I’m thinking the exact same thing. I’ve never gone that hard on defol but I really like how they are responding. I also don’t grow bushes nearly this big, but I’m really interested in doing more now. But like he said, I’m water only too, and plenty of strains run out of gas early. The big fans are my reserves and I’m afraid they’ll be needed.
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Yeah, you’re both right. It was a little excessive. 
Usually I leave a lot of foliage so the plants have plenty of gas to go the distance. I went hard, but I had a few things to address and questions to answer. First, I had a humidity problem from so much foliage. If this was the only issue, I could have defoliated less and been fine.
Second, I wanted to stress the plants and see where the chips fall to pick keepers. The Triangle Kush x Iraqi presented a dilemma. I’m picking between two cuts for my 2nd keeper from that strain. (It’s really that good.) I want to see how they react to the extra stress - if #1 throws nanners again during the clone run, it’s for sure gone.
The 4x Pura Vida F2 that @iamyou_youareme is close to harvesting have some monster colas, and I wanted to see if I could push yields on the F1 by clipping all the suckers and doing a little extra defoliation. The Pura Vida are extremely branchy plants when topped. Also, I wanted to see if they remain stable - they were perfect in the seed run, but here’s where the rubber meets the road.
Next, all that extra foliage creates good hiding spots for bugs. Since I brought the cages in directly from the outdoor garden and didn’t sterilize them, I figured a few bugs would stow away. Like I said, I started seeing minor signs of thrips and spider mites down low, so I figured I’d get rid of their hideouts. I’m not going to spray anything (last spray was day 7F), so hopefully the defoliation and good plant health and my sticky traps will keep the bugs down to a minimum when targeting a New Years harvest (9wks on the nose). I’m not very concerned since I’ll keep up the normal IPM in the rest of the house, and that’s only 6wks away.
Lastly, I wanted to see which phenos were the hungriest. The plants have been in these pots for 7wks already. I topped up the soil just after flip, but I want to see if the amendments & biology in roughly 6.5 gallons of dirt is enough to sustain such big plants. I have a couple people I’ve been talking to about optimal plant sizes for water-only grows with recycled organic soils, and I ran some Strayfox testers last year in half size pots of recycled but unamended soil and they did great for being in the soil 77 days.
Full harvest post here: strayfox gardenz #circleofblessings | Page 49 | Rollitup
That got me thinking I may be able to cut down the amount of amendments I’m using to simplify and reduce costs. Or cut down on pot sizes. Or both. These are the largest plants I’ve grown in awhile and I hope they’ll be up to the challenge. I’m at my max height in the tent. 
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Love chunky girls . Nice job looks like they had the right amount of food in that soil.
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2nd keeper and monster colas ! I cant wait to give these a try. I really want to do a preservation seed run with the Nibiru. I have been mulling through the vault to pick something else to start first. Looking for something that would be complimentary to cross with the Nibiru. From what Ive read, this strain is not branchy or stretchy, and Im not sure what the terp profile will be, it seems several of the ghash crosses are dominated by those hashplant terps so I was thinking that a cross with the TK x Iraqi would bring a more branchy, terpy outcome to the Nibiru.
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Dude, I’m right there with you. Almost everything I’m growing right now has stretched out of control. I’ve got about eight inches left to raise the lights and that’s it. But that’s to keep the lights about a foot, foot-and-a-half from the tops. Day 22 of flower, I’m gonna take pics tonight when I water and start a log tomorrow.
Anyway, at least you had reasons for defoliating like you did. When I saw those pics, I was like,”Jesus Christ! What’s nube thinking?!?” haha. I don’t ever defoliate or do much pruning at all, other than topping mid-veg, but I may have to this round. Shit’s getting huge and slightly unruly.
Pretty stoked to see how these PV’s turn out for you, though. They all look good to me…
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you do beautiful work @nube , my Prop’s and Respect! i think there’s alot i can learn from you. you tha king!
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Follow the link to pay for the Fall Seed Run Box shipping. 
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Done ! Thanks again @Sebring
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Done thank you
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Paid earlier, can’t wait to see what I actually signed up for lol
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On the website payment page there were links to the seed runs so you can check what you signed up for.
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Eh I like surprises lol
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Thanks for that I was going nuts trying to remember as well hahaha
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Sorry, just saw this! Paid, and added a little extra. Thank you Sebring! 
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@Sebring…paid. thanks brother
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Many Thanks for the kindness
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@nube…thank you so much for taking the time to do this i cant wait.
@lefthandseeds …thank you as well brother, pack made it safe and sound.
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Received mine yesterday! Plant mail is the best! Don’t I owe somebody something for them? @Sebring
Thanks for an awesome and successful run! Stoked!
EDIT- Found the link. Paid.
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Woohoo! Glad they mader. I hope there’s enough for a big pheno hunt in each pack, and that they bring you many happy harvests. 
Special thanks to @Sebring for making it happen, and for @anon60559124 for donating the Wolfpack F2 and @The_Lazy_Hippie for donating the pack of Pura Vida F1 to preserve. 
If anybody missed out on the Pura Vida F2 and the Wolfpack F2, Headiegardens.com still has a few of the double packs available as a fundraiser for @Strayfox’s daughter when you buy both a pack of @Strayfox and a pack of @bodhi seeds. After those are gone, I’ll send Sebring more packs of the Pura Vida F2.
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