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
At best this far I’d trim some lower fans just for air flow you can see here your light penetration from led isn’t perfect. But you can’t argue it’s growing you bud alright. Personally never seen any benefits to defoliation. If anything I lost potential yield. I’d probably go as far as saying I lost a week’s worth of “good flower time” be good to stay posted here and see how you get on though mate.
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You are 15 days into flower. I would stop any major pruning, and clean up the bottom to allow for good ventilation and access for water.
These look great. Give a check to be sure you have properly watered, then a triple dose of LITFA.
Looks like a big harvest on the way. 
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I can only find the sample size of this product…
Part of why am using a cover crop of oat grass… something to cut on beside the girl…
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You can easily overdose on LITFA if you use more than what is needed.
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I moved all these so all ideas are in one thread for you to read. 
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Perfect timing. You moved it while I was posting. Somehow I missed this thread. Now all of my questions have been answered
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@Morgwar beautifully written. 
There is an interesting study in What a Plant Knows demonstrating plant memory. Part of the study they damaged one leaf by piercing it with a needle. The subsequent growth was stunted compared to the undamaged side.
I used to clean up under my ScrOG screens and have found that the leaves that get no light will yellow and die off just the same as if I had plucked them.
Airflow I understand, but what is the logic that the bud sites need light? Let’s not forget that leaves allow some light through them as well. Ever notice how a leaf seems to glow when lit from behind?
I’ve seen some killer results with leaf stripping. As a personal preference, I think the plant knows better than me what leaves are still useful.
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@anon58740919 thank you good info !
@99PerCent they seem to be all sold out of LITFA at Walmart lol
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@ryasco thanks for that! This is good information!
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