Opinions on Defoliation During Flower

Yeah, one of my recent plants I accidentally knocked a whole branch off of, nearly entirely. I just taped it back up and it seems to be no worse for wear, kept right on growing and it's forming buds just like the rest of the plant. I couldn't tell which one it was if I didn't have the tape on it still.

Wizzlebiz said:

Farmers have a sun moving in the sky hitting the crops at different angles.

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So rotate your plants around their light - each day.. boom done.

Dr. Who said:

So rotate your plants around their light - each day.. boom done.

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I mean sure if your not using a scrog.

Wizzlebiz said:

I mean sure if your not using a scrog.

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Bingo that.

Dr. Who said:

So rotate your plants around their light - each day.. boom done.

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Sadly they aint going nowhere until they're harvested.

smokinrav said:

Do actual farmers go out and remove the solar panels from their plant, regardless of species? They dont. You shouldn't either.

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Cotton farmers do. Cotton happens to be a flower too. Interesting.

EDIT: Oops, I see someone else already pointed this out in the thread.

smokinrav said:

Do actual farmers go out and remove the solar panels from their plant, regardless of species? They dont. You shouldn't either.

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No, but insects and animals naturally do it for them.

RadicalRoss said:

I don't truck with the "at 20 days i remove 25% of my fan leaves" nonsense. During the stretch I'll pop leaves off if it seems like they're covering lower budsites and I can't tuck them out of the way. I will usually walk away with a handful of leaves every time I open the tent during stretch, but after a couple weeks the plants largely stop growing leaves so I largely stop taking them.

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Pretty much what I do. Heavy defoil 2-3 days before flip, and sporadically throughout stretch, a couple leaves off each plant here and there. Keep nice airflow and remove smaller bud sites and crap on the bottom and middle.

Maybe a couple times a heavier hand. I always find that the plant respond with more vigor after a good defoil. Any spaces I've made get filled in within a few days.

Days before harvest I start stripping off all fans.

Harvest and trim is a breeze. No larf, all prime bud. Just chop at the base and let the whole plant hang for a week or two before an easy trim job and cure.

I remove all the large leaves. My tent is really small (98cm tall), I need the air and light to reach everywhere.

dbz said:

I'll give you all the answers, because I have read this topic a lot.

Don't take away the plant's leaves it uses them
Defoliate twice before flower
Use a cat to trim your leaves
Don't defoliate, lollipop
Don't defoliate or lollipop let it be natural man
Use a deer to defoliate with
Just add some leaf-miners to keep your leaf content down

I think I covered most bases.

Also HID is better.
No LED is better

Flush always
Never flush

On one line or another, I'm pretty sure I'm right.

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So what your saying is probably when It rains Tuesday

dbz said:

I'll give you all the answers, because I have read this topic a lot.

Don't take away the plant's leaves it uses them
Defoliate twice before flower
Use a cat to trim your leaves
Don't defoliate, lollipop
Don't defoliate or lollipop let it be natural man
Use a deer to defoliate with
Just add some leaf-miners to keep your leaf content down

I think I covered most bases.

Also HID is better.
No LED is better

Flush always
Never flush

On one line or another, I'm pretty sure I'm right.

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Amen brother!

smokinrav said:

No, don't do it. Defolition is a result of our loving a plant too much. Trying to beat mother nature is fools gold, regardless of how much human energy has been consumed to prove otherwise.
Do actual farmers go out and remove the solar panels from their plant, regardless of species? They dont. You shouldn't either.

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Actually you’re wrong. If you don’t prune the suckers off tomato plants and excess foliage you get smaller fruit and it gets diseased faster. So...

Never did it before my friend got me into it. Tried it and noticed a big diff. I will always do it now

Dr. Who said:

Go ahead and remove the plants "food factories" from it's life.

Now how would you look if you lost a large percentage of your food?

News flash - The buds don't need direct light to grow or mature.

It does help with RIPENING.

So, I ONLY remove SOME leaves in very late bloom for the buds to ripen evenly. This only happens with CERTAIN strains that block them heavily.

