The topic sounds like Adam talking to adolescent Cain and Abel ( I know I’m sick. I take medication). Anyway back on topic, I am currently paying the price for over yanking. Growing anNL Auto that I yanked too soon and too much. Now I am fighting it trying to maintain penetration and circulation. New grower of course. I’ll keep plucking, just learning my way
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This is a great conversation, a colorful bouquet of opinion and experience, with some mushroom wit & wisdoms thrown in as a bonus!
The room has gone quiet for months now, but I’d like to add my experience to the mix for future visitors.
Training a cannabis plant towards a specific structure and yield potential is an artform and like any craft it can be done so badly as to make one cringe, or so masterfully it makes your eyes dilate just to see it. Canna Bonsai, bejeweled with frosting!
I know this to be true and I hope to demonstrate what I mean down the road a piece. Suffice it to say that I know a seasoned grower who routinely nets a dried pound per plant of top shelf fire using a combination of timed defol and strategic pruning. That’s my preferred technique also. Within that context, defoliation is essential and it results in a healthier and higher yielding plant.
Enough said about that for now, but “Leaf Yanker” is a term born of ignorance. If you don’t know why you are defoliating, don’t defoliate. If you are defoliating with a purpose, and you know your strain, then do what needs doing and reap the benefits.
Respectfully,
-Grouchy
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I pluck when my gut tells me too and have experimented with extreme defoliation to “see what happens”. When I did this in RDWC i ended up with 120G+ of dried cured flower per plant BUT it was all popcorn.
Much like @Rogue I reach in and “roll” the stem free with my thumb & forefinger, or pinch off the stem with my thumbnail and then pluck of the stick later in the week after it dries out a bit. 
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I only remove lower fans in veg if they’re laying on the soil, and I cut them so I dont tear off some stem tissue( it almost hurts when that happens).
After week one of flower I remove all leaves and stems below the third node, and then again after three weeks when the stretch has slowed right down, and only yellowing and dying leaves after that.
I read about this technique on Grow Weed Easy, and meant for indoor growing.
I must admit it took me a few grows to pluck up the courage to do it.
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For me it depends on airflow/ blocking potential growth from receiving light or if its dying already. It also depends on the strain. But yeah I admit I’m a leaf yanker, also like to abuse em and tie them up, down and any other direction that seems good at the time.
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Mendo Breath S1, 98 days from seed.
Before:
After:
Issues? BRING IT ON:
( 
)
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Is this for a mother?
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Hell’s yeah @Foreigner !
The more I cut away and revealed how strong this plant is the more I think it may be time to create an espalier plant with my current Mothers + a branch of anything else. 
@Oldtimerunderground made this project into a GIF
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