Defoliation Experiment on NYCD

hempfield · May 19, 2014

Hi guys,

I have 6 clones of New York City Diesel on day 20 of flowering and I will do a little experiment : 3 of them will be totally striped off of their fan leaves on day 21 and again on day 42 to see how will affect this the final result.

I choose this strain because it's quite a bushy plant, with extremely slow growth and it really needs to be defoliated to allow bottom buds to fill up.

Tomorrow evening I will remove the fan leaves from 3 of them and take more pictures.

This clones are flowering on a 11/13 light schedule, under DIY LED lights. At this moment they bath in a blend of warm white and cool white white, with just a touch of red and deep red and they will gradually move under a more redish light as the current plants flowering under that lights will be harvested ( in two to three weeks).

NYCD clones are in 3.4L (almost 1 gal) pots, have been vegetated with minimal light and nutrients for almost 2 months on 24/0 schedule and since entering flowering they are fed with BioBizz nutrients (Alg-A-Mic, BioGrow and BioBloom) using Light-Mix recommendations, receiving 300-400ml each every other day. Last watering was last night. Once a week I fed them with wormcasting and molases brewed tea .

exploziv · May 19, 2014

Great side-by-side project! Subscribed. :lurk:

Hope we can finally shed some light on the effects of defoliation.

Good luck with your grow!

Gardening Angel · May 19, 2014

hey hempfield,

NYCD is a top strain I grew it a few years ago when I started to grow more sativa then indica.

what is the flowering time on these clones ?

thanks
GA

hempfield · May 19, 2014

Hi Angel,

The mother of this clones have been in 11/13 for about 75 days until she was ready to be harvested, but I decided to do what Soma used to say : "when she seems to be ready, let her one more week". So I did harvested her a few days later but I really don't know how many (5 to 7 I think). I decided to chop her when I noticed how many thricomes became amber (~60%).

This phenotype is by the far the slowest plant I ever grew. After two months of vegetation she grew to no more than 12". I kind of slaughtered her when I took this 6 clones, but my initial plan was to try a multi strain SOG. When I did realized how slow she grow I decided to let her vegetate enough to reach the optimum size for my flower room (4' from floor to lights) so here we are.

hush · May 19, 2014

I'll be following along. :wave:

hempfield · May 22, 2014

I was sick during last two days so I had to postpone the defoliation of the three plants until last night. So here they are :

Before defoliation

hempfield · May 22, 2014

After defoliation

I have removed every leaf which had the petiole visible and was easy to cut. I notice a lot of larf buds on the bottom side, on all 6 clones. On the defoliated plants they were left in place (they will receive enough light now) but I think I will remove them on the other 3 plants in the following days (I might use them as clones).

The journey has just began ! :biggrin:

theJointedOne · May 22, 2014

very interesting

Drek · May 22, 2014

I think of excessive defoliation kinda like a gastric band.

Once the leaves are there it's not too difficult to keep them alive, however, once there gone, how do they supplement the impending growth in flowering? (when they really need intake)

In nature, they drop some leaves, but then again the Sun is a lot more powerful than any man made light. I drop leaves that the plant starts to yellow first and shoots that are hidden underneath.

I let the plant tell me. Predicting the chopped ones experience more shock than the others resulting in unnecessary recoup time. Overall, I think the unchopped ones should do slightly better in the end.

hush · May 22, 2014

hempfield said:
I notice a lot of larf buds on the bottom side, on all 6 clones. On the defoliated plants they were left in place (they will receive enough light now) but I think I will remove them on the other 3 plants in the following days

Certainly not telling you what to do, but it would be kind of cool if you were able to leave the larf buds on both plants, to help with the comparison in the end. That might be an area where defoliation's benefits really come through, even moreso than the main cola buds.

Just thinking out loud I guess. :tiphat:

exploziv · May 22, 2014

I'm with hush on this one, to have the best side by side, only the defoliated plants should be touched.

hempfield · May 22, 2014

@hush, @explo :Ok, I'll leave the bottom larf buds untouched , but I might cut just one of them to try rooting and reveg.

@Dreck: It's a side by side test grow intended to show how this strain perform indoor with and without defoliation.I really don't know at this moment which of them will perform better, but in 21 days from now we may have a clue. I was quite surprised how thin this plants appear after defoliation in contrast with their bushy sisters. In a previous outdoor season I had a few plants that have been totally defoliated by sheep , goats and cows and they recovered in just a week or two and they developed buds from top to bottom. Unfortunately , just a week before the harvest the cows have return and you can guess what happen. :biggrin:

Drek · May 22, 2014

I've heard of outdoor growers spreading dogshit in the immediate vicinity. Supposed to keep the munchers away...

I actually have some NYCD beans, that I plan on growing out sometime. Much respect for Soma.

crbs · May 22, 2014

Hello hempfield, liked the idea of this experiment. Tracking other growers, I realize that after pruning the tops tend to gain more. I will monitor the results. Peace!

Classic Seeds · May 22, 2014

hi hempfield thanks for taking the time to do this .I know there will always be disagrements about defolitions .we will see what turns out for you in the end of this grow from each group and have a record of the results from these 2 radically different approaches to growing thanks again for furthering all our knowledge about different growing styles aloha cls

Weezard · May 23, 2014

MensaBarbie · May 23, 2014

I am just wondering if your thread will get trolled to death on IC or not. I posted one on RIU and it got troll-flamed into the ground by week 3 by defoliHaterz.

hush · May 23, 2014

It has happened to 100% of all the defoliation threads that have ever occurred here... But since this is a personal journal type of thread, instead of a generic defoliation discussion, I would expect the mods to delete the trolls and leave this thread alone, but only time will tell I guess.

I've never understood why this topic is so freaking contentious, lol. I've had to add it to my personal list of subjects not to talk about with others, right after abortion and religion, lol.

Pop A Molly · May 23, 2014

any updates about how them girls is doing ?
Actually i'm in the same day of flowering as you. did some reall nice defoliation today.
i think i went too hard thoe , time will tell.
anyway i'm Subscribed, can't wait to see those girls in a few weeks from now

Weezard · May 23, 2014

It's contentious because people can not rationally, debate belief systems!

This thread is not a debate, it's a side by side experiment.
We need only compare the two sides.

Rational folks will look at the results and either say, "Hah! I told you so."
Or, Well, blow me down, Who'd a thunk it? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes . . ."

Some will just quietly change their minds and get on with the growing.

The true believers, on the other hand, are well practiced at ignoring facts.
They will nitpick your methods, accuse you of falsifying the results, throw tantrums, etc.
Basically, kick over the chess board and claim "victory".

Me? I'm with Mark Twain.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
- Mark Twain

I'm willing to be proven wrong, just not willing to stay wrong. :tiphat:

Mahalo Hempfield.
I owe ya one.

Weeze[/FONT]

Defoliation Experiment on NYCD

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