OMG! Dony give Texas any ideas!
Before switching to flower I lollipop alot of my lower growth. Anything that looks sickly, or doesn’t get adequate light goes. I find the benefits to this outweigh the negatives. I’ve found it helpful to keep pests away and it also opens up the bottom of the plant for more air circulation so less chance of mold of PM.
On my current grow I waited a little too long before doing this and I got mites for my first time ever. I did it then treated them with insectisidal soap and the problem seems to have went away.
I can’t really say it’s affected my yield but I do get more yield now than I did years ago before lollipopping.
EDIT: Spider mites are back with a vengeance just had to remove a bunch more foliage and spent an hour spraying my plants top to bottom. I wish I could get my hands on neem lol
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I agree on the Plantstress, especcially the sativa races seem to have a higher growth assignment in their genetically code. As Fans on bottom of grow room? Hmm, I don’t know, I see faster evaporation of Water, not to speak that a dry floor is not too ideal, if you have the right bacteria spectrum. Sativas can grow very well in wet soil and high humidity. So warmth and good bit of mist is not too bad if you don’t scare a bit of “resin loss” threw this. Do you? 
Be well.
I.
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Flushing you plants like a maniac is not necessary if you have living soil, plant and soil going to have symbiosis if relations are right. Search for symbiosis in bacteria, mychorizzae plant and nutrients out of Bio sources which bring no disruption in nature and everyone will have his goods. Throw away the apples.
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Of course if you make seeds, it would maybe not be the best to stress the shit out your plants, or would it?
Try it! I assume hermaphrodism been a genetical defect threw inbreeding not stress. Focus on the selection not the inbreeding and you can find a pick out of every bunch. If you havn’t got big growspace g®ow for small pots. As for Sativas, Plants can life in those too. And 20-30 Plants are managable. Try it.
Be well.
I.
leaf stripper
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Horny little bugger.
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now that is a deleafing i wouldn’t be procrastinating …
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I lst in veg and then scrog flower. Pre flower I prune the lower third of the plant or so. This cycle I did a light defoliation at just the top around week 4. Next cycle I think I’m going to do my best to eliminate any undergrowth at all and around week three do some really heavy whole plant defoliation. What do you guys think?
Are you old school “follow nature the plant needs all those leaves. Only take it off it’s half dead or more”
Or new school “get rid of all those leaves for better light penetration and so the plant focuses on growing buds not leaves”
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yes i do a heavy defoliation between week 2 and 3 of flower, removing every leaf where i can reach the stem. this round i should have done a better job lollipopping before the flip. next round will be much better!
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Idk if it counts but I top in veg and lollipop my plants to the top 2-4 internodes right before the flip. I don’t defoliate much unless a flower is shaded.
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@Dewb that very much counts too 2-4 nodes per branch? How do you think this affects total harvest and nuggets in general? I’ve seen jungle boyz say that they do everything except one top node.
Yeah per branch. I remove whatever lower branches that I think won’t make it to the canopy. What I’ve noticed from doing this is far less fluff/larf. Haven’t seen a loss in weight. The gain, more dense quality nugs. But it pays to know the plant. if you do it to an indica with no stretch it would suck.
I’m old school but only because I love how the plant looks aunatural, I do not decry or speak against defoliation but I do believe that every leaf is important.
In bio 2 I picked up that when a plants leaf reaches a threshold of producing less than it uses, there is a chemical balance that causes the leaf to die before it becomes a burden on the overall system.
However it is well known that a plants response to damage can be explosive resulting in large increases of foliage. I’m guessing this is a response to predation ensuring against further or even catastrophic damage much like our own muscles and tendons when damaged by work or strain they get BIGGER.
Much respect to defoliators, but the classic shape and beauty captivates me every time and I can’t bring myself to do it lol.
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Usually I have the bottom third stripped of all growth, with multiple topping and long veg. time. Pick off large fans which shelter buds No appreciable yield difference. I mainly do it for airflow, and easier plant maintenance. I have defoliated juvenile vegging plants only after they finish recovery from final topping round. I defoliated one plant in bloom wk 2 with its sister just mainenance pruned, and found little difference in weight, smokeability. I just hated the look of the defoliated plant, though it took up less space, as i could cage it a little tighter. As stated many times before, each strain responds differently. I only run plants untopped when I’m in a hurry to see what a new strain has to offer, and whether its clone gets to survive lol.
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To me depends. My current grow was so crowded that after a certain spot it does not mattered if I defoliated or not, as there would be shadow anyway. So I not bothered defoliating the bottom, just removing dead leaves. But on the “bud formation zone” yeah, if there was any shadow possible to lessen defoliating I did it like - first one just before 12-12 and then some maintenance here and there. I don’ do cycling heavy defoliations, I just keep removing here and there the entire flowering cycle.
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If you prune away the areas where the light does not penetrate, it frees up excess root capacity for the areas that are in flower. Plants knows what to do with extra energy!
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Hello Overgrow
I Lollipopped plants about a week before flower (shown below)
here i am day 15 of Flowering
QUESTIONS: :
- should i take out bottom half of foliage ? or let them grow?
- would that be a bad move this far into flower?
- anyone else lollipop during flower?
i definitely dont want to stress the plant and have issues any and all help is greatly appreciated !
-SWAYZE