I am especially interested on your smoke opinion for the GSC because of the extremely low yield.Is it worth the time and space?
If its too good you are going to be stuck growing it for years to come.
I hope for the best with your dank Line up
I want to chime in about the leaves...and defoliation in general.
You have to think of the leaves as being the power cells of the plant. They absorb light, and are the key to retained nutrition within the plant itself. Photosynthesis, using light to convert water and co2 into starches and sugars which feed the plant. The more light absorbed, the more the plant is going to be able to utilize nutrition. Think of NPK and minerals as the material needed to create chlorophyll and aid in cell reproduction, but light is the trigger that begins those chemical processes.
The more leaves your remove the more you are limiting the plants ability to act efficiently with the light it is being presented with.
I understand the idea that you want to get light to the lower buds - but what good does light do if there is nothing there to receive and process it???
Personally, I think it is better to remove the lower flowers that are being shaded...rather than the leaves. Let the plant refocus it's energy to an area that is at the top of the canopy.
I like to pull the lower bud sites - BUT LEAVE THE LEAVES. If I am stripping the lower part of a plant, I'll just pinch the secondary growth off, and leave the primary fan leaf.
I think the best example I have of this practice is in these pictures - you'll see how much leaf is on the bottom - but there are no buds there. They secondary growth sites are pinched out, but the leaves remain to power and fuel flower formation.
View Image
IN CONTRAST, this is what she looked like stripped down.
View Image
I wish the send picture wasn't as zoomed in or you could see more clearly how much came off. But, if you look at the lower stems, you can see the internodes where the fan leaves were removed - but you'll notice there is no flower formation at those lower locations.
THE ONLY practical reason I see to ever defoliate a plant, is to increase air flow around the soil surface and base of the plant to insure you aren't creating an environment for mold/mildew to take hold.
How large your canopy is depends on light penetration. If the light doesn't penetrate past a certain point, don't remove the leaves to attempt to get light there...remove the budsites.
Just some passing thoughts. I think your numbers can and will increase if you follow this advice. Perhaps take one plant and test this out to see if there is a difference before doing a whole crop this way.
dank.Frank
I want to chime in about the leaves...and defoliation in general.
You have to think of the leaves as being the power cells of the plant. They absorb light, and are the key to retained nutrition within the plant itself. Photosynthesis, using light to convert water and co2 into starches and sugars which feed the plant. The more light absorbed, the more the plant is going to be able to utilize nutrition. Think of NPK and minerals as the material needed to create chlorophyll and aid in cell reproduction, but light is the trigger that begins those chemical processes.
The more leaves your remove the more you are limiting the plants ability to act efficiently with the light it is being presented with.
I understand the idea that you want to get light to the lower buds - but what good does light do if there is nothing there to receive and process it???
Personally, I think it is better to remove the lower flowers that are being shaded...rather than the leaves. Let the plant refocus it's energy to an area that is at the top of the canopy.
I like to pull the lower bud sites - BUT LEAVE THE LEAVES. If I am stripping the lower part of a plant, I'll just pinch the secondary growth off, and leave the primary fan leaf.
I think the best example I have of this practice is in these pictures - you'll see how much leaf is on the bottom - but there are no buds there. They secondary growth sites are pinched out, but the leaves remain to power and fuel flower formation.
View Image
IN CONTRAST, this is what she looked like stripped down.
View Image
I wish the send picture wasn't as zoomed in or you could see more clearly how much came off. But, if you look at the lower stems, you can see the internodes where the fan leaves were removed - but you'll notice there is no flower formation at those lower locations.
THE ONLY practical reason I see to ever defoliate a plant, is to increase air flow around the soil surface and base of the plant to insure you aren't creating an environment for mold/mildew to take hold.
How large your canopy is depends on light penetration. If the light doesn't penetrate past a certain point, don't remove the leaves to attempt to get light there...remove the budsites.
Just some passing thoughts. I think your numbers can and will increase if you follow this advice. Perhaps take one plant and test this out to see if there is a difference before doing a whole crop this way.
dank.Frank
Heady, in trying to understand your picture - and precisely what it is implying...
I guess the question one must ask is does the truss (in cannabis, this would be the buds) possess the same photosynthetic abilities as the leaves themselves...
If not, then you are essentially reducing the amount of assimilates available to travel down the phloem. But in reading the article, it seems there is a competition of resources (in tomatoes) between leaf production and fruit production.
My real take away from the article though...they are not removing ENTIRE leaves...only a portion, 1 of 3, and only when they are young. In thinking about this approach - it may be of benefit to remove the largest fan blade of a new leaf set, typically the center blade.
Perhaps, we have been going about defoliation all wrong...in regards to finding that perfect balance of resource allocation and how it relates to yields.
So if we have an OG plant throwing 3 and 5 bladed leaves, perhaps we should be cutting them down to 2 and 4 - removing what will become the largest part of the leaf, the center fan blade...
I've got something new to test out! Must admit, that is exciting. Haven't had much "new to me" in cannabis cultivation techniques for quite some time.
dank.Frank
I think that is just the general nature of plants in general. When tomatoes were first brought to the public people thought there were poisonous and watched a man eat a bushel for hours thinking he was surely going to fall over dead...
Prohibition is the root cause of the lack of knowledge. When something has been done in the shadows for so long and university extensions and professional greenhouses and plant/soil testing facilities won't touch it...it leaves it to the layman.
In the grand scheme, we've done remarkably well self-educating ourselves and sites like ICmag that truly take the time to weed out the garbage from the facts, have made a huge impact on new growers not having to start at square one.
There is still a lot to learn and incorporate for sure...but I'd also like to add in the perspective that certain practices are not performed on true commercial / warehouse / field scale, simply because the cost of labor to do such task becomes prohibitive. It is not always the result of "best agricultural practice" as much as it is the result of chasing ever increasing profits.
There is a middle ground some where. We'll get there eventually. Just keep tearing down the walls of prohibition...keep overgrowing!!!
dank.Frank