Yeah I have been tucking a lot of them but I feel like they need better air flow. There are a lot of lower branches that could become bud sites if they could get a little more light I think. Thanks for your input!
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I’ve never been a huge fan of removing leafs in the name of better buds, to me leafs equal growth, root mass, Co2 absorbing, moisture transpiring which pulls in more nutrients afaik, leafs store starch that plants feed/grow from during the dark period, if you Google iodine staining this will confirm it is science.
On the other hand, removing them lowers humidity and imo stalls growth through the stretch period, with that same iodine staining you can tell that some leafs are better placed or more efficient than others, obviously leafs in the shade don’t get much light intensity by comparison but they still take in Co2, transpire moisture and store food.
Are they worth keeping, is the amount of Co2 absorbed by them nutrients pulled in etc warrant keeping them, idk?
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Two of these plants have had insanely large leaves since early veg…bigger than my hand. I felt like some of those had to go because they were probably drawing too much energy away from the plant, maybe I’m wrong? I kind of use my intuition on what I feel needs to stay and what needs to go. Too many leaves seem to block light and reduce air flow. I will try not pulling the lower leaves on my next grow and see what happens. I honestly didn’t think they would get this big, I had to wait for them to get to the scrog height before I flipped. Luckily I have a lot of height left in the tent just not much width. I appreciate your feedback.
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I like this approach, I will try some more defoliation around the top of the canopy in small increments but not going overboard and see how they do. Thanks!
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Apart from strain or pheno the other big factor that dictates leaf size , is humidity
The higher the humidity the bigger the leafs have to be to transpire the amount the plant needs , to function
In a lower rh room or tent then leafs will be smaller
The higher the rh is the more stomata needed to transpire the require amount
The lower the humidity , the less stomata required
It’s harder for plant to transpire in higher rh , than in lower rh
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I stopped doing a major defoliation!
I do remove any thing below the net and or lower branches mostly
I believe in the old rule if it blocks light or air it’s got to go
But I do it sparingly and I try not to go through the whole plant at one time
I should do more branch removal and lower bud sights but I like to make hash
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I did not know this, good to know!
I defoliate heavily.
And twice during flower.
From the day i begin 12/12, 1st defoliation is done on day 18-21. Any 1 of those days. This is where I clear out most of the lower larfy branches and just leave the 1st 2 sets of fan leaves on each cola (I usually top 3 times, 8 colas)
The next is either done 2 weeks later or on day 42. Another heavy defoliation leaving only the 1st 2 fans on each cola. Also final clearing out of lower branches that don’t receive much light.
I’ve realized with defoliation, im not experiencing any decrease in average yeild on my grows. I’m happier that I have fewer larfs and more nugs. And boy, the light does penetrate really hard. Better airflow and controllable rh as well.
I will be doing my 1st defiliation in one of my tents tomorrow (day 19). It’s already got really bushy in there and the rh is spiking really high.
Will be posting pics in my journal. Do check it out.
Warning! The girls are gonna get real naked…
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Long as its clean under the skirt, cause thats where most issues start, ill just remove anything blocking budsites or fans with long stems.
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I’ll check it out. I love see different approaches to things. Thanks!
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use defoliate heavy in week 4 of veg and week 4 of flower -THEN as needed ending up with no fan’s / inside leaves which is done for better light intensity to buds . Seem I’m alway removing leaves till week 7 of flower. After a heavy defoliation I always do a heavy feeding to help re-duce stress. For indoor cultivation one HAS to defoliate !!!
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This is where I picked up the technique from. There was no going back after seeing the results…
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Thanks for sharing this, I’ll take a look!
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What was the reason you stopped defoliating?
Cheers
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I’ve found like fish said when you defoliate the plant spends more energy building leaves not bud
I’ve been very selective on what and where I remove leaves
I do like to mainline the plants now it makes me prune them more selectively also so as to get big ass buds 
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I’ve been defoliating 3 blsu throughout the stretch period for the reasons you mentioned, my theory is I’m robbing the plants of the ability to grow and hopefully stretch less.
I stopped defoliating at the end of week 3 hoping to let them recover for actual flowering?
It’s interesting if nothing else 
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Here we go again! 
People, learn what makes a plant tick.
DO NOT ever defoliate unless you’re cleaning out useless, lifeless leaf tissue.
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Main lining that’s an interesting one, I’ve never tried it before but I’m thinking about it.
Iirc all the buds end up the same size/height (or thereabouts)
On occasions I’ve mentally tried to work out how it’s prepared for the buds all to arrive at the same size/height, i know i could’ve Google it but I kinda of enjoyed not knowing and trying to work it out 
I’ve still not managed lol but I’m thinking about giving it a try, I’ve seen some beauties in the past but I was set in my way.
Is there anywhere you can recommend for the basics on main lining?
Thank you.
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Here’s a good place to start
Paps
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When defoliating time it before you increase light intensity if you adjust light intensity for flower or do it in intervals so the newer leaves have time to acclimate to the brighter light intensity and not a whole tear down.If you remove light blocking leaves the bottom ones that were chilling in the shade will get a light burn on them.Looks like yellow streaks some people mistake it for nute burns or deficiencies.The plant snaps right out of it and grow new leaves so not a deal breaker but if your trying to reduce stress your plants will thank you for it.One of those things I learned the hard way so you don’t have to.I always remove the bottom third of a plant and keep the middle as free as possible and gets rid of that little popcorn shit and concentrate on buds.I do it in intervals and try to keep as many of the big fan leaves as solar panels for synthesis.I like my landracy stuff for outdoor hash making(don’t have to be pretty)I keep the chunky nugget plants for my indoor.Way easier to clean up and I have pretty headstash weed and hash
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