Defoliation: Hi-Yield Technique?

[GreenphoeniX]

I definitely think there are some extreme cases of over-leafing where plucking would be an extremely effecient way to improve yields (as displayed below by some one of my grows).

This yield would have benefited greatly by some reasonably ruthless leaf plucking. Although I don't have any photos at the moment, in most of my grows nowadays, I do leaf pluck (quite severely) several times throughout the grow as well as removing some of the very lowest branches and have noticed increased yields, as well as a more evenly distributed, higher quality of bud.

That's my personal experience anyway. I'm a big fan of ScrOG and it is, in my opinion, essential to prune off lower growth and leaf pluck when growing with the ScrOG method if you want to get the most out of it! No doubt this would apply for SOG grows and other situations where plants are packed together and leaves end up blocking light from getting to budsites.

 

[HempKat]

I definitely think there are some extreme cases of over-leafing where plucking would be an extremely effecient way to improve yields (as displayed below by some one of my grows).

This yield would have benefited greatly by some reasonably ruthless leaf plucking. Although I don't have any photos at the moment, in most of my grows nowadays, I do leaf pluck (quite severely) several times throughout the grow as well as removing some of the very lowest branches and have noticed increased yields, as well as a more evenly distributed, higher quality of bud.

That's my personal experience anyway. I'm a big fan of ScrOG and it is, in my opinion, essential to prune off lower growth and leaf pluck when growing with the ScrOG method if you want to get the most out of it! No doubt this would apply for SOG grows and other situations where plants are packed together and leaves end up blocking light from getting to budsites.

Yeah SoG is the way I've been growing and I've yet to find a strain that didn't require some trimming because the plants are so close together. Plus you might as well since if you don't eventually the plant will, as it kills off growth using more resources then they produce.

 

[Flux451]

Trim, bit-by-bit, day-by-day as needed... an acid is released for plant defense and too much pruning at once reverts plant growth vigor to wound healing and defense

I feel culling out lesser branches earlier, training with twisty ties, and removing lower 'popcorn' growth (any branches/leaves in bottom 4-6 inches) is prime with many strains.

Do not let light escape but I would say pinch/snip any leaf with a real elongated stem or that is singularly creating or contributing to a shady area of buds

Clean out in inner plant leaves for better circulation, less chance of bugs/mildew

 

[2Lazy]

I've been using a gentle version of this method on some of my LST/Scrog plants and they have responded very well. I'm about 3 weeks in to flowering and today I took all of the lowest branches that haven't developed significant flowers as well as most of the "droopy" under foliage that hasn't received much light now that the upper canopy is filled in.

It's crazy to see the amount of leaf mass removed from a 12 plant grow of 30" tall plants. I clean up the bottom 6" or so to keep air flow good, but at the end of the day I feel like it's a good 2 plants worth of leaf mass.

I know that these leaves aren't even feeding my plant because the leaves that are being cannibalized are about 4 or 5 nodes below the high point of the branch. The first node leaves look lush and healthy while my mid level leaves are showing deficiencies as the buds suck up nutrients.

I think that by removing the lower branches and leaves the grower removes the first "exits" for the nutrients. Kind of like a nutrient highway. It takes more energy to move nutrients to the top of the plant, but the plant does it anyway to create new growth. The bottom growth is easy for the plant to keep healthy because it takes less effort to get what it needs down near the root system. Thus, the middle growth begins to suffer because it's not important enough like the top of the plant, and not close enough like the bottom.

So, removing the lower branches and foliage that will produce minimal nuggages (scientific term) creates a kind of "new bottom" in the middle area of the plant. This focuses the important nutrients in the areas they need to be in, rather than wasted on lower mass that won't get enough light to stay alive anyway.

As far as removing upper leaf mass... I can't say. But defoliating the lower stuff has had a definite benefit in my garden.

 

[buddin_904]

^ thats lollypopping......in my understanding......

its not "defoliating" the lower stuff......that would just be called lollypopping which is not what this thread is talking about

this thread is talking about starting from the top of the plant, plucking fan leaves that are blocking light, and working your way down.....

i think lollypopping + defoliation is proving great result for me, however

 

[2Lazy]

^ thats lollypopping......in my understanding......

its not "defoliating" the lower stuff......that would just be called lollypopping which is not what this thread is talking about

this thread is talking about starting from the top of the plant, plucking fan leaves that are blocking light, and working your way down.....

i think lollypopping + defoliation is proving great result for me, however

I am under the impression that lollipoping is when a grower removes every branch except the main cola and maybe a branch or two beneath the main cola.

Defoliation, from a purely definitional stand-point, should include the gross removal of any foliation. I understand that someone would like to consider this a method, I just don't think "defoliation" would be the proper term, but then again I can't think of a better one aside from High Stress Training.

Which is why I explained I was using a less invasive methodology here. I'm still using a scrog, and cleaning out leaves that block budsites from light, but I wanted to just talk about how much leaf mass is removed (a ton) and my thoughts on removing lower foliage to allow the middle foliage a better shot at life.

I understand what this thread is about. It's why I didn't say "Hey, I'm totally doing the exact same thing." Because I know it's not. You know it's not. But thanks for pointing it out...

 

[balla420]

I am under the impression that lollipoping is when a grower removes every branch except the main cola and maybe a branch or two beneath the main cola.

Defoliation, from a purely definitional stand-point, should include the gross removal of any foliation. I understand that someone would like to consider this a method, I just don't think "defoliation" would be the proper term, but then again I can't think of a better one aside from High Stress Training.

