I’ve never grown an auto but I think you’re gonna help show how it’s done. Onboard.
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Well, you’ve got to have auto seeds to get started @navy66 what have you got in hand?
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Ahh ok. Now I i know you do it for the love of growing the plant. Glad you have testers so you can tell if it’s good or not. 
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I always ask for honest feedback but these are smart old coots I don’t think one of them has given me even a hint of a bad feedback in almost 5 years of growing. And 5 years ago I still smoked a bit and some of my earlier work was not very good. Bad genetics and bad growing skills.
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Very clever testers.
From what I’ve seen of your grows and people growing your seeds, you have it dialed in very well. Your plants always look good. 
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Nothing yet, but I’m looking for best genetics. Mephisto gets consistently high marks. . .DNA Genetics, too? I’d like to get a few going in the Portland sunshine soon (I normally grow only indoors)
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Thanks for those kind words. It is for me a labor of love so I try to do all the little things right.
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If you’ll trust me I’ll send you a starter package of autos to get you going. These would be coming out of my private stock so the same things I would be growing. I’ll be starting an auto grow in about 10 days or so to do a seed reproduction. Why not get yourself a 5 gallon pot and join in? Send me your safe mailing information and I’ll send you off a “sampler” pack on Monday.
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@LoveDaAutos Oh wow, thank you! I will totally join in your growing them! 
Will send my address now!
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Apparently there are a lot of people who enjoy growing but don’t partake…blowout being one of them. I’m getting there slowly and wondering what will I do with the herb I grow as I smoke one little joint a day 
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I used to think that… till the kids became adults. Now I cant keep their grubby paws out of my cookie jars! same applies to close friends and neighbors… lol
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Well done sir! Autos are fun and frustrating at the same time lol. At least when you are grower like me.
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Well my one good bud sampler is laid up from a mountain biking accident so I volunteered to very lightly taste the Sour Livers x Livers Bx and the ManBearAlienPig. But I didn’t inhale.
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One of the plants I am growing this spring is Indiana Bubblegum, the seeds from CSI Humboldt. One of the bushier plants I’ve grown to date. I keep thinning her out and she keep getting bushy. Well she is about 10 days into flowering now and yesterday I put her on top of a milk crate to get her canopy even with the other three plants in the tent that stretched quite a bit more than her. I also gave her a serious defoliation, I’m thinking her last. I believe a plant under powerful LED lights produces way more leaves then it needs to flourish so rather than having the plant waste energy on these leaves I remove them so the plant can push a lot more energy to the flowers. I provide she sugar the plant needs so a lot of the huge fan leaves are in my opinion not needed. Here is a before and after photo of my Indiana Bubblegum plant to give you an idea of how much I removed during defoliation. This of course is the before picture.
And this is the after picture.
This allows for much greater air flow , reduces the chances for molds to form, and greatly increases light penetration. It also increases the yield of the plant.
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Would you do that for a plant going outside? I know you said powerful leds just curious.
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Honestly I’ve only grown two plants outside. One auto and one photo. The auto was the first cannabis plant I ever grew. This picture from June 2017 is my Train Wreck auto which by the way I reversed and harvested 62 beautiful S1 seeds. The plant is in dirt from up in the woods with some homemade compost mixed in with it. Sand on the top to stop pests from getting down in the soil. She was pretty much 4 branches.
This is my only outdoor photo plant. I had this vision of keeping it growing outward instead of upward so nobody could see it. It made it to the end of the bamboo and the 3rd pot but them it headed upward all along the way. I got paranoid and mulched it.
To answer your question I would defoliate but to a lesser degree. Outside the plants battle the elements…sun, rain, wind, pests, mold. During the veg period I would want to leave many of the fan leaves on but remove enough so the plant isn’t like a sail in strong winds. Make some openings to let the air flow through the plant. At the top think of it as an umbrella blocking the rain and shading the lower part of the plant from the intense midday sun. And the umbrella is absorbing energy from the sun to produce much needed sugar for the plant. I believe as I moved into flowering I would thin the plant a little more allowing for more light and more air to penetrate inside the plants structure. But as with anything cannabis growing related if you pose a single question you’ll get at least a dozen different methods. So keep in mind I never really grew a photo plant start to finish outdoors except in my head and in the research I did prior to starting to grow cannabis
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It’s not a bad idea to do this on outdoor plants also. Most of the lower stuff is going to be hash/ extraction material anyway.
It does help with air exchange and mold to do this. You don’t need to though. You can just let it grow.
Genetics and your area are a consideration.
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Yeah, what he said. He does just a bit of outdoor growing.
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You made excellent points, but I’m outa 
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Awesome thanks guys! So back to indoor autos I have o e now that’s about 2 wks out give or take still swelling a bit a couple orange hairs. Would a good fan leaf defol help the lowers swell and of course increase airflow? Pic is on my journal mbapbf
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