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**SommerVirelli** · 11-18-2020, 06:23 AM

Originally posted by golfnrl View Post

@SommerVirelli nice grow you have going. Could you elaborate a little on why you removed leaves when you topped the plants? Defoliation is a challenge for me. I'm having a hard time understanding the how's and why's.

Adding to what 9fingerleafs said, it’s also beneficial towards the start of the flower cycle. Keep the fan leaves to a minimum to create more room for light to penetrate into the flower areas. It gets crazy bushy during flower which means any flowers covered in shadow from the fan leaves will be stunted and small. I will defoliate again right before the switch to flower, and a final time in week 3 of flower.

**SommerVirelli** · 11-18-2020, 09:39 AM

Absolutely. I’ll do a tutorial style update with before and after pics just before I switch to flower.

**SommerVirelli** · 11-22-2020, 09:48 AM

Week 6 Veg

Where to begin? This week has been stressful, but only due to my part. I’ve been far too rough with my babies. So far I have managed to break 6 of the main branches at the knuckle, as well as 1 side branch. I mended them all. They were all saved except for one main branch. The side branch was immediately put into a clone solution.

I was waiting on plugs to arrive to take a lot of clones, but I had a couple rock wool cubes left. So the one broken side branch was put into a cube and into the mother tent ahead of time. This upcoming week I plan to take a couple cutting from each plant to see if there will be any phenos I really want to keep.

I was also asked to do “before and after” pics the next time I defoliate. Since this next week will be the last week of Veg, I will do a mini defoliation tutorial for this journal. So look for that next week if it’s something you’d enjoy!

**SommerVirelli** · 11-26-2020, 10:20 AM

It’s the middle of week 7 of Veg. On Thursday the girls were given a heavy defoliation. This will give them a few days to recover right before the flip to 12/12.

I put together some before and after photos to showcase the importance of heavy defoliation in scrog style grows. Fan leaves are a important part of growth but also a hindrance for anything trying to grow beneath them. Removing all the fan leaves before flowering will expose every possible bud site to light for maximum yield and little to no popcorn buds. It also improves airflow to decrease the chance of mold.

I’m going to post in a few different sections, so wait until I comment “DONE” before posting.

In the pics here you can see your average vegetative growth. It’s healthy and bushy and won’t hurt anything to leave it alone. I choose to do heavy leaf removal to increase yields. You will see the dramatic difference it makes. I will usually do 2 of these defoliations during vegetation, one of these during the last week of Veg growth. I will do it a third time in the third week of flower as well.

**SommerVirelli** · 11-26-2020, 10:26 AM

Here you can see before and after pics of each plant. In the before pics you can really only see a few different flower sites. In the after pics you can see how many bud sites were hiding under the leaves. They would have still flowered, but the flowers growing under shadow would be stunted and small. Now that they are exposed to full light, they will develop into full fat buds.

The [EXAMPLE A] pic shows exactly what kind of growth happens when there is no light. These will grow into large bud sites now that the fan leaves have been removed.

**SommerVirelli** · 11-26-2020, 10:29 AM

These pics show the entire tent as before and after. For those who don’t do heavy leaf removal like I do, it can be shocking to see. It’s true there are some strains that don’t respond well to this kind of stress. That’s something every grower must gauge on the first fan leaf removal. In my case with this strain, the responded very well showed no sign of slowed growth.

It looks like I’ve done something horrible because it looks so bare. In 3 days they should be healed and ready for 12/12, and after 3 weeks there will be so much more growth that I will have to do this all over again so that the flowers can keep receiving the light they need.

This takes some time and careful effort, as you can see in the last pic. A grocery bag stuffed full of leaves. These will go into the compost pile and used later. I hope I did a good job of showing my style of defoliation and explaining why it’s done. If you follow the grow you’ll see why too. I’ve been growing like this for a long time and I enjoy seeing the fruits of my labor.

DONE

**SommerVirelli** · 11-26-2020, 05:01 PM

Wow, this is great stuff, Thx SommerVirelli I understand Scrogging much better now.

The level of defoliation you do is amazing. Is that possible on most strains, or just Rawton?

