Defoliation

After 1 hour of googling I found not a shred of evidence as to its ability to increase production.

Nothing defoliated here Sit420, just topped.. And remember tops are different than main colas.

^that's an amazing looking plant !!

There is a pretty interesting thread over on icmag that has several photos of defoliation techniques producing impressive yields. If youre getting over a gram per watt and defoliationg, it would be safe to say that its not harming the plant. At least not its ability to produce flowers.

I defoliate my basil plants so they grow back and put them on my pizza

MYOB....can you point me to the article? thanks for letting us know! ready to learn more every day. Don't do it UB.

Yeah I would like a link to the article also!

MYOB said:

There is a pretty interesting thread over on icmag that has several photos of defoliation techniques producing impressive yields.

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Means nothing. I use Paclo and get impressive yields.

If youre getting over a gram per watt and defoliationg, it would be safe to say that its not harming the plant. At least not its ability to produce flowers.

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It IS harming the plant but until you understand the function of a leaf and plant processes you won't ever get it.

What's this silly and meaningless forum paradigm of gram/watt? What if I'm using a super duper new shiny hood and you're using a rust bucket? Another forum paradigm, a very crude and meaningless way of measuring yields using an erroneous value. It means squat in the real world.

UB

SchmokinOnTrees said:

I defoliate my basil plants so they grow back and put them on my pizza

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I top when they flower so they'll branch out and use the leaves on pizza.

Imaulle said:

Defoliation is just an excuse for dumb fucks to remove the leaves that they cannot maintain if their life depended on it.

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Yeppers!!!

Haha

Alexander Supertramp said:

Nothing defoliated here Sit420, just topped.. And remember tops are different than main colas.

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That is a well pruned/trained plant! Nice job. Flat across the top....will produce an easily managed bushy plant. If it weren't for the long internodes I'd be inclined to take out one more node down on the trunk but I see you already have secondary output in the axis of the nodes. I also see where you clipped that output to nubs. Why is that? To allow the side branches to become more dominant....even out the profile? If you had left them (the branches) they would have surely remained dominant giving you a rounded canopy instead of flat across. I'm talking months from now.

UB

I wouldn't remove a single leave from that plant either, considering the few small ones it has now. I grow bigger leaves than than in the first weeks under 3x18w CFL... Looks like a waste of veg time... not a well-trained plant.

Imaulle said:

Defoliation is just an excuse for dumb fucks to remove the leaves that they cannot maintain if their life depended on it.

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Hating on any form or amount of defoliation is just an excuse for folks that aren't able to grow a thick amount of large leaves in the first place.

I can see why the other guy isn't posting any pics - you guys are so full of yourselves anyway, no amount of pic or cold hard proof will change that. I barely ever pull a leaf from my plants unless it's nearly dead, I rather prune a branch earlier/planned, yet I see many 1gpw+ growers who defoliate a good amount and grow A quality stuff from top to bottom (oh hell no you don't want me to show you pics from them... that would be too much reality for you to handle).

You ask for evidence while your own opinions on the matter are highly subjective, to your own situation, setups and methods. Defoliating as standard practice to improve yields is obviously silly, lollypopping is just nuts, but:

Kite High said:

After 1 hour of googling I found not a shred of evidence as to its ability to increase production.

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I'm all for scientific evidence, but unlike you obviously, I know plenty of commercial growers who've done more than a few indoor cycles and know from years of experience that if they don't defoliate a little they end up with less money. Simple as that. Google won't help you with everything. You can talk about photosynthesizes and make silly comparisons to wings of butterflies, the reality is that there's more to it, more factors to consider. Like moist and possibly dew on overlapping leaves, leaves pushing against buds, leaves preventing proper air/co2 flow, and yes, fuck those old outdated guides - they block light to lower budsites. 3 or 4 bigger-than-my-hand fan leaves stacked on top of each other tend to do that...

"Canopy control"...

Thanks UB. And yes I nub the upper most node leaving just the fans to maintain an even canopy. Heres a untopped plant that represents the round look. No defoliation and it rounding out nicely.



A few months later its all even near perfect. Still no defoliation. Yet I still get that nice even canopy just below the main cola. One of the very things they claim to control with defoliation.

A 6 dollar bag of fert and living in the ghetto and I am still growing circles around those 'little mother pluckers'!

Update on Girl 2/LaziBessi


she's showing signs of still hanging in there with me, so that's good enough for me. I'm just really unsure of the flower maturity. It's worrying me those buds have been sitting there so long doing nothing. I'm feeding a solution of Big Bloom and Snowstorm, bare minimum requirements. Doesn't she look a little happier to you?


The light was terrible in the office so I brought her outside on the porch for some love. Misted her and fluffed her up some. She is much happier I think. Still no flowers to speak of on three of the tops, so she isn't gonna yield very well. It's cool, I have a diesel not too far behind it, and a decent dealer on hand if need be

roseypeach said:

Update on Girl 2/LaziBessi


she's showing signs of still hanging in there with me, so that's good enough for me. I'm just really unsure of the flower maturity. It's worrying me those buds have been sitting there so long doing nothing. I'm feeding a solution of Big Bloom and Snowstorm, bare minimum requirements. Doesn't she look a little happier to you?


The light was terrible in the office so I brought her outside on the porch for some love. Misted her and fluffed her up some. She is much happier I think. Still no flowers to speak of on three of the tops, so she isn't gonna yield very well. It's cool, I have a diesel not too far behind it, and a decent dealer on hand if need be



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It looks like its getting too much N. Id switch to tiger bloom with a little big bloom in it. Also cut back the snow storm to only once every week or 2.

Alexander Supertramp said:

A few months later its all even near perfect. Still no defoliation. Yet I still get that nice even canopy just below the main cola. One of the very things they claim to control with defoliation.


A 6 dollar bag of fert and living in the ghetto and I am still growing circles around those 'little mother pluckers'!

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You only use the 6 dollar bag because the $50 bag is half your rent! lmao and also, can i point out to everyone, that defoliation isn't beneficial once the plant is flowering. The only time you should defoliate is during veg, thats what i've been saying this whole time, i think a lot of people are missing the point. Its not just simply defoliate or not defoliate.

Alexander Supertramp said:

A 6 dollar bag of fert and living in the ghetto and I am still growing circles around those 'little mother pluckers'!

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Nice, I grew this in some dirt i dug outa my backyard and mixed in $1 worth of miracle grow soil then grew it under a couple cfl lights in my closet. All i needed to add was some water which i collected from the rain. I got the seed from a bag so I didn't have to waste money on that either. In total, The light cost me $50 but I got 4 harvests out of it already so it paid for itself by now and my nutes cost me maybe a $1.50 total . Here is what i have going now for pennies guys,
pennies.

Read Straight out of a horticulture 110. And experimental botany oxford journals.

Defoliation or damage to foliage will increase sucrose development yet deplete yield. Without full foliage. Gas exchange is altered. Optimal gas exchange needed to process sucrose in carbohydrates to usable energy.

Result of defoliation is like eating a bunch of twinkies or sugar and sitting on the couch. Not being active. Building fat not muscle and energy.

Situation420 said:

You only use the 6 dollar bag because the $50 bag is half your rent! lmao

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So... you ignore the request for this proof and instead resort to jokes about someones income?
Nice.