Trouble reading today's article? Click
here: Issue #262 - Sunday, April 23, 2017 Dear Fellow Grower,
In today's issue we focus on plant training techniques! - Learn how you can use the FREE defoliation technique during the first half of the flowering stage to dramatically increase your
yields!
- Find out about other ways to increase yields & quality!
- Check out the Trophy Pics of the Week which feature a master grower showing how defoliation is effective not just for
photoperiod plants, but also auto-flowering plants!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com) "Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder."
~Jalaluddin Rumi
Nebula's Defoliation Tutorial by Nebula Haze |
Introduction to Bud-Based Defoliation
What is cannabis defoliation, and why/how does removing leaves from a cannabis plant increase yields?
The point of defoliation is to "hack" your plant's natural processes in the early part of the flowering stage to cause it to grow its buds and colas differently. You'll notice in the pictures below that the plants have focused purely on bud development. Growers achieve this by removing fan leaves from healthy marijuana plants during early bud development to keep the plant "focused" on growing buds instead of leaves.
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Bud-Based Defoliation is the only way to achieve results like this! In the wild your plant will spend some amount of energy on buds, as well as some amount of energy making and maintaining leaves.
However, if you defoliate your cannabis plants early in the flowering stage, you will change the plant's natural growing patterns.
Without as many leaves at the moment buds are first forming, your plants puts more energy into making colas, and the colas will be longer, thicker, and go down further into the
plant.
Theories Why Bud-Based Marijuana Defoliation Works...
- Cannabis is wind-pollinated, so it doesn't fatten any buds except the ones that have access to wind.
Defoliation exposes the more of the buds to a breeze.
- Cannabis buds seem to get fatter when they're exposed to strong, direct light and defoliation exposes the buds to light.
- It's possible the plant focuses on bud sites during the initial part of
flowering because it simply doesn't have leaves to put energy into
Did You Know? There are other commercial crops, like cotton, which also need to be defoliated early in the flowering stage to produce the best quality and yields!
Whatever the reason, defoliation works to dramatically increase your cannabis yields when you do it correctly!
Many growers write in to tell us how defoliation was the secret sauce they needed to take their growing skills to the next level. In our growing forum we have some growers that are conducting defoliation and have taken the technique to new heights!
Ready to learn how to incorporate
defoliation into your own cannabis garden? It's pretty well-accepted in the cannabis growing world that defoliation can increase yields in some situations, but what's the "best" way to defoliate? That's a common question without an easy
answer.
The truth is that everyone has their own ideas about the best way to defoliate! If you ask 10 different growers, you'll get 10 different answers!
And you'll probably find at least one person who claims it doesn't work at all.
Today, I'll share my own personal defoliation timeline and tactics (which I've developed over the last few years)!
Vegetative Stage Defoliation
I don't remove leaves in the vegetative stage to the same extent I
do in the flowering stage.
Most defoliation in the vegetative stage is used to thin out the plant if it starts getting really bushy. Making sure there's always airflow through the middle and under the bottom of the plant will help plants grow better. Good airflow also prevents White Powdery Mold (WPM), a common problem when you have leaves laying on top of each other.
In my opinion, if you can't see through the plant, and/or there's no light getting through to the bottom, it's too bushy for proper airflow!
These vegetative stage
plants are too leafy! Notice how the floor is in shadow? They're ready for a haircut!
When it comes to plant training, the focus in the vegetative stage is on getting the shape of
the plant correct (flat and wide like a table), and making sure there's multiple main stems/colas under the grow light.
When I'm growing my own cannabis plants, I don't start defoliating aggressively until I'm in the flowering stage.
Flowering Stage Defoliation
Right before the switch to the flowering stage, I remove any leaves and tiny growth tips on the bottom parts of the plant that aren't getting light anymore (sometimes called "lollipopping" the
plant).
It is important to do right this before the switch to flowering so the plant is putting all its effort into the top bud sites instead of the lower bud sites that will never grow into big buds no matter what you do.
Some growers call the technique "lollipopping" because you're
making the bottom completely bare like a lollipop stick :) Be careful not to lollipop too much! The following grower stripped too much off the bottom of the plant, resulting in shortened colas. His yield would have been bigger
if he'd allowed those bud sites to continue further down on each stem! Now that I've lollipopped my plant (if necessary), it's time to remove most of the biggest fan leaves, leaving just the top few pairs of fan leaves of each cola completely untouched. After this step, the
plant will be almost all "bones" and bud sites. Don't worry, there are examples in just a moment!