I have a friend who practices defoliation. His buds are smaller and very dense. They seriously lack the bag appeal of my buds. He gets all his increase in yield from the density of the bud... His plants look funny (sad) too.

If you feel a need to try it. Simply FOLD the leaf sets under and away from the buds - leaving them still connected to the plant.

The idea that the "energy" that was going to the leaves. Now goes to the buds" is a load of BS in the results of the defoliated plant vs a non defoliated plant.

Learn to grow properly and you will learn you don't defoliate much at all, if any.

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Yeah im not sold on defol, Ive done it on my last 2 grows and im not overly impressed.
I have a short bushy indica strain that i will reveg that i will not defol on next run to compare.

guitarguy10 said:

What are your opinions on defoliation during flower?

I havn't defolaited them at all this grow so far but was planning on doing a heavy defoliation when they finish stretching. Would it hurt to defoliate today (day 17)? I am growing tired of the massive mess of leaves that is covering the canopy, and I think they are almost finished stretching, but how would i know?

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I'm too shy to defoliate a lot, but I know it works out well. Every time you think you've gone too far with the snippers, it always ends up that you didn't go far enough. As my friend always says.. "you're farming buds, not leaves"
Any updates?

Just my experience, for indoor, Once the plant is mature, I prune heavily every couple weeks.

It helps immensely with the plants health, as new growth is far less susceptible to issues which also keeps away pests.

I don't cut entire fans off though, I find it better to trim them, like ya do for cloning, seems to power new growth much faster than full prune..... at least this is my experience.

Severed Tongue said:

Just my experience, for indoor, Once the plant is mature, I prune heavily every couple weeks.

It helps immensely with the plants health, as new growth is far less susceptible to issues which also keeps away pests.

I don't cut entire fans off though, I find it better to trim them, like ya do for cloning, seems to power new growth much faster than full prune..... at least this is my experience.

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This is an interesting technique I haven't seen before on a regular plant (just clones, like you say). But it makes sense. Thanks for the tip. I'll try it next time!

CDubFMG said:

I'm too shy to defoliate a lot, but I know it works out well. Every time you think you've gone too far with the snippers, it always ends up that you didn't go far enough. As my friend always says.. "you're farming buds, not leaves"
Any updates?

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That last harvest had unrelated problems so no point updating on it (I got some yield but I think too much heat/light in there).

Anyways what you said is exactly what my problem has always been which is that I'm too 'shy' to chop off all these healthy leaves (that aren't obstructing anything) and moreso chopping off bud sites below the net worried that I'm hurting the plants growth rate or just that .. it's wrong.

I just flipped this current grow the other day and did a pretty serious defoliation right before the flip. Ignoring the lollipopping defoliation it has only been 5 days and you almost wouldn't even know that I did defoliate, the main colas have grown back their leaves fully as if I never did anything to them.

I'm growing more accustomed to the need for defoliation and how quickly the plant can rebound but I am still going to be weary not to do much more defoliation after they have finished stretching. I think it's important and seems to have promoted growth on the top of the net more vigorously now that many of the leaves have been removed.

Severed Tongue said:

Just my experience, for indoor, Once the plant is mature, I prune heavily every couple weeks.

It helps immensely with the plants health, as new growth is far less susceptible to issues which also keeps away pests.

I don't cut entire fans off though, I find it better to trim them, like ya do for cloning, seems to power new growth much faster than full prune..... at least this is my experience.

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just started a grow 3 days ago seed just sprouted ? is just a fem seed or Auto flower as diong auto flowerand was goingto give this a try ps how my time have you done this to your girl ,Bud

wee_m said:

just started a grow 3 days ago seed just sprouted ? is just a fem seed or Auto flower as diong auto flowerand was goingto give this a try ps how my time have you done this to your girl ,Bud

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I'm not growing auto's, so this probably wouldn't be ideal for them... honestly not sure.

It is ideal for keeping photo period mother plants manageable so one can take clones every couple weeks.