Increasing yield with defoliation indoors: What's it mean? How to do it?
- Thread starter Bassman59
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #442
Saw your vid from your post on that other site. Been hoping to see this in action. Best wishes!
TheZodiac
New Member
Thanks dude....Hope all is well with you...
Smokemupm8
New Member
@ K/Frankie...
Hey mate, How are you?? Just had a quick read of your post, and about you wanting to bend some of your plant. I use an LST technique, which is pretty much standard at first, pulling the top cola across to one side gradually - so then the main branch grows across and its branches grow vertically giving you upto 15 or more cola's depending on your space.
Space is the biggest restriction, I am lucky to have a half decent space of 4.5ftWx8.5ftHx2.5ftW. I only do 1 plant p/grow, and from this , I try to produce as much as I can from it in about 14 weeks. My last girl gave me over 16.5 Oz, Im hoping for the same from this girl - FINGAZ CROSSED
But if you like, I have lots of photos in my journal of how I start out my LST, and the way the plant reacts to what I do. So far, Ive had pretty much 99% exactly the same shaped plants.. If you couldnt be stuffed Ill put a couple here ok - SORRY BASS...
After the first cola is pulled down, the plant will then make one of its lower branches become a new main branch. Allow it to grow a bit, and then tie the other branch shoots coming from the stems nodes.
See how her branches now grow
And thats my girl... Hope it gives you a rough idea of what I was talking about, prob best to maybe read thru a couple pages in one of the journals in my Signature below. My biggest LST indoor so far has been my first journal - Cindy.. Impressive plant..
Thanks Bass I hope you dont mind my pics - was merely for demonstration/explanatory purposes. Remove it if you want buddy ok..
Take care guys, Smokemupm8
Hey mate, How are you?? Just had a quick read of your post, and about you wanting to bend some of your plant. I use an LST technique, which is pretty much standard at first, pulling the top cola across to one side gradually - so then the main branch grows across and its branches grow vertically giving you upto 15 or more cola's depending on your space.
Space is the biggest restriction, I am lucky to have a half decent space of 4.5ftWx8.5ftHx2.5ftW. I only do 1 plant p/grow, and from this , I try to produce as much as I can from it in about 14 weeks. My last girl gave me over 16.5 Oz, Im hoping for the same from this girl - FINGAZ CROSSED
But if you like, I have lots of photos in my journal of how I start out my LST, and the way the plant reacts to what I do. So far, Ive had pretty much 99% exactly the same shaped plants.. If you couldnt be stuffed Ill put a couple here ok - SORRY BASS...
After the first cola is pulled down, the plant will then make one of its lower branches become a new main branch. Allow it to grow a bit, and then tie the other branch shoots coming from the stems nodes.
And thats my girl... Hope it gives you a rough idea of what I was talking about, prob best to maybe read thru a couple pages in one of the journals in my Signature below. My biggest LST indoor so far has been my first journal - Cindy.. Impressive plant..
Thanks Bass I hope you dont mind my pics - was merely for demonstration/explanatory purposes. Remove it if you want buddy ok..
Take care guys, Smokemupm8
Smokemupm8
New Member
Hi Bass, How are you??
just thought I d drop by and ask you a question.. As this is an unkown strain Im not certain of its flower period, but since flipping her she has developed fairly quickly compared my previous girls.. IT MIGHT BE THE BPN but yeah, this girl is now into flower, building buds and is just starting to show some amber pistils even tho her buds arent finished yet.
Well Ive been trimming some leaves that are above blocking tops below them. And Ive also tried to spread her out as best I can, She has 14 main branches but her top canopy consists of a mix of smaller branches, pushing into bigger branches all close together due to a breakage in my girl.. Ive left a bit of growth on her for now, as she is yellowing leaves fairly quickly too? Here s a couple snaps from other day:
You think I should remove more - I have about 3ft of good lighting thru my plants foliage so buds in this are should do ok.. Thanks for any advice mate, much appreciated. Smokemup
just thought I d drop by and ask you a question.. As this is an unkown strain Im not certain of its flower period, but since flipping her she has developed fairly quickly compared my previous girls.. IT MIGHT BE THE BPN
but yeah, this girl is now into flower, building buds and is just starting to show some amber pistils even tho her buds arent finished yet.Well Ive been trimming some leaves that are above blocking tops below them. And Ive also tried to spread her out as best I can, She has 14 main branches but her top canopy consists of a mix of smaller branches, pushing into bigger branches all close together due to a breakage in my girl.. Ive left a bit of growth on her for now, as she is yellowing leaves fairly quickly too? Here s a couple snaps from other day:
You think I should remove more - I have about 3ft of good lighting thru my plants foliage so buds in this are should do ok.. Thanks for any advice mate, much appreciated. Smokemup
- Thread starter
- #446
The leaves that I see to remove are those big fan leaves that have what looks to be 3"-4" stems and are attached to fully developing buds. Basically those fans are doing nothing to speak of for those buds and will block some small amount of light. I never pull fan leaves from NEWLY developing shoots until the shoot has some good leaf.
