How to "Lollipop" canopy?

Hi,

I have 3 plants in 2X2 tent, 15 days into flowering.
Strains are WW, GSC & Auroro (in the front)

I managed to get a relative even canopy, using scrog, LST and super crop (super crop its an amazing new technic for me, should do it all the time)

But it looks like I have a lot of fan leaves and the canopy is very tick.

How to deal with it?

I know I can repeat the lollipop on what under the scrog.
But what to do with the many leaves that are over the scrog?

Thanks

Pics:

Note that the first in the front is the small Aurora standing on another pot to keep the height even, no super crop or LST for her cause she is small compare to the huge WW & GSC...

OK, the technique I was looking for is defoliation.. I didn't know the name, but it basically fan leaves removing in flower time. I know its controversial but Its looking good, I done it gently and not like in the links, but wow its looks like another good technique to adapt!

Here are some really impress result from canopy defoliation, look on the post of the user Hortus.


and after


more about it

How are you my friend, your room looks good and full.

remove the leaves and small shoots from the bottom third of the plant, areas that light wont reach to.
and BTW you can take them as clones if you need.

Defoliation is removing leaves, but lilipopping means removing all bottom third of the growth.

Hi man

Yes I didn't know the name so I wrote "lollipop" canopy..

Lollipop I done 3 times, and some defoliation, but not extreme as in the post I linked.

I may do it more cause 3 plants and the canopy is very dense, I will upload photo soon as I can.

@VRZ711
What do you think about the hard defoliation there are doing here?
*I copies the photos to make it easier to look, as the link is not taking direct to what I wanted.
**The second photos are after second defoliation according to the post.

Bottom line looks good, but so many different opinions on that...


JUST TO BE CLEAR THIS IS NOT MY GROW - I BROUGHT HERE FOR THE QUESTION
The upper in the start of the post is mine. Sorry if someone got confused, the link didn't take to the specific pictures.
Its from this link










the results are amazing:

For me, if I am growing from seed... I always go (5) nodes up, then I top the plant right above the fifth node, so I end up with (10) main side branches. Then after I top that fifth node, I let those (2) top fifth node side branches grow out to their (3) node side branches. Then by then all the (4) lower side branch sets will have caught up, or almost caught up, to those top (2) fifth node side branches. Then its lollipop time... from the bottom going up, node (1) side branch sets, remove the first 3 sets of side branches and fan leaves on the main node (1) side branches. Then do the same thing on the main node (2) side branch sets. Then for nodes (3 and 4), remove the first 2 sets of side branches and fan leaves from those (2) main node sets. Then for the fifth node sets, remove the first set of side branches and fan leaves on those (2) fifth node side branches. Then when the plant begins internoding, (ie; growing uneven side branches) remove ever other fan leaf from ever other internode up until the end of week (4) of flower. After that, I don't recommend pulling any more fan leaves. But after that, you can still work the plant to your benefit by super cropping where needed, for example... say you get some branches that are still wanting to reach for the light more than others, then super crop those branches by placing the branch between your thumb and index finger and lightly squeeze the branch to compress it slightly, then roll your thumb lightly upward to compress the stem evenly all along its circumference, then bend that branch over so it rests on the canopy, and in a few days that branch will begin to knuckle up and the end of that branch will turn upward and begin to grow and send all kind of offshoots between where you super cropped that branch and below the top of that branch!

That looks awesome for a small grow. Great job. I did mine recently you want to remove leaves, using the tiny 1 piece scissors makes it fast

Ladiesonly said:

That looks awesome for a small grow. Great job. I did mine recently you want to remove leaves, using the tiny 1 piece scissors makes it fast

Click to expand...

Don't ever use scissors to remove fan leaves. You remove them by snipping them off by hand. No reason to overly stress the plant if you don't have to.

A cut is more stressful and will take longer time to heal.

OT: I defoliate pretty aggressively in flower. You learn by doing, I remove big leaves covering developing buds. Maybe every third day on healthy flowering plants.

Wastei said:

Don't ever use scissors to remove fan leaves. You remove them by snipping them off by hand. No reason to overly stress the plant if you don't have to.

