Extra ruffage in your diet mainly.
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If its done in small amounts so the plant feels its being attacked but not enough to go into shock. If they go into shock, then growth stops all around. I would say its a fairly fine line. I defol like a mf’er when I start flower and again, but not as much, at 2 weeks of flower. After that I leave them alone. A light spray of chitosan on the lower trunk helps to produce plenty of terps and trichomes without shocking them. A little fake bug attack does wonders.
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I knew someone who would eat the leaves.
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My wifes cat loves them. To the point that he’ll try to get them out of the trash to eat them.
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Legitimately - and i’ve said this a few times, the leaves and the sidebranches (new growths) taste AMAZING in hot pot.
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Playing god even more… i like this and might possibly do this on my next run
I’ve accidentally experimented with low stress on my flowering ladies and noticed the trichome difference on the one affected
That friend said the same lol. Cat would get pissy if it didn’t eat any leaves
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Agreed. Have licked my hands after trimming/defol plenty of times
Unique taste
If you really want to play, try using triacontinol (tria) on your plants. I use it on week 2 of veg, week 4 of veg, making sure there is 2 weeks between spraying and changing over to flower. The bud size and density was a huge difference. I did it to auto’s once and the difference was amazing. I just got a new light to review this summer. I just got done with a grow without it to see how the light performed. Starting a new one and I’m gonna use it for sure. Dense, large buds, without the PGR look and without the PGR taste.
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Most stress responses are tied together, at least loosely. If cannabinoid production is a UV or insect stress response, then herbivory may trigger cannabinoid production.
@LordHashington or anyone else wanting to explore the rabbit hole of plant light sensing @Ralf does a great job introducing:The green light myth: It's not 'safe' at night
Cryptochrome and phytochrome are decent search queries to dig further.
Can’t come up with any decent reason “dark” would be relevant, but that does not rule out the plant having one…
(Still wondering if @LordHashington has one too…)
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Would you defoliate in the dark?
Can you explain why one might?
Because nobody else has, and I don’t have much faith you’ll post this link for those following behind you, I will: click here for access to a treasure trove of Books - Google Drive?
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Cry about it. Lmao
Please answer each and every question like this for us.
@LordHashington fuck a book you got a personal assistant for each and every question you got. 
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Work schedule vs garden schedule is the only reason I’ve ever done it
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Doh!
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it takes me hours to defoliate and then a few days later it needs more trimming. Id suggest doing it in the light so you can see where to trim.
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So as know 12 hour cycle
Two people team maybe 4
And have to do 40 plants
My partner has kids and all that so I said why not get a green light so you can work 1 plant at a time so you don’t have just 12 hours to work in here so I though the green light would help.
Nugs are barely forming week 3
I told my partner maybe defo twice or prune maybe to save time on the defoliation day.
Is there any other tricks or tips to make the defoliation day less stuffy
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Which is where you got to searching on “defoliation” which was a (far) red herring…
Dead horse: any decent grow book goes into how flowering is induced, and should give enough of a handle on this particular subject. There are a couple in the books section of the Data Dump! (Scientific Papers) which was linked above.
The parallel with your photography experience is absolutely valid, and I’m suspicious it is as using such “safelights” and finding they didn’t work is what first lead folks down the phytochrome trail. It’s been more than 20 years since I worked closely with folks doing basic phytochrome work. I don’t recall ever hearing that explanation, but it rings true enough that I’m gonna have to go digging now…
Edit: Looks like 1930s-50s and unlikely to divulge itself trivially. Found this which might be useful for other folks finding themselves here and curious: Photoperiodism - Wikipedia
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This guy over here with the science jokes!
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