Hay say hello to @dequilo for me he’s a good dude
It’s only a forum debate
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Good to see you back @OldUncleBen, I’m on the defoliation side and always choose fruits with red zones because that means they’ve been blessed by the 
and are more sweet, thanks anyway for your valuable input, knowledge and experience which are always welcome in this forum … 
@sfzombie13, I see your point of view, what would worry me is not someone flagging nonsensical, but a mod giving consistency to that flag, fortunately that never happens so pay attention only to things that really matter, someone flagging Doug really made me laugh to death … 
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This is a Wedding Cake I grew about a year ago. It’s tough to see on the lower side, but I defoliated the hell out of her. She’s in a 10 gallon grow bag (my go to size) and every nug from the largest on the top to the smallest on the lowers were rock hard.
I believe that sometimes it’s just genetics. Just my experience.
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Beautiful Cuban missiles by the way 
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Will do. Remember his pet buzzard, “Buddy” He eventually flew the coop. Guess he didn’t like the Prime tenderloin Dequilo was feeding him. 
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Way to lighten the mood 
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It’s what I do! 
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And to stay on topic…I don’t really have a side I don’t know shit. I just have good luck trying a little bit of all you guy’s information and seeing what works for my chosen style at the moment( because my still changes with the wind) and my budget. Thank you all
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“Are you slow?” Doesn’t really come across as, “Totally civil and calm”
To those that defoliate, do you notice the flowering period is extended by a few weeks?
I’m running mostly 10+ weeks in all strains since I began defoliation a few years ago.
Would like to hear others opinions on this subject.
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Stands to reason if you remove “the source” it will affect the plant’s life cycle.
Let’s address this on a scientific, botanical basis with a question instead of the usual forum anecdotal evidence - what is the plant unit that drives ALL tissue production/elongation? Keep in mind carbohydrates (i.e. sucrose) are NOT localized at a particular site. They are distributed to “sinks” via the phloem. Sugar Transport in Plants: Phloem | Organismal Biology
Uncle Ben
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They look awesome and i like my weed like women like peckers! 
Is the picture of the plant before or after defoliation? The reason i am asking is because when i defoliated the leafs grew back on. It made me question if it was worth it and if the energy growing leafs was not wasted on buds.
In my opinion the easiest way to decide if defoliation is worth the effort is to do a side by side with cuttings from the same mother. Defoliate half of them really to the extreme and leave the rest alone. I am interested to test this with my next grow.
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I’m noticing a delay in my flowering time. So the plant does put energy on the re-leafing.
If done right, yeilds aren’t affected.
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There are dormant foliar buds that reside in the axis where the leaf petiole attaches to the main “trunk”. Remove that leaf (during veg) and it will trigger a hormonal response which wakes up those dormant buds, replacing perfectly good leaves… ending up in a waste of the plant’s resources.
Do it during 12/12 when the plant is putting its resources into the reproductive stage and you won’t get any new foliar output. You’ll just be reducing the mass that produces carbos which supply resources for flowering, bud production.
This is the very botanical cause/effect that I embraced decades ago when I came up with doing the 2 or 4 main colas thing - top, defoliate the terminal leader disturbing apical dominance and redirecting it to new foliar output to produce more main colas. All 4 will have that apical dominance with the top 2 usually having a bit more dominance then the 2 below it.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Topping+to+get+4+main+colas+by+Uncle+Ben
UB
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Which could only translate to more time taken than usual because from my observation, the plant will do what is needed as long as the grower knows what he/she is doing.
Below are a few clones I’ve defoliated from veg through flower, week 3 and week 6. They’ve releafed back…it’s my experience. After week 6, a couple of the sugar leaves become larger. They’ll just take more time than usual. Still another 4+weeks to go on these…
I don’t really defoliate for more yeild…more into managing rh and avoiding rot.
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And the only place left to regrow the leafs is in the colas , hence leafy buds
The experiment posted earlier was set to make seam defoliation as the winner as the tents were too packed to begin with , poor tent management as the main deciding factor at play : )
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Seems like I have read this somewhere.
Thanks @Hamme .
Total disclosure:
When I first started defoliating, it became an obsession. As soon as a reasonably large leaf grew out, I was pulling it off. In addition to that, when I would defoliate fems, I would start to see pollen sacks at the lower nodes where the leaves I removed met the stems. In one case with a Durban Poison, I’m pretty sure my obsessive defoliation is what sent her into a full blown hermaphrodite. I’ve since toned it way back and now only defoliate for the reasons stated here by many. Air flow, I can’t stand larf and lower leaves and stems get in the way of feeding and watering.
To answer your question, yes, I have seen defoliation delay flowering, but for me, I believe it was because the plant needed to regrow leaves to compensate for the ones I was pulling. I let my plants develop a minimum of 14 nodes (7 sets), then I top and remove the bottom four nodes and defoliate the bottoms only. Very similar to what @LoveDaAutos does. This works very well for me, but not for all strains. Some varietals grow very differently from others and the numbers I just mentioned may vary. It really does come down to experiments, experience and science. Hope this helps.
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Here is a GDP I just took a pic of that is in the same spot as the Wedding Cake I posted above. Again, almost nothing on the bottom in terms of leaves or secondary stems and her top growth looks exactly like the wedding cake. All of the conditions are the same every time I grow in this room. Same size bags, same soil mixture same food and water. One very distinct difference is this GDP is considerably taller. Taller than I am by about 6 inches (in a 10 gallon bag). That’s genetics. Week 4 of flower:
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So were some of my gardens. Production was heavy, talking pounds of cured bud. Grew Zamal, Peak19, Haze and C99 in this one.
You and too many others still do not understand plant processes. Carbohydrates are NOT localized, stuck in place. Carbos are produced mainly by large solar collectors called FAN leaves whereby the carbos, food, is past on to ALL plant tissue including the roots.
2001:
C99 at 4 weeks flowering.
Secondary harvest on C99
TFD’s O. Haze
Zamal, sativa from Reunion. A gift from Gypsy (Nirvana) after visiting his friend Christophe, a breeder of Zamal. Rumor has it that Zamal was imported from Madagascar or Africa.
Uncle Ben
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