Overall sounds like you got it dialed in pretty nicely on this unknown.
Overall sounds like you got it dialed in pretty nicely on this unknown.
Smokemupm8
New Member
Thanks Bass
I hope I ll be ok buddy.. Cheers for the advice, See with my set up as I can move the light I can get light in on different angles, I really only have large fans on the main cola's. The rest are all smaller ones whichi are slowly dying off now anyways.
Hope Ill do ok, take it ez mate Smokemup
I hope I ll be ok buddy.. Cheers for the advice, See with my set up as I can move the light I can get light in on different angles, I really only have large fans on the main cola's. The rest are all smaller ones whichi are slowly dying off now anyways.Hope Ill do ok, take it ez mate
Smokemup
Smokemupm8
New Member
Well... She s been nearly stripped of all lower leaves, and the main cola's still have all their fans attached. The buds are increasing size daily and are quite good so far. Im hoping for another pound...
Heres some nugs of my LST d girl in flower
Even after snapping the main stem in half she still grew to 5ft x 4.5ft x2.5ft... Most cola's are 1ft in length, but this was about my smallest grow indoor so far due to the damage , if not damaged Id be anticipating 1.5lb.. Hopefully ill get to 1lb, atm Im guessing 12oz with 4 weeks to go. WISH ME LUCK!!! Smokemup
Heres some nugs of my LST d girl in flower
Even after snapping the main stem in half she still grew to 5ft x 4.5ft x2.5ft... Most cola's are 1ft in length, but this was about my smallest grow indoor so far due to the damage , if not damaged Id be anticipating 1.5lb.. Hopefully ill get to 1lb, atm Im guessing 12oz with 4 weeks to go. WISH ME LUCK!!! Smokemup
jlt1202
New Member
Great buds! it looks like u poured sugar all over it!! covered in tricks that is some good bud should make you some tasty smoke my friend!
Smokemupm8
New Member
Thanx JT..
Cheers for the kind words, and yeah under a cfl or with camera flash you can really see her trichs, its hard under the 600w HPS everything looks yellow and fuzzy!
But Ive taken a few pics after them ones and she s getting closer to finishing but Im unsure of this strains Flower period, So Im letting her kill off the leaves she wants and if I start to notice the buds looking worse for wear or if I see bananas Ill prob pull her.
Im waiting for my seeds to break thru the surface for my next project, I am making changes, basically reverting back to my original methods and not so much adaptation for time and other reasons..
Nice to meet ya matey Ill have to drive by ur way soon Be good, or good at it. Smokemup
Cheers for the kind words, and yeah under a cfl or with camera flash you can really see her trichs, its hard under the 600w HPS everything looks yellow and fuzzy!
But Ive taken a few pics after them ones and she s getting closer to finishing but Im unsure of this strains Flower period, So Im letting her kill off the leaves she wants and if I start to notice the buds looking worse for wear or if I see bananas Ill prob pull her.
Im waiting for my seeds to break thru the surface for my next project, I am making changes, basically reverting back to my original methods and not so much adaptation for time and other reasons..
