First Grow questions!

[fvckinginfamous]

Hello there!
This is my first grow ever, these are Money Maker strain on the left with 3 weeks since birth , and White Widow on the Right with 4 weeks since birth, will i need to take some leafs off? and when? and how do i know which ones to take off? on the white widow there was one yellow leaf on the botton, that was yellow probably because it didnt get any light so i took it off this morning.
thanks in advance!

[alltatup]

Welcome to the forum infamous, your girls are really beautiful!!! This page will help you: https://www.growweedeasy.com/defoliation/

You can go to the vegetative stage section and figure out what you want to do with your plants.

[Redwasp]

What size pots are those? And id try some light lst before i removed any leaves. Ill try to poat some pics of before training and after later. Just slowly move the top to the side daily till those lower future bud sights are getting full light. Im assuming those are autos? Cant really tell.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Morning, if I was you I would read Nebulas articles on defoliation,
I take leaves that are blocking budsites, an I take some from the middle of the plant, for air flow.
Some people don't take any leaves off, but you are not gonna hurt a thing, by removing some leaves.

[fvckinginfamous]

Yes they are auto, im abit worried that defoliation will hurt more than do good, so im thinking of leaving them as they are if it doesnt do any harm to them, will it decrease yield too much if i dont do it?
i've been trying to leave the bud sites at full light exposure, the pots are 3 gallons full of holes on bottom and 2 of the sides for breathing and drainage. i didnt knew better so i used some styrophoam pots i had laying arround for growing my strawberries.. next time i'll use smart pots as they dont use that much space so i can grow 3 instead of 2 at same time in same area. and apparently they are better fit for this. learning to improve for 2nd grow

[Redwasp]

I do not defoliate much on my plants. Especially autos. If it were me, and others will have different opinion, I would not defoliate much if at all.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Good Morning redwasp, look at some of Green75, autoflowers that he grows, he takes almost all of his plants leaves off, and his plants always look better than anyone's, but everyone is different about taking leaves off, Green75 starts early, when his plants are young too.
As a matter of fact, he wins alot of these grow battles on some of the other grow sites. But he mainly manifolds his autos, something that nobody used to do, but they do now. I remember when you were told not to top autos, but that's been proven wrong, by some talented auto growers too.
All plants are different, and people grow different too.

[Redwasp]

I have slowly been playing with autos. I top mine. I train them. I got an awesome yield from 3 last go. But i dont defoliate my photos much either. That being said even with light defoliation i removed over 2 pounds of leaves last week from 4 large photos. But hard to tell. I do remove leaves that block light on autos but thats about it. Over time may do more. And yes there are some awesome growers out there.

[Pyro1711]

It doesn't hurt to defoilate an auto... This was my blackberry auto back in April before harvest. I had removed lower branches as you can clearly see, plus removed lots of leaves... Just so you know, that was my very FIRST plant I had ever grown, and some of the people here will tell you that little plant went through hell growing... From bad soil, nute burn, root problems, ect... In the end she produced 3.57 OZ of Dry cured bud! Once yours get a little taller, remove the bottom branches, they won't give you much more than a popcorn nugget anyways...defoilate so light can get to all the bud sites, if you see leaves in "dark" areas of the plant, snip em off... Let your plants send it's "energy" to the bud sites and not to areas that don't do any good. I'm waiting to havest my Northern Lights Auto, and it is a MONSTER from the things I learned from my first plant.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Pyro1711, I remember your plant, you did a great job with her.
And you are right about Northern Lights autos ,some of them anyways, getting huge.
My first auto ever, was a NLAUTO from Nirvana, and I got just a few grams short of 7ozs, from her, she was huge.
Autoflowers are alot tougher, than some people think. And they will never know just how tough they are untill they grow a bunch of them.
I try to tuck the majority of leaves, but I sure ain't scared to remove some either.
Good Luck with your NLAUTO , Pyro1711

[Redwasp]

I am not saying not to defoliate them but after my last 3 which other than topping and training alot, was a very short strain so it got light to the bottom, i didnt remove 1 leaf. That was 3 plants. I did very very well with yields. I dont like to talk much in yields as someone will say im lying. But lets just say I have 5 now all different strains in better light. If you want to know my yields message me. Im just sayimg with proper training on shorter strains it would surprise me if i got more. Taller strains, i have 2 that are taller strains, im guessing im gonna defoliate quiet a bit most likely. Not to your extent but more than others.

But saying that stress seems to make better quality. Defoliation causes stress. Like supercropping. Produces more and seems to increase percieved quality at least. So i am in no way saying not to defoliate. Just saying you dont have to for most growers purposes.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Everyone is different, the last 2-3weeks before harvest, I stress my buds just about as much as I can, as do all my growing buddies around where I live, seems to help with potency an trich production, But you will hear from some folks ,that says that's bogus, but they will never know until they try it.

[DrPhoton]

I am against defoliation as all scientific reasoning goes against the method. But i respect peoples opinions. Check my article out on defoliation.

[Inuart88]

Do you have an article about reading articles? lol Mucho love

[DrPhoton]

Haha 👍