defoliation when in flower

Odin*

Well-Known Member
Plants are meant to grow outside and as the sun goes over the Christmas shape plant, most leaves only receive about 5 hours of direct light as the other side starts to get shaded ( nodes don't grow long in a short time of direct light but if shoots don't get any direct light, they start to stretch )

often animals will eat some of the leaves or eat the top of the plant (topping)

receiving 12 hours of direct light causes the long node spacing between the nodes ( last thing i want)

removing a few fan leaves at the right time can stunt the shoots and keep the node space short ( no different to an animal eating a few large fan leaves)

I don't starve the plant, just don't over feed them and have soil that drains well


^This, right here, is the reason I browse through these weird threads. Not to be rude, but I got a good laugh from this, thank you.




In an effort to emulate Death Valley, I don't water my plants, ever. Then I don't have to defoliate, because the leaves fall off on their own. When I think they're ready I "flush", but not with water, I use Brawndo! (It has electrolytes)





 

Pig4buzz

Well-Known Member
Defoliated plants. These plants are 5wks flip. I have defo during veg, 1st week of flower, mostly bottom stuff. As the flowers begin to show I have plucked shade leaves to help light penetrate to lower nugs. Stripped no just shade leaves blocking light. I also place spacers after stretch to help light penetrate.

So yes I defo at veg, earlier flower, mid flower yet all are limited i think these look ok. Matter of fact if you didn't know I defo/trimmed these you would probably never know.

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mauricem00

Well-Known Member
this is and old ideal that keeps popping up. I tried it 2 years ago and yield was reduced.there were people then that swore by this technique but it has never caught on. a bad ideal that just won't die
 

Odin*

Well-Known Member
Matter of fact if you didn't know I defo/trimmed these you would probably never know.
No, we probably wouldn't (without adequate documentary/pics divulging "healed wounds"), but you would, if you were to learn how to grow a plant that develops rock hard icy buds from it's 7'+ top, to the "random twigs that sprout from below soil" bottom. If you were to and then do a side-by-side, you would wish for an alternate universe/dimension "you" to bitch slap you for your past transgressions.
 

Pig4buzz

Well-Known Member
IMG_2104.JPG Thanks. Prick. Not going to get in A argument with a immature 36yr old. I guess I could of loaded this post with 30.40 pics to confirm but I am not a dick as you to corrupt I thread with your childlike comments. Here is my other room 7+ icy sticky bitches. Lol. 39 days since flip ff lolIMG_2104.JPG
 

Pig4buzz

Well-Known Member
IMG_1755.PNG IMG_1854.JPG IMG_1975.JPG All 6 in one room moved them. Not going to load this up with pic but a couple. Now in two separate rooms.
Defo/supercrop whatever you want to call it
One of each of the above.
 

Odin*

Well-Known Member
...if you were to learn how to grow a plant that develops rock hard icy buds from it's 7'+ top, to the "random twigs that sprout from below soil" bottom.
7'+ top=7 feet tall or more. You confused this as (
"7 or more icy plants/tops", which explains your "smug" remark...

View attachment 3823849Here is my other room 7+ icy sticky bitches. Lol. 39 days since flip ff lolView attachment 3823849
Those plants are not anywhere near 7'+, so I'm positive that I am correct in my assumption.

Sorry to burst your bubble, not impressed.
 

chchhazed

Well-Known Member
Just read this thread from start to end, yeeehaaa that was a good bit of entertainment . Keep it comming.
 

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
Just read this thread from start to end, yeeehaaa that was a good bit of entertainment . Keep it comming.
I always get a big laugh when someone posts that for some reason they think buds are capable to a large degree of conducting photosynthesis, and that only if light is allowed to infiltrate to the buds will they develop/bulk properly.