Nice to meet ya matey Ill have to drive by ur way soon
Be good, or good at it. Smokemup
nice looking buds my friend,
i find pipe cleaners are the best for lst as you can bend them where you like and they dont cut into the plant, in your pics you use something similar by the looks of it, wire works and wool works, but one thing everyone needs to remember is the main stem is still growing, so once a week or every 10 days it best to adjust your ties so the plant can stretch a little, not doing this can cut into the stems,
another way of getting bigger buds is to remove any growth at nodes that is not getting light or any growth that is small, these small pop corn buds are using the plants energy to grow and taking up nutes, removing these means the plant focusses its bud growth on the buds getting the light, this means these buds are getting all the plants energy and its not wasting time on pop corn buds and buds that are not getting much light, basically when i lst my plants and it ends up like a scrog i remove anything below the canopy, a 400watt hps has a light range of about 1ft, anything below that range is getting less than half the light it should be, so these buds will be slow growing and wasting the plants energy, i either use these as clones or if i got enough clones just bin them, or if you have mates that grow and its a decent growing plant then turn them into clones and offer them to mates, then in the future they may return the favor with a top strain their growing
not all clones need to have big stems, i have turned 1inch branches into clones, some of my clones just have 2 or 3 leaves above soil level, these tend to root as quick as clones with longer stems, so if you can turn them into clones and benefit from them or a mate can benefit from them then id turn them into clones and donate them to someone that can use them,
also taking clones from a flowering plants means you need to reveg them, this takes about 3 weeks to go back into veg, but what you end up with is a monster cropped plant, basically this is a plant on steroids, the branch growth is crazy, ive had branches growing out of the stems of the fan leaves, the monster cropped or revegged plants seem to behave a bit crazy and you end up with many many branches, grows more like a bush than a cannabis plant,
my plants look like a scrog due to lst, basically which ever stem is the highers becomes the main cola, so pulling down the main stem forces the plant to grow quicker at other nodes so it becomes the top of the plant, what i do is pull all my side branhes down so their running outwards, doing this makes all the shoots at the nodes grow upwards and these then become decent sized buds,
i find pipe cleaners are the best for lst as you can bend them where you like and they dont cut into the plant, in your pics you use something similar by the looks of it, wire works and wool works, but one thing everyone needs to remember is the main stem is still growing, so once a week or every 10 days it best to adjust your ties so the plant can stretch a little, not doing this can cut into the stems,
another way of getting bigger buds is to remove any growth at nodes that is not getting light or any growth that is small, these small pop corn buds are using the plants energy to grow and taking up nutes, removing these means the plant focusses its bud growth on the buds getting the light, this means these buds are getting all the plants energy and its not wasting time on pop corn buds and buds that are not getting much light, basically when i lst my plants and it ends up like a scrog i remove anything below the canopy, a 400watt hps has a light range of about 1ft, anything below that range is getting less than half the light it should be, so these buds will be slow growing and wasting the plants energy, i either use these as clones or if i got enough clones just bin them, or if you have mates that grow and its a decent growing plant then turn them into clones and offer them to mates, then in the future they may return the favor with a top strain their growing
not all clones need to have big stems, i have turned 1inch branches into clones, some of my clones just have 2 or 3 leaves above soil level, these tend to root as quick as clones with longer stems, so if you can turn them into clones and benefit from them or a mate can benefit from them then id turn them into clones and donate them to someone that can use them,
also taking clones from a flowering plants means you need to reveg them, this takes about 3 weeks to go back into veg, but what you end up with is a monster cropped plant, basically this is a plant on steroids, the branch growth is crazy, ive had branches growing out of the stems of the fan leaves, the monster cropped or revegged plants seem to behave a bit crazy and you end up with many many branches, grows more like a bush than a cannabis plant,
my plants look like a scrog due to lst, basically which ever stem is the highers becomes the main cola, so pulling down the main stem forces the plant to grow quicker at other nodes so it becomes the top of the plant, what i do is pull all my side branhes down so their running outwards, doing this makes all the shoots at the nodes grow upwards and these then become decent sized buds,
silverrocksta
New Member
Hey been reading on this and debating trying it finally have a couple extra girls kick in around. Just wondering if I should strip the when they wake up or before they go to sleep? I am assuming early would be better
bassman would be best to answer that, i know at night plants focus on repairing any damage done in the daytime, this is where the extra growth comes from as the plant focusses on growth more,
id say it would be best to do it after the lights have come on so you have got a good few hours before the lights switch off,
also its best to remove the leaves in one go, dont take some each day as it prolongs stress and will slow growth down for longer, growth will slow after you defol for a few days but then the new growth seems to have more vigour,
ive had great results using defol method and will be using it on some plants again this time, as long as everything is ok with the rest of the grow then this method works well, but any problems with nutrients or lockout can slow things down more, so if everything else is in check then defol is a good option, at least if you try it with a couple of plants you can then see if its something you want to use next time round,
id say it would be best to do it after the lights have come on so you have got a good few hours before the lights switch off,
also its best to remove the leaves in one go, dont take some each day as it prolongs stress and will slow growth down for longer, growth will slow after you defol for a few days but then the new growth seems to have more vigour,
ive had great results using defol method and will be using it on some plants again this time, as long as everything is ok with the rest of the grow then this method works well, but any problems with nutrients or lockout can slow things down more, so if everything else is in check then defol is a good option, at least if you try it with a couple of plants you can then see if its something you want to use next time round,
- Thread starter
- #454
I basically do it when I get home and lights are on. Mostly before the halfway point of the lights on day. It fits my schedule. I keep it simple.
