Shall I defoliate or let her be?

[Sdotcookie]

ll a bit long winded but had my first grow going with a couple of auto flower strains one blueberry, one cali big bud but being my first grow tried to tend to them too much and firstly overwatered hugely, blueberry made it through OK and pulled through and just harvested her and buds now drying but the cali it hit hard slowed right down also probably didn't help with topping them both and she really started growing crazy weird leaves all over the place but only small ones I cut all the dying curled up leaves and just left her in the corner to do her thing she's finally picked herself up and flowering but has got so many leaves and new growth all over the place like a little bush so will be interesting to see how she goes when fully flowered but my question is shall I leave her or give her a proper haircut then let all the bud sites get some decent light? pics attached thanks. Pics start from beginning out in the sun to now in the grow shed and her rough journey to get to where she is now haha

 

[013]

Hey Sdotcookie,

Welcome to 420..!! I think what you have is a unique anomaly, it looks like it could be an auto but the crazy leaves it was throwing sounds like a reveg. It’s my understanding that if an auto is pruned or defoled it can extend the veg and slow the trigger of flowering.... so that’s one possibility the other being a reveg. The typicall indication of reveg is the plant starts adding single bladed leaves at the top. Does that sound like what you saw?

What is your lighting schedule? When lights are off - are there any light leaks into the tent?

more folks should drop in soon

 

[PacificNorthWest]

That's a tough call. I'd always suggest tucking and pulling and tying before cutting. Good luck!

 

[Sdotcookie]

Hi 013 thanks for your reply it kind of does it just had a huge amount of smaller leaves in comparison to others i have growing she is early into flower now with lots of pistills showing but was just wondering if to trim some of the leaves back as there are just so many piled in front of one another. Light schedule is 20/4 and very little light leak as shed is fully lined and can't see any coming through from outside in the dark which I was surprised about haha.

 

[Elvin]

Do light leaks even matter with an auto?

 

[Victorytoker]

Light leaks do matter with auto, plants store up sugars and carbs and do a lot of growth in dark periods regardless of plant type.

Photos seem to show over watering imo, leaves drooping. Over watered also could = rot, are you checking tds of run off and p.h. ? When you harvest or abandon, always look at roots to see thir growth condition and anything not visable prior. Root issues are my main reason for moving newly to hydro.

Photos also show cal deficiency ( top leaves valley growing and twisting ) OR inability to move nutes as fast as photosynthesis is happening. I had/have the same growth though not quite as severe. This can be caused by grow lightstoo close, the plant is not able to move calcium to the new growth fastenough and so deficiency shows like ribbed leaves. Too close lights will also show other deficiency as the plantcannot move nutes fast enough. If you have a par meter, do not exceed 700par in veg calcium ripples are not lack of nutes but lack of plant efficiency , it is often accompanied by mg deficiency symptoms ( lower leaves edge dry out, spotting ) calcium is non mobile meaning the plant cannot "fix" visable damage in its absence, leaves will remain distorted. ( Do not use cal mag as a foliar spray.. it has nitrates in it .)

When the plant lacks mg and cal it will Also have fragile roots, and be way more suceptable to rot .
Essentially the green foliage is water rich which promotes infection, while cal/mg proper plants produce foliar growth that is largely pectin ( rich in ) .. which kills bacteria instantly.

 

[Elvin]

Weed is a C3 plant which means it does not "sleep" so darkness does not matter for feeding as it does with non C3's
It won't revert back to veg obviously so I really can't see a difference between 18/6 with light leaks vs. A 20/4 or even the 24/0 that a lot of growers use.
But then I really don't see the purpose of auto's; I grow for high THC and I'm unwilling to take a small hit in THC for easier growing.

 

[Victorytoker]

I'm not sure what you mean by "c3" ? lants in dark hours use stored energy to still grow, the dark period gives the plant time to "catch up " to the light photosynthesis produced during light hours by utilizing nutrients and stored carbs/sugars ive zero exp with auto flower so im not sure if its the same though genetically I would assume so. Respectfully intended . Im with ya on the thc.. im looking for max yeild and quality over ease of grow, to each their own though .

