Oops....i pissed her off

[YYCannabis]

Northern lights auto, DWC, 13+ weeks.

OK...these northern lights autos are freakin awesome to grow. They are easy to please and don’t complain too much if something ain’t right...but once ya pissed her off, she lets you know. Two days ago i did a major defoliation of her as a last push to squeeze the juices from her...now look at her foxtail 😩...from the top kola 😩😩😩....

This plant was probably the most perfect grow i could have wanted....no pests/bugs...no nute issues...no root issues...and I don’t recall her having a droopy day since she was 4 weeks old. I think that, for myself, that this plant will be the upper limit of what i can do when growing 3 or 4 plants at a time. Next grow will probably be only 2 plants (photos) so i can try doing something new.

Cheers
YYC

[Smokesteve]

Why on Earth would you defoliate that late in flowering?

[YYCannabis]

Fan leaves are done doing almost anything useful for flowering. Uncovering sugar leaves and single-finger leaves to the light helps direct the nutrients more directly to the bud sites vs keeping the fan leaves alive. This also kicks the plant hormones into overdrive as the plant now thinks the season’s end is imminent.

I always keep a few leaves at the top of each tip to make sure proper nutrient flow to the root system takes place through the entire length of each branch. I also keep small fan leaves at various depths into the plant as tattle-tale markers in case i get a weird nute issue.

I’ve done this with every auto since they still tend to follow their pre-ordained timeline

To me, proof-positive is the fact that she still drinks 1 gallon of water per day same as she did before defoliating. That means all that water and sugars are still traveling throughout the plant...just more directed to sugar leaves than to fan leaves. 😁

[MeEasy]

Pretty common for NL to foxtail