I can always tell a noob when I see one......

https://www.rollitup.org/t/no-lower-budsites-do-not-need-light-to-develop-get-educated.829061/
 

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member

backtracker

Well-Known Member
Food for thought. When marijuana grows wild at first it establishes a large root mass that feeds/grows microbes etc, that is what the plant uses the big sun leaves for at first then it gets its size and after the plant is mature and ready to flower it no longer needs the bigger leaves now it's going to use the energy from the roots system to make flowers. In the wild many of the big leaves would have been eaten or knocked off by flowering time and it would have used the readily available nutrients. I have never tried it but have seen a few people have good luck doing it, It's in timing the leaf removal and feeding the microbes during flowering, maybe get the guts to try it who knows.
 

taylo dordun

New Member
Brothers dear me .. i have confesion to make .. takin' off fan leaves (indoor growth) it's must do brothers always take the fan leaves off i can show you pic' of 5 week flower 16 plants 1200 watts hps hardcore growth ! Dont lisetn to all those fuck's that tell you not to do so . And take them off it is ok if you leave the upper leaves alone they wont buder the light penetrating down the plant .. air circulation not less important .. indoor growth much difrent from outdoor remember this all the time brothers ;)..
 
Old thread, first post by noob here, but I want to make sure my understanding is sound....

Basically removing any leaf will cause a reaction in the plant because that leaf had a job? Be it the job it originally grew for, or for a job it matured into, it still had a job or function and after it has completed its function it yellows, withers, and eventually falls off?

If this statement is true, then it begs the questions, if we defoliate how do we determine what that leafs' function was when it was removed and what the plant had to do to compensate for the loss of function beyond what we can see? Also, not knowing what the function is at that specific point in that leafs life when it is removed, how do we know we have not broken a chain of functions for which the plant has to compensate, be it bud production or cannabinoid production, and thus expend extra time and energy to replace?. Obviously, if the leaf is yellow and withered its function is complete, so removal is not an issue, but a healthy green leaf, if my understanding is correct, is doing something even if its just feeding the leaf that grew above it so that that leaf can perform its function, and by removing it we may break a chain of functions that can not be duplicated again and finished by the new growth due to the plants' maturity or the same components not being readily available at this point ( ie. the components being stored in the removed leaf that is maturing).

I am a big time defoliator, always have been and thought I always would be, producing great product and lots of it and would have argued about how great it is to do so, based on my personal experience. Now I wonder if I haven't sold myself short all this time, due to my lack of real understanding. That what I produced, no matter how big, good, or potent it was, could have been exponentially better if I had just stuck to early topping and left the leaves alone in flower. That the plants only grew the way they did because of the genetics, the soil, and my ability to keep my plant healthy, not defoliation, and if I left it alone during flowering, because of all the things I do right, I could have had so much more The big mistake in my thinking that all the leaves were doing the same job, but from what I have read here though, they can be storing the same components(or different) at the same time (or different times) to be released at the same time (or different times) in the plants flowering cycle to produce the best possible representation of the plant. Not even realizing that each leaf evolves on its own and can be doing a different job at that moment based on the plants needs and leaf maturity, even though side by side with another leaf, they appear to the eye, to be the same type of leaf performing the same job. Thinking that the plant wasted energy producing leaf instead of bud, when its actually the plant producing leaf so the leaf can produce the energy to grow the bud.

A big pill to swallow for me, how much more I could have had. Basic botany to others here I guess. I think I am having a Homer Simpson moment, hopefully the first of many at this site.

DOH! (slaps forehead)
 

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
I find that removing all upper fan leaves at about 4 weeks flowering is beneficial. At that point they have finished most stretching and lower leaves are dropping due to lack of light. But while stretching, the plants have put out numerous bud sites along the main stems. All you have to do to exploit them is to remove those upper fan leaves so they can get decent light. Then you have converted from getting a flat layer of good buds on top and pretty much nothing below to getting a 3 dimensional array of buds a couple feet deep. Those buds will simply expand their lowest leaves as much as required to make up for the removed fan leaves. The root system is already in place to supply the removed leaves so they don't need to grow new roots right away, which is why they rebound so quickly. As far as I'm concerned, the fan leaves' purpose is to establish buds and once they've done that they're actually a hindrance.

If the enlarged bud leaves also get too shady I'll trim off the worst offenders as required. Sometimes I only need to clip off the tips of some leaves, as is commonly done with cuttings. No point removing an entire leaf if it's not necessary. It's hard to even get at the base of some bud leaves and if you leave leaf stems in place they will grow mold.
 

GrandfatherRat

Active Member
Reading the replies in this thread reawakens my appreciation and joy of discovery around this amazing plant. They truly are magnificent and complex creatures.
 
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