 

[Elvin]

I'm not sure what you mean by "c3" ? lants in dark hours use stored energy to still grow, the dark period gives the plant time to "catch up " to the light photosynthesis produced during light hours by utilizing nutrients and stored carbs/sugars ive zero exp with auto flower so im not sure if its the same though genetically I would assume so. Respectfully intended . Im with ya on the thc.. im looking for max yeild and quality over ease of grow, to each their own though .

No, go to the internet archive and find a agronomy textbook. It will explain what a "C3" is.
Or Ed Rosenthal has a nice explanation of what C3 plants are and that they do not have a "rest" period as other types of plants do. Google him.
For some reason people believe that all plants need a period of darkness to "sleep" or eat just like a human does. Some plants do but weed is not one of them.
Ed even shares that he recommends a 24/0 veg at times. That will work (the extra hours do not increase growth the same percentage of the increase though)
Another issue you find is that darkness DOES matter for stretch. 24 hours in veg gets you a short bushy plant which decreases yield.
The plants seeks the light in darkness which causes some of your stretch.

 

[013]

Where I was going with the single blade leaves & possible reveg was perhaps it’s not an auto. Anyway whatever it is - she’s a bushy thang! Many are dead set against defol, other claim it improves yields. I can see both arguments have some merit. Since that’s not a massive plant with a deep canopy I would probably play it safe and pull the branches out and tie them down as best I could manage.

Here fan leaves are solar panels for collecting the energy, help with transpiration and provide nute storage. on a small plant - she needs all the help she can get. Don’t pull them very tight otherwise you can snap a limb, but rather tie them loosely and wait a day or two and re-tighten on your next visit.

see what Elvin & Victory have to say.

 

[013]

Elvin, what’s up? Ever get that water situation worked out in your favor? Seems I recall you were digging on a well?

 

[Elvin]

Where I was going with the single blade leaves & possible reveg was perhaps it’s not an auto. Anyway whatever it is - she’s a bushy thang! Many are dead set against defol, other claim it improves yields. I can see both arguments have some merit. Since that’s not a massive plant with a deep canopy I would probably play it safe and pull the branches out and tie them down as best I could manage.

Here fan leaves are solar panels for collecting the energy, help with transpiration and provide nute storage. on a small plant - she needs all the help she can get. Don’t pull them very tight otherwise you can snap a limb, but rather tie them loosely and wait a day or two and re-tighten on your next visit.

see what Elvin & Victory have to say.

I just defoiliated a SCROG grow and it really did take off. But it does add extra time to the grow so I rarely bother unless it's a slow SGROG grow using clones. I just finished jarring up the plants the clones came from and I just flipped them 2 weeks ago. What is another week or 2 delay from the defoiliating when they have vegged this long after all?
I will not be doing it in my other tent. I even debated about the single topping I did because that increased my time by at least a week. Maybe they won't hit the lights this time though without the big main cola growing untouched but I'll just collapse them on their sides if they get close this time (7 foot tent)

 

[Elvin]

Elvin, what’s up? Ever get that water situation worked out in your favor? Seems I recall you were digging on a well?

It rained and I did get a spare well that will produce about ten gallons a day. Not much but it was enough to keep the plants watered and the toilet flushed . . . occasionally;-)

 

[013]

Good deal, well 10 gallons beats the alternative!

 

[Sdotcookie]

Thanks for the response yes as I mentioned in the original post I overwatered and for the calcium deficiency would be caused by my harsh tap water but now I boil it before hand let it cool add nutes and feed (alot less often) will have a rummage in her bush and see what i can get tied down she was tied down quite late on to get her like this but could do with re doing. I only went with autos as you can see from first few pics she was intended to be an outdoor girl but weather turned quickly so had to build shelter and got carried away and built a proper home for them. The blueberry that started with this one is 3days into drying so this looks to be about 6 weeks behind. Shall keep updated with pics as to how the flowering goes, Thanks again for the response.

 

[HydroponicFireman]

NO. All those leaves look healthy. I would suggest using some LST to strech out the branches to catch more light and make a bigger 'foot print' to catch more light. I didnt see anything in the OP about space so I assume you have enough space to move some branches out of the way of others thereby maximizing light efficiency.