How Early Do You Start Defoliating?
I first started
defoliating in desperation after many years of SOG, which I feel has
proven to be too much work for inconsistent yields. After much
experimentation, I've found my yields have been more consistent when training a single plant to use this space instead of 4 or 9 or 25 SOG clones.
Never mind the fact that in many states, patients are limited to just a handful of plants, removing SoG as a viable option.
Most
growers who are curious about this do not want to perform defoliation
on small plants. They consider the practice in veg to be too
radical. And I 100% agree that totally stripping your seedlings of all
leaves will be devastating to their growth.
And the honest truth is that defoliation isn't for everyone.
Beginners are often already dealing with the drawbacks to their choice
of method or media, and defoliation can be disastrous to any but the
healthiest of plants.
Because of this, I sometimes hesitate to throw defoliation into the
mix of challenges for beginning growers and I strongly advise any growers to experiment with defoliation (or with any extreme growth control method) in the vegetative stage only where there is nothing at stake.
That being said, I believe the only reason you should allow a
marijuana plant to leaf out completely is in an outdoor situation where
you want as large a plant as possible. In that case you can save
deleafing for mid to late summer after full-stretch and branching.
The way I practice this method (growing indoors) leaves never
get a chance to age. No leaves are allowed more than about two weeks
existence. I start at the top in order to remove the shading. Removing
lower leaf contributes nothing to the strategy of exposing usually
shaded out mid and lower growth to premium light. I still remove older
shabby leaves to keep it all tidy.
And this is where defoliation gets controversial. Many growers feel
that controlling their plant in any way during the vegetative stage will
significantly reduce yields. And I understand how it can seem that way,
especially to new growers, before you've gone through the entire life
cycle of the marijuana plant a few times.
Experiments show, again and again, that large plants with
intensively prepared structure during extended Veg cycle yield far more
than untrained, smaller, force-flowered individuals.
Nebula Haze: I've
also found this to be the case. Small marijuana plants that are forced
to flower when extremely young are can be fun as an experiment, but
produce pitiful yields. Investing more time in the vegetative stage to
gain girth, while controlling the shape and growth of the plant, has
dramatically increased yields for me.
The truth is, that with marijuana, the real 'secret sauce' to getting
enormous yields is when you've perfectly prepared your plants for the
flowering stage. As any grower knows, once you're deep into flowering,
there isn't a whole lot you can do about huge, out-of-control plants
except hold on, pray for the best, and do better next time.
I DO NOT lollipop and advice strongly against it. I use defoliation to skillfully and artfully prepare plants during the vegetative stage, so that lollipopping becomes completely unnecessary. I am on a mission to refocus growing technique to never remove ANY productive growth. I believe only leaves should be removed.
Ultimately, the defoliation
technique is a huge tool in the grower's toolbox that allows you to
dominate the Vegetative stage. Then it can be used in the Flowering
stage to maximize yields.
Defoliation is the Great Secret to High-Yield, Compact Marijuana Plants
My style involves intensive defoliation along with twist and train method (a version of supercropping) using a basic net for support.
I only top once, if at all, at the 5th or 6th node(approximately)
depending on the height and structure of a given clone. I also deleaf
them at this time. The only plants that get more topping than that are
because they had clones taken from them. I don't usually keep dedicated
mothers, instead, I just clone the clones and cycle everything through.
Here is a close-up of a veg clone getting it's second stripping.
Before
After
You must start this in veg to get the best results. Leaf removal in
bud is beneficial after stretch but most important to yields is
management and the creation of a more compact plant with more budding
sites in a given size.
Stripping
and bending takes practice but you must do it to get practice. By
starting in veg you risk no bud. Veg plants are replaceable so
experiment and be ready to devote a little more time to prepare them.
I'd describe my stripping as "aggressive." Once your plant is
trained to deal with defoliation, it's hard to go wrong. Plus, after
years of experience, I've become very familiar with how these plants
grow and always know what my outcome will be.
But defoliation doesn't end in the vegetative stage. I also continue to pull the fan leaves off of my flowering plants to expose the buds.
As far as when and how often, I don't get too scientific about it.
Usually
if things look leafy, meaning that you see more leaf than budsites when
viewing the crop, it may be time for another deleafing. It usually
takes a week to 10 days for a plant to releaf to the point that there
are 2-4 new leaves that have flattened and greened enough to deleaf
again.
This repeated releafing process allows that lower growth to benefit from the maturing of the immediate leaf mass.
Leaf
removal stimulates lower and mid bud growth by exposing those normally
shaded out areas to premium light. Of course those new to the technique
should start slow, but if you start too slow you won't remove enough
leaf to see the best result.
You basically want to prevent any 'shade' from happening.
Here's an example of how I deleaf a girl who is 2 weeks into 12-12 (flowering)
Before
