Defoliation during flowering for greater yields!

Hi Weaselcracker great job I did the same thing when I jumped in on my grow 6 and it worked great for me. I also had a problem on my present grow 8 on it's day 20 & we lost one of our 600W light ballast & had to use a 400 Blue Hortalux light the only thing we had. So I went to full defoliation on the Sour Diesel & Cannatonic on that side & weaved as best I could the plants. I like you have grown both ways no deloiation to almost full defoliation with AK and find myself double gusseing myself but all I can say that all I have used "and am still using of AK's method has worked so far. Here is a picture after defoliation.
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Weaselcracker said:
What would be some examples of bad timing AK?
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I tried once just before flower and only gave them a couple days to recover. It wasn't enough they stayed frozen in time for about a week. Then the stretch stated to happen.

In the very early days I tried it at day 7 of flower. Again they we're really stunted for a week then stretch took over again. I ended up with long vines with no support. This was the moment I tried to start incorporating the SCROG method.

Next grow I did it on day 15. It stopped the stretch and when they recovered they only stretched about another 6 inches. After that there was no more vertical growth. I like that a lot.

The biggest thing is timing. Without adding much nitrogen to flowering you must do it with in a certain window of opportunity. The beginning of week three right when you start to use a bloom enhancer you also add nitrogen. This is the time to do it. When you do the defoliate go heavy. Every single fan leaf that has a developed cluster of leaves that are 1/2" or bigger that fan can go. Usually you leave the top two or three fans on because that's the newest growth and the off shoots are not fully developed.

The second window is when you do a bud sweetener at the beginning of day 30 flower nutes. That stage has a little nitrogen in it as well. Adding Cal / Mag Plus to all of your feedings will also help with that slight bit of nitrogen you need.

The third window is around day 44 - 45 of flower. You are still using a sweetener with a little nitrogen so all remaining fans can go. Your girls wont grow anymore and will put all energy into the sugar leaves. This is win especially during the fattening stage. Room for bigger sugar leaves getting all kinds of light = the biggest win for your yield.

Doing it on flower day 15 - 30 - 45 is really good. With the heaviest reap done on your first go.

If you do it and don't time it right you won't have the nitrogen you need to grow leaves fast enough to help.

Hope this helps some. :high-five:
 
sounds like all the trimming should be done a week before bloom starts, to let em heal? then into flower? i just yesterday, went into flower, and took off some large fans off my brood. not all. say, 76 %. openened em up to more light, for sure.
 
sounds like all the trimming should be done a week before bloom starts, to let em heal? then into flower? i just yesterday, went into flower, and took off some large fans off my brood. not all. say, 76 %. openened em up to more light, for sure. should we use this technigque, outdoors as well? i see many huge huge pots outdoors.for my main ones, i just have a nice 4' wide hole, filled with miricle grow garden soil. i got over 23 oz off a thc bomb, last season.
 
cann I like to do it about a week before flip to tackle the undergrowth as well as strip all the fans. This also helps the girls get used to the defoliate method at least once before flower and IMO helps with shock. Let them heal a week then flip. I am a little concerned for you about trimming fans a day after flip. During the first 14 days you are not adding any kind of nitrogen to flower to avoid massive stretch. The very earliest I like to do it in flower is a full two weeks after flip. This is when you switch from week 2 to week 3 nutes and start to reintroduce nitrogen into your grow. That is the window for your first major reap. Keep in mind that when you reap it takes about a week to get fans going then you get about a week of use out them them before they clog everything up and block to much light.

In flower day 15 - 30 then 45 are perfect. You can be a few days off but try really hard to do it on those days as they coincide with nitrogen as well as enough time to grow more fans before another strip.

As well as outside plants make sure you can control their feed. If you're giving them the nutes they need on a regular basis the fans wont be needed as food storage centers. If you're not giving them optimal feed then leave them there as the plant uses them for food if it's low in your soil.

As far as miracle grow potting soil that stuff is the devil. It's filled with time release ferts which is bad news for what we do. If you can get organic soil even if it's cheap it's way better than having any kind of time release pellets added to the soil.
 
i will add some organic "gardoner &bloom potting soil. im going to dig the hole wider this year, for my outdoor. used mg soil last year. im sure the evil is used up that was in it. i did get 23 oz off that thc bomb. note my guard pom in the pic.
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should we do the same with our outdoor girls? remove larger leaves? mine on here shows i certainly did not last year. but, i am not against it.
 
Ok, after reading, reading, and reading some more I'm in. Saturday is day 21, so if I understand correctly, everything other then the flowers toward the top of the main colas come off, correct ? I don't really hear anyone concerned about stress, is anyone having issues with hermies ?

Here are the girls that are going to be subjected to a hair cut. 10 blue dream, under 3 1000 watt hps, in soil.
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I have to say, even after all the research I'm still pretty nervous.

Thanks for all the info guys !!!!
 
Gday fellow growers great thread it's inspired me to defol and scrog my current grow I'd like to say a special thanks to AK greenlover his tips/techniques is mind blowing stuff!

Here's what my girls looked like before and after defoliation/scrog 2 days ago

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I'll post a update in a couple of days to show how there doing.

Thanks again guys and girls

:Namaste:
 
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