Should I defoliate?

[Hebrewdiver]

Greetings fellow farmers, I am growing 2 autos, 1 zkittle and 1blue dream, both in a 31x31x63 inch tent, under a 295w actual led light in soil. I am presently in week 5. Should I defoliant these to get more light. The blue dream seems to be spreading out while the zkittle seem to cover a lot of the lower middle branches with large leaves. Should I clear out the top leaves to allow for more light into the middle and lower branches and possible bud sites? The first picture is Blue dream second zkittle.

 

[Carmen Ray]

Hi Diver,
Welcome.
You can most certainly train those beauties out into canopies to expose more bud sites. If you'd like to learn a simple and very effective technique for doing this, have a look at the links in my signature that refer to Carcass's canopy method.

 

[HashFart]

All is looking good brother, they look decently healthy , I prefer to only remove leaves if it is blocking air flow around the plant , I would do it with caution because autos can be picky but I think you will be fine ....... I also like to tuck the larger fannies under the new growth if that makes sense

 

[Carmen Ray]

Week 5 you say? I'm surprised they aren't showing flower if they are autos?

 

[Hebrewdiver]

Week 5 you say? I'm surprised they aren't showing flower if they are autos?

They haven’t started their stretch yet. The last auto zkittle I grew didn’t start stretching until week 6. So I’m being patient and trying to keep them healthy while letting her do there thing. We have come this far by faith. lol

 

[Carmen Ray]

They haven’t started their stretch yet. The last auto zkittle I grew didn’t start stretching until week 6. So I’m being patient and trying to keep them healthy while letting her do there thing. We have come this far by faith. lol

That's good to know. I am growing autos for the second time and am a little unfamiliar with their growth cycle. My first autos started at 21 days but they were stressed.

 

[Roy Growin]

Short answer - yes
Chop off the top two fan leaves to allow the buds below to develop into colas