Yup. I cut em, pull em, and rip em off. I figure in nature a deer or something wouldn’t be gentle eating the plant so why should I?
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A good, concise way to put it. A lot of the unnatural things we do are actually to try and mimic a natural environment. The movement of the sun in the sky gets light into a lot of little nooks that wouldn’t never be touched by statically positioned lighting. So what is more natural, a plant that is not defoliated and receives no light in the lower canopy, or a defoliated plant that does? It’s not a clear answer.
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Honestly this sums up my thoughts more eloquently and concisely than my stoned ass currently I could. Very nicely put LHS
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The plant continually assesses its envioment etc and adapts and grows to suit , I say " let it decide " it knows best
Unless mould is on the cards later , then I would take matters into my own hands … maybe
But on the next grow I would run less plants and or flip them smaller , trying to sort the problem not masking it , till a better solution is found
: )
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Same with light penetration
Try smaller plants , or a stronger light , maybe go vert in flower
All depends which one suits / works with your setup
Also if your worried that certain fans are blocking light try removing just the middle finger instead of removing the entire fan
: )
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Happy to find this topic as I’m trying to find good practice regarding defoliating myself.
I’ve started my first grow a month ago (see my journal here) in a micro space (30x30x height 70) so I have “space management” to take into account too. Also I started 2 plants in this small space and a few days ago I topped them so it’s seems I like to challenge myself 
Up to now I took off 2-4 leaves masking buds per plant couple times during veg/pre topping, an while topping I took off again 2-4 big leaves, at the bottom this time, because they started to be completely lying on the wall of the box. Now 3 days from topping it seems more big leaves are growing crazy 
So I’m kind of wondering whether I should let them be, at least for a while (never so good to stress them too much/too often), but then I might have an issue of light penetration/air circulation, or if I should try to keep it “under control” and continue to take out 2-4 leaves every week/2 weeks during veg so better air and light, at the risk of drastically slowing (/killing 
) them because of the stress…
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i touch them as little as possible
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I’ve never though of removing leaves as a good thing until I came back to OG after 12+ years away from growing. I understand the removal of lower “sucker” branches to focus growth up the plant, just like a indeterminate tomato. Removing of dense leaves to provide airflow makes sense, but just to do it because doesn’t make sense to me. I use to do single cola SOG, so there was no defoliation, just grow the thing and supercrop if needed.
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I am a heavy defoliator and lower branch remover.
I like to leave 6-8 growing tops and trash the rest. Mostly to encourage airflow and also because I think it’s more productive for the plant to not put energy into the lowers.
All the best
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Make that plant work and direct that energy. Too much at once will cause stress and slow the plant down but if you do it in small amounts is the best I’ve found for me personally. So yes indeed I believe in pruning this is about as much as I’ll do the middle could use more but I was probably to stoned when I was pruning.
hope this helps
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Maybe I’m paranoid about airflow but I always pick and choose. I do it gradually to minimize stress and I’ve only seen positive results.
With all the recent talk about stress creating different and stronger cannabinoids, it makes me wonder. What creates good stress versus bad stress? I saw something recently espousing the benefits of letting your plants stress by withholding water until just before wilt. Of course now I can’t remember where I saw it.
Thank goodness for OG.
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Im on Vernals camp where I have to. Its not an experiment or a desire or an option not to.
The way I grow provides such vigorous growth that if i didnt I would lose product to mold and time trying to find mold after I found some initial mold.
My plants dont seem to mind. Ive pulled a garbage bag of leaves off my current grow of only 6 plants and I still had to come back in at week 5 to remove some more since the buds are swelling.
Paranoid about mold and mildew.
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Same, I use scrog in a 4x4 and any strain i have grown so far means it turns into a 4x4x4 block of leaves every 2 weeks. I have to do a lot of defoliating or it would have issues for sure.
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Lol I get those as well when defoliating heavily, wondered how the hell I did the first time, a couple of days later, went to pintch off a few more and realized my nails were just slicing through my skin.
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what is the end justification to pull off leaves ?
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Lollipop for more energy at the top of the plants.
I think its something that is to be used sparingly as possible , all too often I see guys decimate their productivity by pulling leaves…
Different genetics do act differently too… some plants will develop as a single organism and the bud sights don’t need direct light to ripen my old Norther was much like this… while other genetics each bud sight acts like a individual plant and will not ripen unless under direct light.
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Heavy Plucker here. I leaf tuck and super crop regularly but the process of legging up the plant in the first few weeks of flower is a regime for me and my grows. These forms of low stress training are beneficial, just as much so as dry pack (the intellectual property of any major commercial grow) is how long they let plants dry out/watering potential - before watering for maximum vigor. Much of the plucking for me is about managing humidity and airflow but I am also a believer in the thoughts behind the plant knows to concentrate energy on viable parts of the plant, bud sites and lower nodes deep in the canopy see very little light in my setup and naturally yellow and get consumed by the plant. In the wild, if the top of the plant is damaged or removed, the plant won’t regrow the top but elongate lower nodes in its place much in like cannabis growers top their plants for this same reason. In flower I remove these leaves preemptively to avoid them falling into the soil or onto another bud site and start a little mold somewhere in my grow. I know that the plant if givien the time and the right conditions it will grow back anything that is removed however when the plant is in flower there simply isn’t enough time or energy to do so. By removing sucker sites, heavily shaded leaves and otherwise less productive nodes (lollipopping) the plant has no real choice but to put that energy into the flower in hopes of finishing before it dies.
This is just my experience, would love to see some scientific papers on molested versus unmolested clones in identical growing conditions.
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Deliciously insightful and masterfully explained
Cheers
G
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