Defoliation vs No(little) defoliation

Another case in point, just took this photo. These avocados are hanging deep into the canopy of a large 14’ H X 10’ W tree in my greenhouse. They get no light. For you SoCal gardeners who love great cados, you’ll recognize this as Reed. They are rich, creamy, high oil. The orange tape is just a flag so I can find them later on!

UB

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Thanks for the heads up. And they came in the Ace pack which I love. Been doing sativas forever so this one should be easy since it’s been worked a lot.

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Gosh Dangit @OldUncleBen why did you have to show that picture!! :rofl: I do okay not wanting seeds till I see pictures like that.
“Deep breaths and repeat…you have enough seeds, you have enough seeds”

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I would venture a guess that the Panama X Malawi might reach the hallucinogenic level.

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I have some Panama/Malawi hash I made that is pretty lethal stuff :+1: like I’m scared to smoke it :joy:

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And just where, from what plant unit, does this “energy” come from?

I give up. :rofl:

Yep, not for the faint of heart and those prone to panic attacks or paranoia. Back in the late 60’s we occasionally smoked brick weed that was trippy. We called it “acid weed”. It was not laced with anything. It was also paranoia type weed.

UB

How to explain! So picture a plantlike the one in the back right corner of this photo. A week prior to this photo being taken I stripped everything but the leaves off of all the branches I feel would reach the top of the canopy leaving just the single growth tip on the top of or end of each branch. I keep all the leaves until final defoliation day which is a couple days before I flip them to flowering (11/13) at which point I remove all the lower leaves below the canopy as you can see in the second photo showing the same plant in the back right after defoliation prior to flipping.

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Crap I forgot the second picture. :grimacing:

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Ouch! …

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So if you look at the plant in the back right corner as the example. Think about how much energy that plant has to put in to keeping all those bottom leaves and larfy buds fed. How much sugar is wasted in those leaves. Without all that unnecessary foliage the plant can now distribute nearly twice as much of everything to the growth in the canopy. There are PLENTY of leaves left to produce all the plant needs.

Is this scientific? I don’t know honestly but when my buddy suggested I give it a try I was very skeptical thinking why would I want to remove all those lower bud sites and lose all that flower. But he knows what he’s talking about so I experimented with one plant and have not looked back. Below are some Golden Tiger photos all grown following the above defoliation program.

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Smoke report please.

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Picture the roots drawing up all the goodies out of the medium and as they are rising up through the branches the plant saying to itself over and over “nope, no need for any nutrients in this whole section of the plant some crazy bastard cut off all the leaves” So up it all goes into the canopy to feed those big ole colas.

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That’s not the way it works. Nutritional salts are used by the leaves which in turn produce carbos which drives tissue production.

Again, learn what makes a plant tick. Leaf | Definition, Parts, & Function | Britannica

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Or, we can amicably just agree to disagree since I am not seeking converts merely throwing myself out there talking about what has been working very well for me?

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General characteristics

3D rendering of a computed tomography scan of a leaf

Leaves are the most important organs of most vascular plants.[8] Green plants are autotrophic, meaning that they do not obtain food from other living things but instead create their own food by photosynthesis. They capture the energy in sunlight and use it to make simple sugars, such as glucose and sucrose, from carbon dioxide and water. The sugars are then stored as starch, further processed by chemical synthesis into more complex organic molecules such as proteins or cellulose, the basic structural material in plant cell walls, or metabolized by cellular respiration to provide chemical energy to run cellular processes. The leaves draw water from the ground in the transpiration stream through a vascular conducting system known as xylem and obtain carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by diffusion through openings called stomata in the outer covering layer of the leaf (epidermis), while leaves are orientated to maximize their exposure to sunlight. Once sugar has been synthesized, it needs to be transported to areas of active growth such as the plant shoots and roots. Vascular plants transport sucrose in a special tissue called the phloem. The phloem and xylem are parallel to each other, but the transport of materials is usually in opposite directions. Within the leaf these vascular systems branch (ramify) to form veins which supply as much of the leaf as possible, ensuring that cells carrying out photosynthesis are close to the transportation system.[9]

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Or not…

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Nope. That’s a no.

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i really wanted to restrain myself, and even deleted a past response… but the truth is some people are not growers and never will be.

its not about the plant, or sharing or enjoying in community for them - its about attention and validation - desperately seeking for a hug, a parent, or a prostitute… even better if they can get it all in one. good luck, maybe craigslist can help.

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