Which is why I explained I was using a less invasive methodology here. I'm still using a scrog, and cleaning out leaves that block budsites from light, but I wanted to just talk about how much leaf mass is removed (a ton) and my thoughts on removing lower foliage to allow the middle foliage a better shot at life.

I understand what this thread is about. It's why I didn't say "Hey, I'm totally doing the exact same thing." Because I know it's not. You know it's not. But thanks for pointing it out...

It also depends on the layout of your grow and when you start flowering. I have a 3ft squared grow table with 16 grow sites. that leaves just 5" in between grow sites. I was planning on lolipoping just because there is litteraly no room for any lateral (horizontal) growth with that setup. Also becaue the table is on legs and sits 2.5ft of the ground and my grow tent is only 7ft high (minus ~1ft for the size of the light) so I was planning on either 12/12 from seed, or else maybe just a week or 2 at the most of veg.

From other posts i've seen, it seems like this method makes your plant branch out more almost like when doing a SCROG. for a setup like the one i mentioned that would be bad because of the limited lateral spacing.

I have always pruned a good amount of foliage, just not to the extent of whats recommended here.... especially when doing a SCROG i cut ALL foliage below the screen, and any branches that don't reach above the screen and stay even with the majority of the canopy by flowering time, get snipped of too.

 

[pearlemae]

I took these this morning,its been 7 days since flowering began. And it 's been 7 days since the leaves were pinched last.

 

[mrdizzle]

Im a big leaf plucker, but all these tiny plants with plenty of space ^^^, ya'll should probably leave the 2 leafs you have in place because they arent really blocking any light

 

[buddin_904]

^ his penetration is dick though with those flouros....i say you couldnt hurt pluck more pearle....get that one top middle of the fourth pic...for me.....lol

 

[philmb]

So 2 things are apperant so far:

ONE: It's a seriously borin n tedious thing to be trimming all that bloody leaf... aaaaaaagh!!!!

TWO: Its pretty impressive how fast the leaf grows back, its been less than a week since i trimmed last n there allready full of leaf.

So here is some photo's.. heres a before and after..

 

[philmb]

And some photo's of the other 'unkept' side.

 

[ibjamming]

So 2 things are apperant so far:

ONE: It's a seriously borin n tedious thing to be trimming all that bloody leaf... aaaaaaagh!!!!

TWO: Its pretty impressive how fast the leaf grows back, its been less than a week since i trimmed last n there allready full of leaf.

So here is some photo's.. heres a before and after..

Keep us updated on the difference between them.

 

[HempKat]

^ his penetration is dick though with those flouros....i say you couldnt hurt pluck more pearle....get that one top middle of the fourth pic...for me.....lol

Umm plucking leaves doesn't improve penetration. Penetration is just another way of talking about the inverse squared rule that says everytime the light doubles it's distance from the source, the energy it contains is reduced by a factor of 4. Plucking the leaves does not increase the strength of the light it's still going to be practically useless after a foot from the light or less. It would be better to leave what few leaves are there to absorb as much of the little bit of light coming off the fluoros.

This is exactly the kind of thing that concerns me. Someone gets good results with thier own training method and calls it defoliation and preaches it to everyone. People listen and focus on the word defoliation and the next thing you know you got people thinking that ripping out leaves will improve growth even under the weakest bulb possible to use.

 

[greentrich]

This method may be a part of dialing in your setup. It is a management technique for maximizing plant stature and productive sites. Indoor growing utilizes a limited amount of quality light in a limited area. Cannabis plants are absolutely unmindful of those limitations and will quickly take over the works without a little prodding from the manager. Cloning, SOG, SCROG, Spacing, Veg time, are some of the management techniques we use to get he most from this plant and to adapt it to our artificial environments. Defoliation is just another management technique.

As for troubleshooting, There are still plenty of leaves left on the plant to reveal any stress. You cannot get them all except on the first pluck in veg.

Perfect, thank you for answering my question k33f. Exactly what I needed to know. When I start up again later this year I will employ this technique on half plants so I can have a complete A/B comparison for myself.

Thanks again!

 

[727JoN]

i just did major defoliation to both females in my tent. i just mostly loved the look of the nugs in the light instead of huge leaves everywhere soaking it up and shading my beautiful budsites. And then the words hi-yield get thrown out there and im definitely down like charlie br..br..br..brown.

not sure if it will help my yield since i did it at days 33-35 of flower...so thats why i made sure to include my first reason as well lol

 

[montanaorganics]

Wow to all the objectivity lately. So I have 3 big ol blueberries at 5 weeks of flower... as soon as their done I`m gonna chop all the leaves off the biggest and prove 2 u all that defoliation works
Hehe sorry i have tried a little defoliation on one of them. It appears smaller in yield to me. Have 2 many plants to keep up this kind of methodology. Props to anyone over a hobbyist level with the time to pick leaves all day.

 

[blowin]

just go with LST for all novice growers best and safest way...plus it will end up looking like a bush...yessirrr!

 

[Harinama]

i have been defoliating this entire grow cycle, and i am VERY impressed with the light penetration, canopy and size of developing buds. 2-3 wks from harvest, and we'll really see.

I'll never leave a fan leaf on a plant again...

 

[FunkBomb]

I was a skeptic at first, but there is far too much evidence at this point. I did some defoliating on some Mandala Hashberries and have seen the difference in the last few weeks of flowering. Less plants with the same yield is wonderful for growing in tents.

-Funk