How many major colas will you have when the flowering stretch is over? Any guess yet on Yield from the screen?

Looking forward to following your grow.

-Grouchy

grouchyoldman thanks man. I would say it’s possible to most strains. Start by taking a handful of leaves at first, and seeing how the plant responds in the next couple of days. For the major colas, I should have main 4 colas per plant. The idea behind scrog is making all the growth the same height. This actually turns every bud along the screen into a top. This is the first time I’ve grown this strain so we will see what kind of buds and yield we will get. In my 4 x 4 tent with my 480w LED I average 2 pounds dry. My last grow with Early Lemon Berry R1 came to 1 lb 13 oz I believe.

**bboyfromwayback** · 12-03-2020, 03:17 PM

I just saw this thread from another post you made. Nice work! Since joining GWE I’ve seen a lot a f’d up looking ScrOG attempts. You’re the only person on here I’ve seen start your training under the screen from the start like I do. When I started that just seemed rational to me and how I thought it should be done. Many successful grows later and I’m glad I didn’t read the majority of ScrOG tutorials because halfway through them I’m thinking to myself this writer has never scrog’d a plant in their life and they’re writing a tutorial teaching someone how to screw up. Cant wait to see that sea of fat buds in a few weeks👍🏻

**SommerVirelli** · 12-06-2020, 10:47 AM

Week 1 Flower

The girls are showing hairs and have already filled the tent with new growth from their heavy defoliation last week. The two phenotypes in the front are much shorter than the other two, so there is a lot more empty space to fill while the longer phenos have already run out of room on their side of the tent. I helped fill the space in the front by putting a mother of a different strain that I sexed.

I won’t be able to do a whole lot more with tucking branches with most of the girls. I’ll just have to wait until week 3 when I will do one last defoliation session. After that, they are on auto pilot.

I also finally dialed the lights to 100% from their 50% Veg strength. I honestly thought I did this already but all is good now. Hanging height: 25”.

**Mlevy420** · 12-12-2020, 11:40 AM

Thanks a ton for sharing this. Very awesome pics and great instructions. I have not tried a screen yet because of all the jacked up info ive received on how to properly do it. This totally makes sense now. Hoping for a killer harvest for you on these. Awesome sauce 100%!!!

**SommerVirelli** · 12-14-2020, 05:15 AM

Week 2 Flower

Preflowers are set and ready to go. This coming week I will be doing a final defoliation and any branch or bud site removal if needed. Im hoping the stretch comes to a halt very soon. I only have a couple inches left for the light to go up. After that, I’ll just have to dim the power if needed. I won’t do it unless the girls tell me they need it tho.

**SommerVirelli** · 12-14-2020, 09:01 PM

Update: Final Defoliation Day

Today is day one of Week 3 of flower. The girls were in much need of a defoliation and due to my work and family schedule it had to be done today or it wouldn’t have gotten done at all. Not a problem, I usually just wait towards the end of week 3 for the final defoliation. I went ahead and took some before and after shots like last time. I will do an update on the Week 3 Flower journal entry.

Also, I’m sorry about the order of the pictures. I tried a few times to get them right and I was going to label them but it all got screwed up. My bad. There’s 1 before and 1 after pic of each. If you look close you can tell which is which. Happy hunting 🙂

**Mlevy420** · 12-15-2020, 11:49 AM

Looking gooood. Excited to see the progress. Since there's an extra seat on this bus, mind if I ride along too? 👍

**SommerVirelli** · 12-20-2020, 08:28 PM

Week 3 Flower

The girls have definitely benefited from the defoliation from early on this week. They are stacking nicely. Lots of tall gorgeous colas with minimum side branching. Still can’t get a grasp of the terpene profiles, but may be very gassy. Lots of frost already. I can’t wait to see them start to fatten up. The stretch seemed to have slowed up so we should see some serious flower growth in the coming weeks.

**RetiredGuy** · 12-21-2020, 09:56 AM

Really learning a lot watching this grow proceed. I believe the biggest reason for the the low yield of my first grow was lack of defoliation. Watching your grow, I will not be as timid next time. Thanks for taking the time to post.

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