Note: Some equatorial Sativa and Haze strains naturally grow tall and "leggy" with thin leaves and lots of exposed stem. These strains may never produce enough leaves to get bushy even in the best environment, and may look like they've naturally defoliated themselves. When this happens there's no
need to defoliate plants further. However, many (if not most) strains produce some amount of leafiness that needs to be removed for optimal growth indoors.
You may not need to defoliate if you see lots of stem and bud sites are already exposed. Some strains naturally grow leggy enough that they don't need much, if any, defoliation to expose bud sites or increase air
circulation!
Flowering Defoliation #1 (Immediately Before Switch to 12/12)
Before Defoliation
After Defoliation
I leave a few extra full size fan leaves at the top of each cola because I believe it helps power the growth of the colas during the flowering stretch so they get as long as possible.
Now that you're in the flowering stage, avoid removing or damaging future bud sites. It's easy to accidentally damage bud sites when they're just tiny pre-flowers like this one,
so be extra careful when removing leaves! Flowering Defoliation #2 (Last Major Defoliation) - Week 3 of Flowering Stage
This is what that plant looked like 3 weeks later. I didn't remove any leaves in that time. The plant has gotten far taller due to the flowering stretch, and is completely covered in leaves again! Usually by around week 3, a bunch of budlets have formed. At this point I remove all of the major fan leaves one last time. You're forcing the plant to focus on the buds during
this crucial phase of their development! After that, I'm done with the majority of defoliation! From week 3 and on, I only remove leaves if they're covering a bud site (and
I can't tuck the leaf away) or if the plant starts getting too bushy through the middle and bottom. Each leaf provides energy to the plant, and I cherish them... unless they get in the way! :)
Harvest - 7 Weeks Later I Harvested
This! If you want to copy these results for yourself, refer to the following quick summary!
Nebula's Bud-Based Defoliation Technique (Quick Summary)
So basically, my (personal) cannabis defoliation technique could be summed up like this:
Vegetative Stage - Plant Training - Train plant(s) to grow into a
generally flat and wide shape, so they fill your grow space like a table. This makes it so you have multiple colas located at the top of the plant and close to the light. Or choose a Sea of Green setup (growing many small plants) and skip the training!
- Defoliate the middle and bottom of your plant(s) whenever you can't see light coming through them. When the middle is completely dark it means the plant is too bushy!
Right Before Switch to 12/12 - Do this step when plant is
about half the final desired height (since it will about double in size after the switch to 12/12)
- Lollipop the plant (strip the lowest parts of the plant that will never get light)
- Remove major fan
leaves (making sure not to damage bud sites) until plant is not leafy. If you can easily see your plant's main stems it's a good time to stop.
Week 3 After Switch to 12/12
- One Last Defoliation at Flowering Week
3 - Now that you're three weeks into the flowering stage, do another major removal of just about all the fan leaves. Make sure to especially take any big leaves with long stems, or leaves that are covering bud sites! Again, avoid removing or damaging any developing buds!
After Week 3, I only defoliate huge fan leaves that can't be tucked away. Otherwise I just wait until harvest and
reap the rewards!
Defoliation is a technique, but it is also an art! The above instructions should get you started but cannabis plants are like big bonsai trees and you'll eventually learn how to defoliate without hesitation. It's fun to try to alter the growth patterns of cannabis plants and I encourage
you to experiment with your own plants and develop your own particular defoliation style and rhythm!
Have you tried defoliation yourself? Reply to this email and send us pictures!
Other Ways to Increase Yields & Quality! |
How to Improve...
You Might Be Interested in One of the Following Cannabis Plant Training Tutorials... |
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I just want to say thank you for all the information you've put together here. I am just about to start growing for the first time and I have looked at tons of different sites to get as much knowledge as possible about getting started and your site has by far the most and certainly the best info of all of them. With other sites I found myself confused and still lacking any good answers
to my question. You have provided answers to every single question I could possibly think of and a lot I didn't think of. Now I am very confident that I'll have excellent results. Anyway sorry this got a little longer than I expected so again thank you very much for the work you've done putting this together.
Jason |
Trophy Pictures of the Week! |
Here is a small sample of the results of
defoliation by grower Green75! |
We encourage you to forward this email to a friend in need!
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Check out our friendly growing community to ask questions, discuss your grow, share pictures, or otherwise talk about growing cannabis with other real growers!
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Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
I'll be honest with you, when I first started growing, I struggled. Now, it is my mission to
make it easier for new growers to get started as well as help advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. We are updating and adding articles every single week and our goal is to eventually build a comprehensive growing resource so anyone and everyone can grow if they want to! If we all share the knowledge there's more buds in the world for everyone :) |
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Learn which seed sources are personally recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium (deep water culture, bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis can be a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water
doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
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