Defoliation study

Lotta leafs in them buds when zoomin
Just saying
: )

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I clicked on your profile, then on the first post tagged “grow log”. Simply.
So, i done it again with more care. I think that this little exchange can’t lead somewhere interesting for both, you know what to do.

I never pull off any leaves with trichs. And leave the small growth. Its really about pulling off all the fan leaves. Sorry for not being clearer. Theres a million great ways to grow a bud. Just sharing what works for me!

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Ah, the age old debate. LOL. It’s really impossible to compare outdoor plants to tent grown plants IMO. I think by now I have seen all arguments on this topic. Sometimes folks defoliate indoors to improve airflow and reduce humidity. Also something to be said about all the lower stuff being larfy since it cannot get any light through the canopy. Not really the case when grown under the sun. Personally I don’t really defoliate although I have done it before with fine results. One of the things folks talk about is yield but as a medical grower, I don’t really care about yield as I can grow 10x more weed than I can smoke with relative ease. I stopped weighing my harvests years ago. Just jar it and smoke it. There is a load of truth and broscience surrounding this topic. In the end I hope all just keep the debates civil, learn from each other and do what makes them happy. :v:

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Yes.
[example photo]

“Pruning and defoliating” isn’t the same
As
Topping for yeild/growth

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I’m with you. I can outproduce my consumption. Goal is quality, but a decent return is always nice. I haven’t weighed mine for a couple years. Just don’t care about gr per watt stuff.

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The gr/day is more powerful to rate a grow imo. Whatever is the method or the tech, i even find it enough reliable to rate phenotypes.

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Not sure I have that mindset either. :slight_smile: That’s one of the things that interested me. Like you, I have always thought of it as “redirecting.” The idea of “overcompensating” is a whole different thing, I think.

What I’m saying is, in my head, the overcompensating seems to imply stressing but maybe I need to go read it again. I was sorta treading water to begin with. :slight_smile:

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didn’t mean to imply they are. but i wanted to talk broadly, about both, so I used both terms.

i think the authors make that point, too, btw – that pruning and defoliating are entirely different – to my recollection, the implication is that pruning generally makes a lot more sense than defol.

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The obvious “auto-flowers” a better “cannabis related” answer?

My answer still is yes.

Me neither. I have a plant count of 25. The last full bud run I did, other than the recent one where I tried Jacks for the first time, was just 4 plants in a 4x4. 2 Shiva Skunk on the left and 2 Maui Woui on the right. These were the plants.

image

This is what I got.

image

So in the end, I find it easy to cover my needs.

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That’s the whole debate for me, the real one beneath the infernal defoliation debate. Nailed.

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:eyes:
4 plant forest.

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AND the wall of “game of throne movie” in jars of my favorite skunk hybrid :rofl:

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That is a heroic haul. :astonished: This is never gonna be done by me. :grinning:

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Why not @navy66 , if I can do it, anybody can do it.

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My maybe misplaced understanding is that by defoliating you are essentially redistributing auxins? I defoliate pretty hard indoors, especially if it’s a particularly short branchy shrub, and also lollipop, but I found that you have to be careful when you do it, as too late and too aggressively can result in the flowers ‘running’ and not filling up as much. Of course nothing scientific here, just observations.

I have always just assumed that the extra yield was down to allowing more light into the canopy?
Outside? Fark that. Way way too much work to defoliate lol.

Should keep you going for a few weeks huh? :wink:

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Just talkin about root mass and plant mass and their relationship etc and what happens if you upset the balance

Edit , this is one of the factors for the distribution of buds , from top cola down to larf as the hormones are distributed like / with the pressure kind off within the plant
@crownpoodle @Fuel @navy66 @George

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Defoliating increases yields if you have enough plant density.

Leaf stripping is the most labour intensive part of a grow cycle after harvesting, yet I doubt you will find a single commercial facility that doesn’t pay people to do it because it’s so effective.

If you look at other glasshouse horticulture you will see defoliation is common there too where it has seen decades more optimization yet they still pay people to manually remove leaves from plants despite razor thin margins on fruit and veg.

The case for cannabis is really simple, to get maximum yields you need to cram a heap of plants into an area, if not defoliating is even seen as an option then your plants are not densely packed enough in the first place.

Large outdoor plants don’t really come into it, the parameters are so different when you have 5ft long branches swaying in the wind, highly defused sunlight etc, completely different to what’s happening indoors.

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I find most of my plants drop their interior lower fan leaves on their own if they experience any stress, and also when they get near harvest time. They seem to suck the nutrients out of the leaves and then ditch them.

After a few grow cycles I decided this kind of level of optimization was important on a commercial scale and far too much work for me when I’m already producing extra and can’t sell it. I just let my plants grow and remove any leaves I think pose a mold risk.

Seems like there’s other factors to think about too. The couple of reveg photo plants I tried had a pile of fan leaves on them and went spectacularly fast compared to what I’ve seen for time estimates from folks starting with naked stems. Also, I often like to hold over my “stumps” post-harvest and pollinate the popcorn buds for seed. That goes just fine with fan leaves on them, even with most autoflowers.

It’s a fascinating subject for sure!

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