Just posted this about Defoil in FAQ but wanted to see what you guys think as not all look at that section.
This is one method I do but not on a MASSIVE scale, but seeing it go down more and more now and some plants I see are just left with nothing on and look quite week and sorry for themselves. I just want to see what everyone else thinks on this.
Right so, when we grow inside our light doesnt move across the tent like the sun in the sky, so we have to trim here and there to expose bud sites. I have been using this method for a few years now and defo see the bud sites benefit from direct light!!
But on the plants side, these are its main solar panels and main source of light uptake and we put loads of light in our tents to maximize the size of our plants. This light needs pan leafs to catch and take into the plant.
IMO if the plant is small and young like yours there is no need for defoil as they are its life lines at that point and all our reflective materiel cover most of the plant anyway as we trap our light inside boxes and bounce it everywhere. I know when you got a mad bushy plant , you NEED to strip it qiute a lot to expose these bud sites. But on the same hand the plant still needs these for its own health or it wouldn't produce them.
I mean plants were doing just fine for billions of years before we messed with them. Now they are actually struggling in our human built world.
My point is, I defoil when they are bushy and I want light penetration but I think this whole defoil method is going just a little too far maybe and people aren't fully understanding it. Like if you was meaning to expose your bottom branches then wouldn't it be the top pans you would remove to let light in , not the bottom ones which are just passing nutes and energy.
Yes they bounce back and the small bud leaves do become sort of pan leaves again. But isnt that just the plant repairing itself and replacing what it actually needs, which is some decent size solar panels and places to pick and pass nutes.
Not slating defoil methods as I do it indoors and a little outdoors, but I still think you can take too much and actually slow the plant not benefit it. IMO anyway , what does everyone else think??
