Hi there ladies and gents,
I have read a lot of articles about pruning and it sounds like it can be detrimental and also beneficial depending…and thats where it gets cloudy. Prune leaves covering new growth but leaves are needed as solar panels and should not be removed, it all seems confusing and scarey to start snipping.
Any help here would be much appreciated, thanks guys.
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I go hard with the pruning and leaf removal, do a lot of hst and scrog. I remove leaves throughout veg and I do the technique in flower called “schwazzing” which is remove pretty much every leaf with a stem on day one and 21. I also lollipop so every branch had every lower node removed, usually leave about half.
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Thanks Qtip I see pics of plants heavily defoliated like that, and thats why I started this topic, mine grow bushy with huge fan leaves and I’m scared to start pruning, I topped them three days ago.
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Have you tried tucking?
I thought of that is that ok as it tends to block out air circulation?
I hate leaves on top of leaves and I think the negatives outweigh the positives. I grow in an upper floor room and heat and humidity are a nightmare and heavy defoliation helps with that.
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Depends on the strain. Sometimes they have good branching and you can tuck right through. Doesn’t hurt to try, and if it doesn’t feel right you can always snip it off.
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My grows are pretty small (getting bigger!)and nothing I like better than sitting at my tent futzing with my plants. All kinds of training and manifolding, pruning, pinching and bending…LITFA not in my arsenal. I’m sure as things expand some of these time intensive techniques might fall by the wayside.
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I do heavily defoliate some, none at all on others, I go by density, leaf size, actual plant size , I grow trees so defoliation usually fits the bill.
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wait there’s a term for this???
here i though i was just cleaning up around bud sites.
time for another round of defol
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Some people swear by it others don’t do it. I have yet to buy the plant empowerment book but there’s apparently some good info in there about why you shouldn’t and I’m curious to read it.
There’s growers that I respect that do it and there’s also some that don’t, both with good results. I did it for a few grows but I’m currently learning to the other side of the fence now. Mainly because of the labour involved but for a few other reasons too.
https://www.plantempowerment.com/knowledge-base/empowering-plants-assimilate-balance/
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I usually take off the bottom third of the plant as it tends to be below canopy and doesn’t get good light. If it does develop it turns into larf which is a bitch to trim.
Also I have powdery mildew PTSD so I pluck any leaf that is touching another leaf mostly.
I aim for 6-8 colas about 12” long give or take.
Like this:
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I remove all of the inside leaves and remove all branching and bud sites except for the last 4. I also remove all bottom branches that don’t reach the canopy. I start this about a month before bud outdoors. This directs all of my plants energy to the outside and top colas during flower. I end up with larger colas and zero larf.
New here what is larf?
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Larf are tiny little buds of low density that occur below the canopy.
Smokes fine but is undesirable.
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Thank You! So OK to make butter?
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Yes it’s still weed and it’s still good and it’s still potent.
I just hate trimming it.
It takes potential productive energy away from the main colas.
So not “bad” it’s just that we’re after giant baseball bat buds and not larf.
All the best
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I have very good airflow and tends to be on the drier side. So I think this is how I’ve gotten away with no defoliating. It seems to me it’s only useful to control issues rather than promote growth. But I’m always dubious when you’re deviating from what the plant wants in nature. Then again, the plants want to reproduce while that’s not the goal for us.
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Thanks for all your input guys I guess its another learning curve and like other things it depends on the plant. I did a bit of tucking so I’ll see how it goes.
I’ll give it a few more days so they’ve recovered from topping then look at trimming up the lower growth.
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