I've seen a few good reasons to do some. The first, like you mention, is to open up the air flow, but those are mostly underneath leaves that contribute less to energy gathering anyway and the benefit from airflow makes sense.
Well, for you maybe.
Every grower has there own experiences with defoliation. Most are successful.
I see you get a ton of much more than usual growth from any colas in the sides, and it appears in 360 degrees. I’d postulate that this is how you generate 100 colas on a relatively small plant. It’s incredible. I’ve been considering side lighting for a long time. What are you using? Are those just full spectrum T-5s? What wattage? Did you notice a huge difference between side lighting and not? Is it worth the bump in electricity?Every grower has there own experiences with defoliation. Most are successful.
IMO
True, defoliation on a regular basis promotes a constant level of stress. I also am careful as to the locations the leaves are removed from.
I am also providing side lighting. (Photo from a previous grow)
I remove almost entirely from the new growth, leaving the larger, lower leaves to photosynthesize and provide a larger and continual source of energy. I typically leave the leaves on the undersides of the horizontal branches.
Defoliating the upper part of the plant does a couple of things. It opens up a light path to the lower leaves and buds, and it provides for more air flow through the bud sites, which can help prevent mold and rot. Most of the moisture emitted from the plant is from the leaves. Multiple directional fans can improve air flow through the plant (see above photo).
Defoliating the upper portion also exposes new growth which in turn means more bud sites.
The photos below are five weeks above ground. It has two or three weeks left in veg and has already had more than a couple of hundred leaves removed during training. It has been stressed in a variety of ways including high intensity LED. It is eating 2 1/2 times (increased slowly) as much CalMag as normal but it hasn't affected the growth. You will notice a lot of new tops (potential bud sites). I am defoliating two or three times per day and am removing thirty to fifty leaves a day.
I expect to harvest around 100 colas.
My last defoliation will occur three weeks into flower and will be upper plant only.
Happy growing ...............
That's exactly what I do.
Thanks @Hafta! Great info. So that’s the first time I’ve heard the term skirted CST. But I see what it is. At least to these eyes it’s basically a scrog where you let the older, bottom fans power the plant, thus allowing you to almost completely defoliate the tops (around the buds), and then leading in turn to the almost complete lack of flarf. Is that about right? Very interesting.@Jon you postulate correctly about the side colas but they are not entirely the lights. The main branches below the topped node are trained to the sides through the third week of flower. Basically, those would have been the main colas.
The main LED is a twelve band, full spectrum, actual 227 watt. The two angled lights are five band, full spectrum, actual 65 watt each. All of these have UV and IR but are not sponsored lights.
The two fluorescents are 5000K T-5's, nine watts each.
The side lighting angle and height is infinitely adjustable. The difference I saw with the side lighting was well worth the added electricity when employed with the Skirted CST technique.
Light penetration was optimal and I only had two larf buds (about the size of a dime) in a harvest of 287 grams after manicure, dry, and stabilization (the plant in my Avatar). The plant was 24" x 24" x 18" tall ( 61cm x 61cm x 48cm tall) and yielded over 10 ounces! It was an auto so I didn't have enough veg time to fill the cabinet.
Happy Growing .....
Thanks! I do something similar, conceptually speaking, in terms of skirting, when I train an individual plant in that style, sans net. What you do with weights I do with skewers and twisties. But this example of skirting (great term, btw) is amazing. Perfect.I invented the term Skirted CST. CST stands for constant stress training. Basically it mildly annoys the plant constantly until after three weeks of flower. I added the "Skirted" part recently.
That is correct except the SCROG net is put in place after the final defoliation (after three weeks in flower). Its only purpose is to keep the buds spread apart during flower (vertically). All of the branch training is done by weights.
Since the bottom leaves are constantly providing power, the plant never has to go into stall mode without leaves.
The really cool part is that when there are no leaves around the buds, they can grow closer to each other. This last plant had one bud per 2" x 2" square.
Happy Growing .......
@Hafta, I have a question…the amount of leaves you have in the skirt in this example - do you feel this mass of leaves per that mass of buds is close to optimal? Or do you have a sense of what works best proportionally, skirt leaf mass to bud mass? There must be a sweet spot I would think?
@Hafta thanks! Again, great info and thanks for the picture. Impressive. So why only T-5s on the side? Why not a pair of, say, 200-watt full spectrum LEDs?@Jon
Many of the leaves were there from the beginning. The skirt is almost entirely below the bud sites. I don't believe you can have too many "skirt" leaves as long as they get light. If the plant doesn't need the leaves it will eliminate them. By the last couple of weeks of flower the nutrients in the skirt leaves were beginning to be absorbed so I don't believe there were too many, especially with the stress being applied daily. I think if you left all leaves below the branches you would do fine.
This is the closet I could come to a photo I took that shows light penetration and interior leaf location.
Edit. I added a link to my signature that describes CST.
Happy Growing .........
lemme guess - it’s about balancing the ppfd with the overheads ??
@Jon
It does and thank you for the info. I may have to start playing around with this sooner than later. I can easily rig something to hold up lights.
