well just a quick little update...didn't even bother to turn off the light for the pics, so they look meh, but they get my point across i think...
i may have to start eating crows and my hat and all that about defoliation...i have been a staunch supporter of it for a long time but im getting such full bud growth from the natural bed it's almost hard to deny that they are as big or bigger than the defoliated version...just as many nodes if not more and the buds from each node are pretty big for week 4...there is a chance they will end up top heavy but if they yield as well as they look like they will i will have a hard time defoliating ever again, even to do a second defoliated grow to prove it doesn't yield as much...although if they are fluffy at the bottom i guess it would confirm my first hypothesis and my supposed experience, if my impressions on said gains weren't merely placebo...i gotta say their progress so far has got me doubting what i thought were gains in the past from defoliation...
anyway the girls are getting purple now, it's starting in the lower buds, it's sorta making the buds look a little pink, it's very nice, but i can't seem to catch it on camera yet, lets hope Tuesday(harvest day) i'll have better luck when they are darker...
well i don't believe in defoliating while they are vegging, although i don't veg so it doesn't become an issue to me either way...i like to wait till stretch is done, and the roots are for the most part done growing...i would assume that they veg slower because of the stress and the fact that they have less leaves than they intended...less leaves, less roots, less growth...and from what I'm seeing now maybe less yield too...it goes against what i believed but it's hard to deny the stark difference in the pictures...Keep us osted if they mature a little slower when defoliated.
Ive seen the slowed veg growth, but I havent run a strain more than once, so I can only go by other grows with those strains on how they develop in flower.
IMHO defoliation slowed down maturation by atleast a week or two from other grows Ive seen.
What I do notice is my plants yield about twice what the other grows Ive seen and talked with others about with the same strain with comparative veg times.
well i don't believe in defoliating while they are vegging, although i don't veg so it doesn't become an issue to me either way...i like to wait till stretch is done, and the roots are for the most part done growing...i would assume that they veg slower because of the stress and the fact that they have less leaves than they intended...less leaves, less roots, less growth...and from what I'm seeing now maybe less yield too...it goes against what i believed but it's hard to deny the stark difference in the pictures...
i haven't noticed a lengthening in flowering, but again i don't defoliate till after stretch so mine have a lot less defoliation, plus i try to only take off a leaf or two a week(plants only have about 12 fan leaves each), so that i run out of fan leaves right at harvest...although this last round that im harvesting Tuesday got most of it's leaves taken off around week 5 i think...i was paranoid, again for apparently no reason, that the bottom buds wouldn't see any growth if i didn't do something quick, 18 plants per foot makes for some very dense growth!