Defoliation in flower

[SirSmksAlot]

I've noticed that some of you growers do extreme defoliation late flower. I've always been afraid to do so. Fearing I'll stress the hell out of my plants. Could someone explain at what point they start the defoliation. And what steps you take during the process. I just want my buds to fatten up as much as possible.

[SirSmksAlot]

After some more research it appears that I missed the window for further defoliation. I guess I'll have to wait till my next grow to experiment.

[9fingerleafs]

im back growing outdoors so i dont defoliate anymore, but what i do do is, the last week during flush i remove big fan leaves to force the plant to go into senescence. its not t increase yield its just to accelerate flush

[9fingerleafs]

should look up miami mango defoliation and three a light

[PhantomSulker]

I am still new, but as much as I read, I continued to pull fan leaves that were blocking buds up untill a few weeks ago I am in week 13 of flower and I pulled leaves as long as they were growing new ones.

[SirSmksAlot]

I will check that out. Thanks for the replies.

[Toker1]

Judging by others pictures can be misleading. Did the grower defoil prior to leaves turning yellow, or after?
The answer will tell you more about the technique used.
Personally, on the long branches that are too close together, defoiling a bit can open up the area and expose more bud sites to light and air. You want that.
Removing too many leaves will hurt yields and be counterproductive.
Now the other option is to leave the leaves be. In that case, older leaves that receive less light will eventually yellow and die off. These leaves should be removed from the plant.
Eventually, while the removal of nutrients (specifically nitrogen) happens... all leaves begin to yellow. Some growers remove all yellow leaves at this point in time (even if they didn’t defoil at all previously).
Hope that makes sense.

[Toker1]

Also, defoiling durring the end of the flowering process (when yields will not be affected), shortens the processing time for trimming purposes.
sometimes, during the last week of flower, I begin to remove all fan leaves from the buds. This way, when I chop and dry that process is much quicker since all the fan leaves were already removed prior to the chop.
The stress of late flower fan leaf removal also can increase the THC production if done properly.

[SirSmksAlot]

I'm going to give that a shot this time. It's looking like I'm going to have my hands full come harvest. Thanks for your help Toker1

[Toker1]

You got it. 👍

[Obi-Wan]

I like to do 2 defoliations during a grow. The first is just before I switch to 12/12 and I lollipop the bottom 1/3 of the plant and pull about 20% of the fans from the middle 1/3 of the plant. I always leave the top 1/3 or 4-5 nodes untouched. After week 3 of flower I’ll take another 20-30% of the fans from the middle 1/3. Because the plants have started to stretch the middle 3rd of the plant now includes some bud sites that were previously in the top 1/3 of the plant. I will again leave the top 4-5 nodes untouched. I flower under a 400w hps so I lollipop a little higher than someone that runs a 600w. The pics below show at the flip to 12/12, 3 weeks later, and this past Monday which marked the start of week 5.

[SirSmksAlot]

Your plants are looking nice btw

[Obi-Wan]

Thanks, kind words are always welcome.

I should have added above that I generally take 5-6 lower leaves per week from this point forward. This is similar to the advice that Toker1 gave you previously. I’m running Northern Soul from Seedsman for this grow from seed. It’s a 10 week flowering strain and at week 5 of flower I’ll start taking fan leaves slowly from the bottom up until I harvest. I do this because as the plant gets closer to harvest it want to cannabilize nutrients from the plant, particularly nitrogen when we start to lower the available quantities during flower. The lower leaves are the first to yellow out so if we take them slowly before they have a chance to pull the nitrogen, we can eliminate another source of nitrogen over the second half of flower. Too much nitrogen is the primary reason for buds tasting metallic after they have been dried and cured. Just one extra step to give smoother buds. Plus,when you work from the bottom up you won’t pull any solar panels before the plant is ready. 😉

[maner]

Hey nice information obi-wan thank you, i took notes of your method so that i never need to search again and again. its my first grow and i started my flowering (12/12) 14 days ago and 1-2 days ago 1 of my plant (kilimanjaro) showed some pistilles and im so happy cause i wasnt expecting that anytime near. so i want to ask, do you do the second defoliation after 3rd week finishes or should i do second defoliation right away after seeing that pistilles?

Sorry for hijacking your thread SirSmksAlot but i guess this info can help you too.

[Obi-Wan]

I like to wait until the end of week 3 so I can see how the buds are developing.

[maner]

so i can snip bottom 1/3 which hasnt start developing any buds/pistilles?