Defoliation during flowering for greater yields!

L

lngtimepro

New Member
I had a great thread going over a year ago. Some life troubles hit so it was forgone. I would love to start the education again.. I am a grower who firmly believes in defoliation. Having tried most methods with flowering.side by side studies. Defoliation during flowering when done correctly is an amazing way to take your garden to the next level. When done correctly defoliation can advance growth,maturity, size,yeild,potency and appeal. Overall idea is exposing every bud site to eqaul light penetration...no morepopcorn bud, small undergrowth.
Defoliation is started a week before 12/12 switch. Then aggressively undertaken after the stretch..im currently digging up my photos,and past gardens. I currently have a 2000w 3 plant grow which will undergo major defoliation..i will chronicle this.current grow in day 11 of flowering..any questions or fellow supporters would.greatly be appreciated, i would love to enlighten suspicious growers who r ready to learn a must technique as far as maximum yield.goes.
 
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I think I agree with you, Ingtimepro. I saw a YouTube video in which the grower thinned out a pot of the fan leaves to achieve just what you are talking about. I've experimented with what you call defoliation but not to much and only on one branch of a plant and because I accidentally over nitrogened one feeding and quite a few of the leaves were brown and nasty I pinched a lot of them off as I saw the intense new growth when flipping them from fluorescent to 1000w HPS. A lot of new budding sites appeared where before they were shaded by the larger leaves. I need to put scrog nets up to support the outer branches and I just got all the PVC and fittings together today but the last two weeks I've been bringing the lower branches up into the light by propping chairs, etc under them and I have massive numbers of budding sites appearing! I'll get some photos up of my plants and we can continue to compare notes on the subject, huh?
 
P.S. I'm growing in Dirt Bags too, the 10 gallon size with B'Cuzz hydromix and GH nutrients. I'm into day 9 of flowering and I'm very happy with the results. Each plant is about 48" in diameter and has around 50 good budding sites, I'd guess without going and counting, and another 50 popcorn sites if I don't trim a lot of them off during the final lollipopping. I'm guessing again, but I think I'm looking at maybe 1lb per plant and I'll kiss your ass on the courthouse steps if I don't net 1/2lb per plant.
 
Im in coco, running advanced nutrients.
By week 3 i take all the lower growth off, its important to wait till after the slight stretch ti really start intense defoliation. I do a good pre flower trim, then after week 1 a small de faning..but after week 3 when vertical growth is done, thats when i really start to thin the plant.
 
I will definitely try this dfloriation tecnique. Too bad I have autoflowers going. Maybe not a good move with them. I think it will work great though. I did this with tomato plants and the ones I didnt do it too were alot smaller.
"Medicated"
 

We might be robbing one kola to feed another resulting in the same amount of bud or even less because we are removing leaves that are feeding the plant so I'm not going to go wild with the technique. Mainly I only wanted to get the potential budding sites into some light until I got the SCROG nets built and then I can weave everything into the light and what is too low to weave into the net will be trimmed off. I grow horizontally not vertically to maximize the amount of canopy (cannapy?) that gets the full light.
 
lookin' good loyd! I am a fellow defoliator. I am new to the site and recently growing again, but when I grew some number of years ago, I defoliated. I did a host of other things too! like supercropping, ( although it wasn't known as that then). I am a huge fan of aeroponics as well. I am trying deep water culture for the first time but planning to turn that into a recirculating top feed reservoir system soon.

grow journal coming soon!

MR
 
Seems like a very controversial technique.

I like the way this method keeps things neat and tidy looking; It's fun to watch the plants re-leaf quickly also. Definitely a believer in removing any leaf blocking a bud site or just growing a direction you don't want it to grow. This method makes other LST options much easier to perform as it opens up some space to work.

Hard to commit and take healthy looking leaves off a plant! Scary for a new grower.
 
Hey Max! I'm a newbie at DWC and here's what I've learned so far that is different from all the tutorials: When you put your clones or seedlings into the hydroton or coco or whatever bring the nutrient solution right up to the new little roots instead of 1" or so above the bottom of the basket like so many grower's videos have said to do. I'm using rockwool cubes (always prepare them in a solution of pH 5 then rinse them before put clones or seeds in them) and I just started some clones that were showing roots coming out the bottom of the cubes but when I put them into the DWC buckets they started to wilt very fast so I added the light nutrient solution right up to the rockwool and they took off twice as fast as the first batch of clones I put in DWC about 3 weeks ago that I only put the solution up about an inch into the hydroton, and also I used 8 inch netpots this time instead of 10 inch netpots.
 
