Interesting lab results from a defoliation experiment with clones

Advanced Techniques
#1

People seem to have strong opinions on GWE one way or another, but regardless of how you might feel about the site I think that this experiment was done well and had some interesting results:

I was not surprised too much by defoliation increasing yields, but the increase in THC was a bit of a surprise. The fact that all 3 clones had a higher THC content than their non-defoliated counterparts is interesting.

I’ll also feel a little better about defoliating my plants from here forward :grin:

What do you guys think?

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#2

Well kinda flawed to a degree “more hey lets expose more bud sites to light aka allowing more production to happen at said locations”, so not surprising there’s yielded more in a confined environment, but say if it wasn’t confined and ample space would the results be similar…

and i defoliate and prune just to expose more budsites to light where i can but leave as many leaves so long as they arent overlapping each other

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#3

I have been defoliating since I read the method in a book on bonsai I read in 1991 long before Soma stole the idea off of the blogs we were posting to at the time and before he wrote his book claiming he discovered the method :joy: Thieving POS. I started defoliating because I had a small spot with a small 400w lamp (before 430’s were even available) and wanted to maximize the yields of nuggs by minimizing the number of leaves. We had clearly documented grows, some with half or a whole plant that had been denuded and the other half left to grow au-natural, which showed much larger nugget formation from the populations of plants that had their leaves removed. The increased THC seems to come naturally from stress/shock inflicted on the plant, in this case from removing the leaves.

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#4

I’ll first admit to a positive bias to GWE as that site was instrumental to getting me up and running.
Nebula and Sirius are doing an amazing service helping folks to get going and share a wealth of information.

The weird thing… GWE was serendipitous in getting me here…

I was lurking back in the old days when Overgrow 1.0 vanished and I had checked over the years - no joy.

I was reading one of their articles in 2018 and noticed in a photo a laptop computer with OG.com in the corner… Initially I though it must be an old recycled photo but the eternal optimist in me said 'check it out" and the rest was history!! :partying_face: :+1:

Cheers
G

21 Likes
#5

Yeah, i tried lollipoping a clone when i started growing back in 08 and I couldnt argue with the results. Removing growth will increase growth hormones within the plant that will act on the bud growth and increase the over all production of everything. When you had a plant for a long time, you start to notice how hard you can preassure the plant for maximum yields and strength

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#6

I agree to the point where it seems obvious to me, but I’ve run into many people who actually disagree that overall this helps with production.

Defoliation is a 4 letter word to some growers.

It’s nice to see actual numbers, done with clones.

I also think this is a fairly common situation for indoor growers, having that crammed space and while it’s not 100% definitive I do think it helps reinforce the idea that it’s good to expose bud sites to light and remove anything below a certain point.

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#7

Thanks for posting this, really good article.
I have used defoliation here and there over the years. I always figured I get less larf from defoliation plus it helps with air circulation, reducing humidity

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#8

The thing is defoliation “in a cramped space” is beneficial, though some go too far or just have that plucking habit of wanting to do something and is more typical of newer growers, ideally so long as you have a canopy persay to me once defoliated to the point where you have direct light say hitting soil level you’ve gone too far.

Leaves overlapping on each other, bud sites covered by fan leaves = selectively defoliate

Defoliate to the point of stripping all fan leaves and leaving only shoots and budsites , nah

15 Likes
#9

I agree, and I think to a lot of growers strategic defoliation is somewhat obvious. The point of the article, I believe, was to confirm it in a (somewhat) controlled experiment.

It might seem unnecessary, but there really are growers who are convinced that removing any leaves is detrimental.

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#10

They publish a ‘news letter’ every week with similar comparisons and always reference back to their web site for more details.
It’s just basic and interesting items but the medium-term effects are they will guide a number of new growers through the initial ‘obstacle course’.

Their tutorial library is large and goes back to articles like Nugbuckets on Mainlining and Bonsai mothers by Oldtimer1

I can’t figure out their business model as the site is free and there’s no ads…

Cheers
G

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#11

I subscribed to it around when they started this experiment. I think it’s awesome to do side by sides with clones. I think it’s one way to help move the growing community past the bro science that we all have been forced to adopt due to prohibition etc.

One experiment with clones doesn’t necessarily prove something, but it is solid evidence IMO. To take your time and do something like that and pay for the lab results and share it with everyone for free is pretty huge… Props to them on this one. I hope they do more like this in the future.

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#12

There are good reasons to defoliate but I agree many go too far.

I do it mostly underneath and sometimes because I just don’t like the way something is looking.

I strip all my fans at the very end of flower but only because it makes it easier to trim :joy:

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#13

They strongly recommend a couple seed cos, Nirvana comes to mind. I always read that site with the assumption they were paid to do so. And good for them, they put a lot of ,IMO, good info out there.

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#14

In my experience having a community or newsletter to fall back on can help a tredemenous amount in avoiding or overcoming basic issues or mistakes. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re doing wrong until someone tells you.

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#15

There was two many plants in there at that size to begin with , hindering the natural side , set up was set to achieve how they wanted it too turn out ( like most internet readings )

Plus buds up close are already trimmed so unknown if extra weight is just sugar leaf but trimmed to look like better colas etc

Yes I am a " say no to defol " kinda guy lol

It’s a bad habit to get into like biting nails
Gets worse over time , people just can’t stop till nothing is left

If you want proper light penetration , less plants and open canopy up

The plant roots and leafs are in sinc with eachother , if you remove leafs in flower the plant must waste energy growing them back to function proporly again , removing energy from bud production doing so , and where is the only place still growing to put these new leafs back ?.. The buds

: )

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#16

Grow weed easy is imo the best beginner guide out their.

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#17

Disagree. I don’t personally even consider that high density planting. Literally all of my tents are more packed than that. I consider the density in the experiment pretty normal for most indoor growers.

There are many reasons to run high plant numbers. To each their own, but I don’t see a reason to run less plants when instead you can just remove some leaves.

#18

If you want higher numbers for a reason then flip them smaller … Easy

#19

Or just remove some leaves … Easy :wink:

1 Like
#20

Lesser quality of bud then