I would like to get some thoughts, practices, and experiences on defoliation during the flower cycle. Several years ago when I began growing again after about a thirty year hiatus the very first thing I was told is that once you get past the basics it is all about canopy management. Being a former outdoor gorilla grower I had never even considered canopy management. Moving to 100% indoor situation was completely new to me so I took heed to a much more experienced voice.
If you do defoliate… when and where
If you don’t defoliate… why
I use LED’s and canopy penetration is always (hu hu hu… he said penetration) a concern, so about the second week of flower I start to defoliate the canopy. Nothing extreme or all at once but just a gradual process for a couple of week. It seems as this practice helps the light dig a little deeper into the lower areas that would end up being larfy without the added light. I have found it increases yield
Some have said, “don’t do that it will stress the plant and cause it to throw bananas” and in the beginning some of my more unstable strains might have. After several years, the phenos I keep and put into production are as solid as a rock and that is no longer a concern. With that being said I would like to hear the practices of others
This might be a dumb question but the person that told me that canopy management was so very important also told me that there are no dumb questions. Now after asking so many questions there is only one question I would like him to answer… why did you change your phone number??
This shouldn’t be a concern if your genetics are decently stable. I’ve completely stripped plants of all fan leaves right after flower and never had herm issues.
Now with LEDs there isn’t as good of light penetration as DEs so my recommendation would be to screen of green and actually properly weave the branches evenly throughout the trellis, not just stick a trellis over the plants. The weaving will evenly distribute the canopy across the trellis then you can strip everything (leaves and bud sites) bellow the trellis. On top of that you’d probably benefit from stripping any big fan leaves that cover up important bud sites on top above the trellis.
Defoliation needs to be looked at from a process perspective. The plant like animals has certain organs that all work to gether to live, grow and breath. Lets look at the leaf. I explain the leaf as the engine of the plant. This is where nutrients are pumped in and thru the collection of light and photosynthesis converted into energy. When you defoliate you rob the plant of vital power plants distributed along a network.
I can show any grower how this works very easily. Take a fan leaf off of the main stem under a new shoot and see if that new branch keeps up with the rest on the plant. This will show you how taking leaves slows growth down.
point well taken, but for the sake of discussion, once the plant is flipped are we still looking for growth? I would not even entertain the idea of defoliation before flipping and in my process I wait about two weeks after the flip to start defoliation.
I do concede that we are still looking for a nutrient supply system but I guess the next question would be… using high phos microteas are there sufficient amounts of nutrients being delivered??
There’s a leaf covering a decent budsite that would otherwise get good light. Taking the leaf off would obviously increase the yield on that budsite, and quality if the leaf was actually resting on the budsite. Do you think the yield loss on the branch you removed the leaf from is greater than the yield increase on the formerly covered bud?
I know there’s probably no solid evidence on this but I’m still interested in the anecdotal.
Its not about the delivery as roots and veins deliver the nutrients. Chloroplast in the keaves take the nutrients/light and make chlorophyll.
When you switch to flower is the time when you grow the most biomass. I would lolipop if your worried about the larf. Why dont you strip one plant down this run and tje next strip the room and leave one with leaves. That will give you a better outlook on what the leaves do.
This is natural defoliation. The plant uses the nutriens in the leaf slowly. When there is nothing left you have a dead leaf. This happens as the plant matures and goes thru the seasons. If we just look outside every fall we see narural defoliation.
I am not trying to increase budsites, as I wait usually about 2 weeks before I start to open up the canopy. I defoliate to increase the light penetration to the lower sites that are already forming buds. Bud sites have long since been formed