Yes.
It takes me multiple days to defol all my plants. AFAICT, the timing makes no difference.
LOL! It's gonna be a lot harder to defol in the dark!
If it's a defol during flower, you sure don't wanna do it during lights off.
Why is this? I do mine in batches more form convenience than anything else. I also take off leaves throughout the grow. If I see a big long petiole, I take the leaf off.
Isn't that one of the primary advantages of indoor? I can garden on my schedule
i just find that when i take leaves every few days it slows growth for a loner period,
i found lower branches soon became taller than the main stem, so i find removing leaves in one go tends to make the plant recover quicker, but this could be strain related,
so each to their own i guess, i just prefer to do it once or twice in veg and the same in flower.
i just find the plants recover quicker and its less stress on the plants as your not taking leaves each day or every other day, but like everything else, their are many different theories and methods, look at light schedule for instance,
so what works well for one might not work so well for others,
i found lower branches soon became taller than the main stem, so i find removing leaves in one go tends to make the plant recover quicker, but this could be strain related,
so each to their own i guess, i just prefer to do it once or twice in veg and the same in flower.
i just find the plants recover quicker and its less stress on the plants as your not taking leaves each day or every other day, but like everything else, their are many different theories and methods, look at light schedule for instance,
so what works well for one might not work so well for others,
FoF1985
Well-Known Member
im jealous of your already black buckets lol i could only find white and orange ones local and had to spray paint mine 
. are you flowering under CFLs or the 1000W hps in your current grow journal? 10oz per plant is decent forsure! ide be happy with that in my current grow forsure .
. are you flowering under CFLs or the 1000W hps in your current grow journal? 10oz per plant is decent forsure! ide be happy with that in my current grow forsure .- Thread starter
- #458
I flower in 1000w hps. I really need to close that most recent journal and open another. I have 3 plants @ D39 in flower, and 4 on Day 1 in two different tents. I veg'd the 4 plant grow for just 3-4 weeks under 400w MH. But I also veg with 220w HO T5's.
My most recent grow had a crap yield but I blame it all on me. Vegged too tall (again), not defoliated enough and trained laterally enough in veg. As well as losing a 100w ballast and being forced to flower for 3+ weeks under 400w.
I've really got to quit letting them get so tall in veg. Do more lateral training. At least four times I've done this (veg too tall), and every time I paid the price. I need to keep them under 14" before I flip.
My most recent grow had a crap yield but I blame it all on me. Vegged too tall (again), not defoliated enough and trained laterally enough in veg. As well as losing a 100w ballast and being forced to flower for 3+ weeks under 400w.
I've really got to quit letting them get so tall in veg. Do more lateral training. At least four times I've done this (veg too tall), and every time I paid the price. I need to keep them under 14" before I flip.
FoF1985
Well-Known Member
well that kinda make me happy as this is the first time ive put plants into flower without letting them veg to over 2 feet lol . my shortest plant was 12 inches and my biggest was 16 . i haven't defoliated yet since i put them into flower but when i do im gonna be there all day lol .
10 oz per plant on my 9 small ones would be a nice yield but im trying not to think about it. i think i vegged for about 2 weeks after the plants roots hit the water. im just letting them grow however this time around but once i get the mothers budded and out of the room " on my next grow" ill be doing SOG under dual 1000w HPS's as i feel it will maximize my setups yeild.
10 oz per plant on my 9 small ones would be a nice yield but im trying not to think about it. i think i vegged for about 2 weeks after the plants roots hit the water. im just letting them grow however this time around but once i get the mothers budded and out of the room " on my next grow" ill be doing SOG under dual 1000w HPS's as i feel it will maximize my setups yeild.
OG13
New Member
Did you keep this last batch short? Sounds like you are getting the "perpetual" started.