt to pull some leaves if you feel it needs it for airflow.
Thanks brother man, been using heavy LST for all my grows. Seems to work fine but wondering how others plants are super huge and tall. Is it due to LST at later stage?

Plan to cut the bottom leaves that are not getting any light.
 

misterbrandon

Active Member
Don’t defoliate that. It’s spread out so nice. You don’t even have that thick of a canopy and it’s only going to slow the plant down at this point
How about just defoliating the lower leaves that are not receiving light and those big ones which are blocking bud sites?
 

Wastei

Well-Known Member
I don't defoliate. I pluck leaves sparingly and only help the plant remove old leaves that the plant already decides to drop.

Each to their own. Some people like growing their plants like bonsais on here and LST and pluck leaves in veg to the oblivion. Many people only grow for fun and don't need high yields and proper medicine.

They only like the taste and feel of it, and that's fine to! Cheers!
 
So is there really no point in taking out leaves? How about popcorn bud sites?
Honestly there is no way of truly finding what works and what doesn’t Unless you try it yourself I’d say. I was skeptical about defoliation and lollipop oh but when I did the growth nearly sped up by 2x the speed from my experience . Like I said try it yourself either now or down the road and see if you find it fit for your cannabis cultivation practices!!
 
I don't defoliate. I pluck leaves sparingly and only help the plant remove old leaves that the plant already decides to drop.

Each to their own. Some people like growing their plants like bonsais on here and LST and pluck leaves in veg to the oblivion. Many people only grow for fun and don't need high yields and proper medicine.

They only like the taste and feel of it, and that's fine to! Cheers!
I’ll toke to that :bigjoint:
 

TimBar

Well-Known Member
Only humans could think they can get a plant to produce more by removing its food source.

If you think you have great buds after exfoliation - you should have seen what you would have had if you left the plant alone.
I find the best buds are those that use the nitrogen stored in the sugar leaves as the flowering develops.

plants want to grow - It is our job to not get in the way
 
Only humans could think they can get a plant to produce more by removing its food source.

If you think you have great buds after exfoliation - you should have seen what you would have had if you left the plant alone.
I find the best buds are those that use the nitrogen stored in the sugar leaves as the flowering develops.

plants want to grow - It is our job to not get in the way
It isn’t the idea of producing more but a way to guide the plant you want it to grow, personally to your own liking.
 

Callz

Well-Known Member
Imo its all dependent on the quality you are going for and how much your light settup hits the cannopy. If you have a normal power led it wont get those nugs further down the plant to be as dense as if you were to use an HPS bulb. You can get higher yields with out lolloping or defoliating. But if you defoliate you don't get all of those small nugs and larf you have to trim up that takes 2xs as long. If you have a huge grow running on low power LEDS then you are stuck with that decision. Alot of professional grows simply have enough light to grow those tall 2 pound dense top to bottom plants but novis growers don't have that luxury of height, watt usage, and reliance on one plant over many. If it makes sense to grow em out, do it, but if some one is only running 100 watts a plant then defoliation might be something to consider because the bottom part of the plant wont receive much light or photosynthesis as much as the top part/new growth will.
 

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
Only humans could think they can get a plant to produce more by removing its food source.
Yup. The rest of the animal kingdom is way better at growing food. Stupid humans with their counter intuition can’t grow jack squat.
 

TimBar

Well-Known Member
I guess I should not knock humans. They sure can build killing machines well. Got that down. Brilliant. Put em back in the caves.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
I think a small amount of defoliation stimulates growth and possibly induces systemic resistance. There is some literature on the subject, but certainly, losing a few leaves merely simulates what happens in nature through consumption by herbivores. I think the extreme defoliation that people get up to is crazy...it cracks me up when someone removes every fan leaf then does it again two weeks later...I mean, the amount of energy and nutrients wasted on that shouldn't make sense to anyone. BUT, buds grow better when exposed to light-FACT. Look at the difference between one of your primary bud sites and one of the pathetic larfy little buds growing under the canopy, it's undeniable, it's like Korean bbq vs raw meat. So, removing a few fan leaves on top that block primary bud sites=worth it, to me. Likewise, getting rid of some of the underbrush is a great way to bring in some air flow-sure plants might use some of these leaves for food in nature, but we provide them with a constant BUFFET, so I just don't see how getting rid of them will hurt the plant. Absolutely leave every other fan leaf that is exposed to light. After a mild round of defoliation I'm convinced I see a growth spurt.
 

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
I think a small amount of defoliation stimulates growth and possibly induces systemic resistance. There is some literature on the subject, but certainly, losing a few leaves merely simulates what happens in nature through consumption by herbivores. I think the extreme defoliation that people get up to is crazy...it cracks me up when someone removes every fan leaf then does it again two weeks later...I mean, the amount of energy and nutrients wasted on that shouldn't make sense to anyone. BUT, buds grow better when exposed to light-FACT. Look at the difference between one of your primary bud sites and one of the pathetic larfy little buds growing under the canopy, it's undeniable, it's like Korean bbq vs raw meat. So, removing a few fan leaves on top that block primary bud sites=worth it, to me. Likewise, getting rid of some of the underbrush is a great way to bring in some air flow-sure plants might use some of these leaves for food in nature, but we provide them with a constant BUFFET, so I just don't see how getting rid of them will hurt the plant. Absolutely leave every other fan leaf that is exposed to light. After a mild round of defoliation I'm convinced I see a growth spurt.
I think the argument is fan leaves are used to power the vegetative plant and then to hold onto reserves during flower. Sugar leaves are used to power the buds themselves. They may need lots of fan leaves in the wild, but when kept in a controlled environment they are just sucking up water and nutrients while blocking light. I've heard the same thing about tap roots burying themselves deep into the earth. It does this incase of a drought, but that's not an issue when they are being taken care of by humans.
 
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