BunkerMonkey said:
Hey Max! I'm a newbie at DWC and here's what I've learned so far that is different from all the tutorials: When you put your clones or seedlings into the hydroton or coco or whatever bring the nutrient solution right up to the new little roots instead of 1" or so above the bottom of the basket like so many grower's videos have said to do. I'm using rockwool cubes (always prepare them in a solution of pH 5 then rinse them before put clones or seeds in them) and I just started some clones that were showing roots coming out the bottom of the cubes but when I put them into the DWC buckets they started to wilt very fast so I added the light nutrient solution right up to the rockwool and they took off twice as fast as the first batch of clones I put in DWC about 3 weeks ago that I only put the solution up about an inch into the hydroton, and also I used 8 inch netpots this time instead of 10 inch netpots.
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I am new to dwc too. I am currently just using air stones in individual buckets, but I plan to change that to a top feed recirculating system with a main reservoir.

one of the great things about defoliation, is that you can inspect the leaves that come off more closely. I discovered that my newest plant has spider mites because of defoliation. I think I caught them early, if I hadn't been cutting leaves off, I would not have noticed them as soon as I did and things could be really bad.

MR
 
Max, dont hesitate to literally take the whole clone /plant,,,put it.under the faucet, shower if bigger, upside down..great way to rid a plant from mites, the plannt will suffer no damage and pop right back when dry..people r to fragile with plants..remember, in the wild they r exposed to rain,wind and all other issues mother nature brings..if i ever have a rooted clone with mites, i hold it at the base, tip it upside down, run soft warm water over it, gently brush the leaves as the water falls..u will knock off every mite and egg on the girl.. Last night i put three 4 footers in the shower for a sec when i noticed a few mites.they r 2 weeks into flower..people underestimate how manly u can handle your lovely lady.
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first pic is right after the shower, second is 20 minutes later, the love a bath when done correctly
 
lngtimepro said:
Max, dont hesitate to literally take the whole clone /plant,,,put it.under the faucet, shower if bigger, upside down..great way to rid a plant from mites, the plannt will suffer no damage and pop right back when dry..people r to fragile with plants..remember, in the wild they r exposed to rain,wind and all other issues mother nature brings..if i ever have a rooted clone with mites, i hold it at the base, tip it upside down, run soft warm water over it, gently brush the leaves as the water falls..u will knock off every mite and egg on the girl.. Last night i put three 4 footers in the shower for a sec when i noticed a few mites.they r 2 weeks into flower..people underestimate how manly u can handle your lovely lady. first pic is right after the shower, second is 20 minutes later, the love a bath when done correctly
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I was thinking of doing just that but it is already 2 feet tall and in a 2 gallon pot with soil. I may take it out in the back yard and hose it off tonight. thanks for the tip. so far, I haven't found any mites on any of the other plants. I have been spraying pyrethrum on them daily for the last three days and the mites I find are getting smaller and fewer in numbers. I have not seen any webs anywhere either.

here she is after another trim this morning. I also did some super cropping to get some lst and more light to the lower portion of the plant.

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MR
 
Hey shanker.....
I do it in steps...i prep the planty with defoliation starting in veg-
Right before i put her in flowering i give her a good trim on lower leafes and smaller non imoirtant branches/nodes- after the (stretch)..well mine dont stretch much due to technique and bud blood.. but after the first two weeks of flowering when vertical growth is done, i then study the plants structure to see the most dominate branching..i then give it a serious haircut and eliminate anything i feel is not going to be a very productive main cola- I also grow indicas so they r very heavily leafed..i can pull 50 percent of the fan leaves and the still look bushy- Im currently coming on 21 days in flowering so there is a big hair cut coming...but basically when your plants r adjusted to trimmming, u then can do small percentages every week or so-But the major trim comes around week 5-6 to allow them to finish with maximum light penetrating all branches and cola's. i will post pictures when i really shed them of there greenery-
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also..i like to leave about a 2-3 inch piece of leaf stem to retain water...allows a small feeding store for the plant without taking all the source away.
 
For my second grow, I am defoliating half of my plants. they all get massive LST, and end up with 25+ top cola sites. I grow in 5 gal soil pots and can't wait to give a post-stretch trim. I'm 30 days into flowering so the stretch has ended. The reason I'm only defoliating half is I'd like to see the outcome before I fully commit on all my plants. I'll be posting my results
 
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