Should I Defoliate these Autos?? Huge Super Dense!! Exp grower req I'm a newbie

So my grow is going FANTASTIC some minor early stunting but plants more than recovered and now I have Huge dense Autos transitioning to flower. Ease look at photos and advise I can take more. Everything I read says let em do their thing. I did no LST but should have for sure and will next time. Now I need to know if I should Defoliate and exactly what I should. This is 1 of 25 nice plants multiple strains.
 

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Take off some of those big fan leaves if you want. Nature does fine without us, but yeah we can optimize
I'm running it in a DWC bucket and it is thriving. What worried me is how dense the inside is for later on in flower I've heard a lot of.people.that have mold.issues. Again this is my first grow I had to move a bunch of plants out of my 9x5x6 tent I have 25 total all beauties just very little defoliating done so far so with this big bush I was hoping for some help. Looks like it's gonna have some huge dense buds though!! Here is one a little further into bloom and my overgrown situation. I take some out during the day the other side of the tent is full too I wish I woulda scratched the tent just used the room
 

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T-ronik

Member
I defol autos. Best time to do it is right after stretch. Lollipop and defol. Make sure all the flower sites are getting light.

That's pretty much the only time I touch them unless I've got leaves laying on top of each other and sweating.
 
So when you lollipop
I defol autos. Best time to do it is right after stretch. Lollipop and defol. Make sure all the flower sites are getting light.

That's pretty much the only time I touch them unless I've got leaves laying on top of each other and sweating.
See like the small bud sites like almost feathery inside the plant in the first pic I should basically whack them cause those budsites will be so small and it will boost the main bud sites like the one in the second pic right? ???
 

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T-ronik

Member
you can take everything off below the bottom quarter of your branches unless it's receiving a decent amount of light then leave it on.

At the end of stretch first week of budset is a good time to go to work on her. Try to set her up for flower. You want air flow and light penetration to all bud sites. And if it little spindly shit under the canopy just whack it.
 
you can take everything off below the bottom quarter of your branches unless it's receiving a decent amount of light then leave it on.

At the end of stretch first week of budset is a good time to go to work on her. Try to set her up for flower. You want air flow and light penetration to all bud sites. And if it little spindly shit under the canopy just whack it.
The airflow is where I worry as you can see it's pretty cluttered in there. What about what are now light bud sites smaller branches coming off of main branches with larger flowers should I let them bloom or chop them?
 

McStrats

Well-Known Member
Anyone who has ever defoliated an autos opinion means something to me brother
I have defoliated and here's my take: some plants like it (mostly photos) and some hate it. Defol seems to work well when you are growing a familiar strain that you know can take the stress and still thrive. All strains have their own traits though. Some autos can probably take it...but a lot of others will stunt. In my experience the only trimming worth doing to an auto is lollipop. With most auto strains defol doesn't get you anything. Keep in mind also that you want the light to hit the leaves so that the leaves can feed the bud. Buds don't photosynthesise like leaves do. Leaves are also like the food pantry for the bud. Chop the leaves and you are depriving the bud of food. Again...not an argument against defol....but an argument against using it on a plant that may or may not like it. For airflow: Lollipop yes. Defol no.
 
I have defoliated and here's my take: some plants like it (mostly photos) and some hate it. Defol seems to work well when you are growing a familiar strain that you know can take the stress and still thrive. All strains have their own traits though. Some autos can probably take it...but a lot of others will stunt. In my experience the only trimming worth doing to an auto is lollipop. With most auto strains defol doesn't get you anything. Keep in mind also that you want the light to hit the leaves so that the leaves can feed the bud. Buds don't photosynthesise like leaves do. Leaves are also like the food pantry for the bud. Chop the leaves and you are depriving the bud of food. Again...not an argument against defol....but an argument against using it on a plant that may or may not like it. For airflow: Lollipop yes. Defol no.
This plant here is my main concern it has 10-12 main Bud sites and if you can see all this dense light green foliage inside some of that leads to Bud sides too so that's the stuff that I'm curious about should I lollipop that to all the main Bud sites you're saying
 

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Fatleg77

Well-Known Member
I top lst defoliate and lollipop all my autos everytime. I have only stunted one and it still gave me 5 fat colas. My best auto to date gave me 6 oz of good bud. If your basic parameters and environment are on point the plants will almost always thrive with all of the training and shaping techniques.
 

McStrats

Well-Known Member
This plant here is my main concern it has 10-12 main Bud sites and if you can see all this dense light green foliage inside some of that leads to Bud sides too so that's the stuff that I'm curious about should I lollipop that to all the main Bud sites you're saying
Trim out all the lower "peach fuzz" as it's never going to be anything worthwhile. I found this pic on the web. It's a classic lollipop. Leave the bigger fan leaves that are slightly above that lower zone.
 

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In4It789

Active Member
Trim out all the lower "peach fuzz" as it's never going to be anything worthwhile. I found this pic on the web. It's a classic lollipop. Leave the bigger fan leaves that are slightly above that lower zone.
Man!! I really hope I can get my plants to that point someday. I’m only on my 3rd grow ever & still haven’t gotten the balls yet to try LST for real and certainly not lollipopping but I hope I’ll get there someday. Your plant looks like perfection man! Just fat colas and all exactly the same. So impressive!
 
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