my defoliated vs non defoliated... pictures inside.

Ok so pics deffinetly suck... but they get the point across.

First picture is just a picture of a side node showing the plants maturity. Almost done!

Second picture is a skinnier bud with red hairs everywhere showing maturity. This is also the defoliated plant. Notice hardly any white hairs and no bulges of calyxes with fresh new white hairs... this bud only had 2 new bugles of new calyxes about 6 days ago. These have already receded red and mature. Growth stopped with new calyxes. This is the main top

Third picture is of an identical plant next to it. Not defoliated. Notice all the white hairs everywhere and very little red hairs. This bud is atleast 3-4x bigger in width and has a ton of new calyxes and white hairs coming off the new growth... this bud had 8-9 noticeable bulges of new growth 6 days ago. These calyxes have gotten bigger over the past week and hairs are still majority white. This is a main top.


The plants are, both equal size (about 6ft). Both clones off same plant(pineapple express). Sealed room with co2 at 1450ppm. Humidity at 40%(just lowered to 35%). Using lucas formula(just added MOAB thats why it burnt). Hydro ebb n flow system. Today is day 1 of week 7.

First hand experience for me shows NOT to take any fan leafs... in fact, this has me nervous to even pull a fan leaf off if its big enough to block 8 plants lol.

Also, this was extremely defoliated... end of mid to end of week 4 into flowering... EVERY fan leaf was taken off everywhere so light could get in. If you read "defoliating" is ment to take off ALL fan leafs. So dont say your not supposed to yada yada... it says very clear when defoliating you remove ALL fan leafs cause they are not need cause roots are already grown and bring food to the bud.

Please do not argue about pruning vs defoliating ect... this is just to show what defolaiting does. Its gets light to every bud site and makes it look like there is ton of weed on it... at the exspense of buds not growing much more. Rather look at a bush and when trimmed i see all fat colas.

Thanks for sharing your experience. And good for you being wise enough to see past the illusion. Nice looking buds also...keep em green

Its funny actually now that i look at it... the first picture is a lower node that grew outward enough to receive light on whole branch. Its just about same size as the top on the defoliated plant... you know there is issue when a plant with 12 -14 nodes and the lower node is same size top as the main top on another plant.

ricky6991 said:

Its funny actually now that i look at it... the first picture is a lower node that grew outward enough to receive light on whole branch. Its just about same size as the top on the defoliated plant... you know there is issue when a plant with 12 -14 nodes and the lower node is same size top as the main top on another plant.

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Thats called a healthy plant with good auxin distribution. The very first true node can be very stubborn and rarely reaches the level of the rest of the nodes less the main. But when you get the second node almost dominating the nodes above and between it and the main. Your doing things right in your garden. Just the way nature meant it too be.......

ghey ghey ghey ghey ghey

Only stating whats been posted in a write up that has been copy and pasted in ALMOST EVERY defoliating post to be used as example of why it works...

Anyways, yes not woant any arguments cause im not here to state why it should work and what it does...

My post is simple. It was done on one plant based on almost every post talking about how defoliating is done. I had a replica plant next to it which wasnt defoliated... non defoliated one has lowest node top being same size as the top to main defoliated top... the top to non defoliated plant is 3-4 times as WIDE. Meaning thick... everyone can take it how they want it.

Username42 said:

defoliation in weed growing terms does not mean "removing all the fan leaves because food is in the roots". Madness. defoliation is built up gradually with the aim of letting light through to the buds, all other leaves are left as they are because it is the leaves than contain the 'food'. asking us not to argue after stating something so ridiculous and controversial is just stupid.

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So what you are saying is buds need light so they can photosynthesis and get fatter?
And his original post is far from ridiculous. Pretty damn good example in my book of why not too do it......

Username42 said:

defoliation in weed growing terms does not mean "removing all the fan leaves because food is in the roots". Madness. defoliation is built up gradually with the aim of letting light through to the buds, all other leaves are left as they are because it is the leaves than contain the 'food'. asking us not to argue after stating something so ridiculous and controversial is just stupid.

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This is either Bud Brewer or Sir.ganga, time will tell which it is...
I would just ignore this member for now Rick....

This is the reason why we bash the defoliation topic so much. Another victim of irresponsibles all-knowing noobs. Keep the leaves on!

elkukupanda said:

This is the reason why we bash the defoliation topic so much. Another victim of irresponsibles all-knowing noobs. Keep the leaves on!

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Pay attention as he is not a victim. Contrary he is just sharing a real grow experience. And something tangible also IMO.

I'm referring to the fact of trying defoliation out... goes against any common sense and advances in science. It has already been proved that leaves are basic units for the proper function of a plant. There is no need for experimentation when it comes to this... It has been done.. That's how they are able to understand so much about leaves.. Thank you rick for sharing your experience

I like that you actually did a side by side. Good on you man.

Maybe if folks look at it this way - Roots are like a gas tank, they take up water and nutes. Leaves are like the spark plugs, they convert sunlight into energy. Both work together to create a finely tuned engine.

We don't remove spark plugs from our cars to make them go faster. To tune an engine we address the whole thing; air intake, fuel/air mix in the combustion chamber and how fast we can get the burnt fuel out (there are a few other things but you get the idea).

Same thing with weed; we have to address the ENTIRE plant as a whole to be successful.

I actually work on cars so i get your analogy lol... works pretty well...

Also, i didnt purposly do a side by side. A buddy read on it and seen pics of huge buds from an old post and defoliated 2 out of 12 of plants. So i had already made post awhile ago and everyone started arguing and mods locked it...

So this is just showing without the fan leafs. (Yes even couple of em) the buds do not grow the extra calyxes therefore do not gain thickness... the origional buds may get bigger but thats just the calyxes swollen and then jus makes big fluffy bud. Rather have alot of calyxes swell last 2 weeks then few calxes swell early equaling in less wieght.... the statement is just my opinion of what took place.

I will say now in hydro the growth is more noticeable and its crazy to see the extra calyxes grow out of the bud or branch whatever. When in soil i just seen thicker buds over time. Now i noticed afew new calyxes pop up and then couple days later the entire bud is overall covered in white hairs and new calyxes making buds bigger overall.

Username42 said:

Madness. defoliation is built up gradually with the aim of letting light through to the buds,....... asking us not to argue after stating something so ridiculous and controversial is just stupid.

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Believing buds need light to develop is what's stupid.

Thanks. Good job man. Short and sweet, now I don't have to read 300 pages of arguing about it

Uncle Ben said:

Believing buds need light to develop is what's stupid.

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Yep...

How to defoliate and why not to remove all the leaves is detailed.

Uncle Ben said:

Believing buds need light to develop is what's stupid.

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Buds photosynthesise light in order to grow, they are green and full of chlorophyll just like the leaves. If you don't believe me stick a cardboard box over your main cola and see how far you get.

elkukupanda said:

I'm referring to the fact of trying defoliation out... goes against any common sense and advances in science. It has already been proved that leaves are basic units for the proper function of a plant. There is no need for experimentation when it comes to this... It has been done.. That's how they are able to understand so much about leaves.. Thank you rick for sharing your experience

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stems are also a vital part of the plant, but some brave soul cut the top leaves/stem off in the name of science to bring us what we know as topping today....