A cut is more stressful and will take longer time to heal.

Click to expand...

Yore right! Pinching between your thumbnail and finger is way easier to control and prevents over pruning, from experience anyhow.

First off, they look great. Watch kyle kushman on youtube if you want to learn some really good techniques on pruning, defoliation, supercropping, etc.

Wastei said:

Don't ever use scissors to remove fan leaves. You remove them by snipping them off by hand. No reason to overly stress the plant if you don't have to.

A cut is more stressful and will take longer time to heal.

OT: I defoliate pretty aggressively in flower. You learn by doing, I remove big leaves covering developing buds. Maybe every third day on healthy flowering plants.

Click to expand...

this is my first grow i snipped rather than break or tear to not get a stringy piece. I’m not sure I watched a video and going to get rid of more.

removing big leaves sounds like a game plan this weekend for sure. After I defoliated 100-200leaves removed mine still needs more few weeks latter

testology1980 said:

@VRZ711
What do you think about the hard defoliation there are doing here?

Click to expand...

well, people have been always fighting non stop about this subject, some claim the removing any leave is bad, and some just strip everything out of the plants.

to be honest training depends on many factors and most important the plant phenotype you are growing, some plats respond good and some respond bad, and this applies to all training techniques that involve removing parts or damaging of the plant.



just to give you a clear answer here, always try to stay away from extremes, and trust me your plants look so nice and they will be rewarding you with some sweet buds if you decided to defoliate or not.

Good luck, and how that small flowering space goin ?

VRZ711 said:

well, people have been always fighting non stop about this subject, some claim the removing any leave is bad, and some just strip everything out of the plants.

to be honest training depends on many factors and most important the plant phenotype you are growing, some plats respond good and some respond bad, and this applies to all training techniques that involve removing parts or damaging of the plant.



just to give you a clear answer here, always try to stay away from extremes, and trust me your plants look so nice and they will be rewarding you with some sweet buds if you decided to defoliate or not.

Good luck, and how that small flowering space goin ?

Click to expand...

Yes, exactly what I am thinking, no extremes, you always can take more, but its harder to put back the leaves
I can do some more cleaning under and take out more leaves from the canopy, but as you said, I will go easy.


The micro grow is going great thanks to you, I just update it so you can have a look



Here are the photos after the defoliation today.

testology1980 said:

Here are the photos after the defoliation today.

Click to expand...

lokin sweet man !!! let them ride now, they will become rockhard buds soon

Grow more smaller plants you wont have to waste time and growth defoliating.

If you have to remove leaves you grew too many, defoliating is a work around for unefficient growing.

2Hearts said:

Grow more smaller plants you wont have to waste time and growth defoliating.

If you have to remove leaves you grew too many, defoliating is a work around for unefficient growing.

Click to expand...

You are right.
I didn't know those strains can stretch so much, the GSC & WW stretch is crazy.

1-2 plant is enough for this tent depend on strain, and 40-45 veg days is also enough.
Those plants where 57 days in veg (from seed).

Try not to defoliate but maximize your growth, so many methods have come about to give high yeilds with short veg times without defoliating id rather do that tbh.

testology1980 said:

You are right.
I didn't know those strains can stretch so much, the GSC & WW stretch is crazy.

1-2 plant is enough for this tent depend on strain, and 40-45 veg days is also enough.
Those plants where 57 days in veg (from seed).

Click to expand...

Should I defoliate again? They are starting week 5 today

Thanks


Picture from today, WW on the left, GSC on the right, Aurora in the front

No.

You do know that those fan leaves are solar collectors right? When you remove them the plant has to create new ones in order for photosynthesis to happen. If nature intended the fan leaves to be gone then they wouldn't be there.

twistedwords said:

You do know that those fan leaves are solar collectors right? When you remove them the plant has to create new ones in order for photosynthesis to happen. If nature intended the fan leaves to be gone then they wouldn't be there.

Click to expand...

I know but there are so many opinions on that, and its do gets too much bushy inside a small tent sometimes so some had to be done in the past... now I am not so sure, as the humidity don't go higher than 40%.

Anyways I think I will pass defoliation as you guys suggested.