Do benefits of defoliation outweigh potential risks with autoflowers?

[SleepyTibbs]

My plants (Gorilla Glue autos) are both on day 22 from putting the germinated seeds in the soil and the bigger one seems to have started stretching, about 2" growth in the past 2 days. The nodes seems very tight and I was wondering if I should remove a few fan leaves like for instance the ones at the 4th node (for my plants the lowest node right now). The new set of branches growing above them have grown decent fan leaves of their own at this point. I would like to let light and air in to the newer growth that will eventually be bud sites, but if defoliation is something a newbie could easily screw up I will just them grow out as they please; other than the LST I've been doing. From what I was reading though, if I wanted to do defoliation I should have been doing it gradually over time before now so as not to stress my girls out and potentially create a hermie?

2'x4'x5' Vivosun grow tent
2 viparspectra P1000 LEDs
3 gallon fabric pots
Happy Frog potting soil
4" Vivosun inline fan for exhaust
7" fan to help with circulation

[Canuck147]

Yeah good idea - but just take two leaves off at a time - on either side. Taker off 2 and wait a couple of days to see if she pouts at all- if no pouting then take off to more to expose a couple more branches underneath - do that and those branches should all grow up and become bigger branches. Do it it right a nd you'll take off 4 sets of fan leaves - opening up 8 branches plus the main cola.

[SleepyTibbs]

Thanks Canuck147 I'll cross my fingers and give it a shot with the 4th node first. Would it be best if I make my cut as close to the main stem as possible like I did when I pruned the nodes below it awhile back or leave like a 1/4" as I have seen others on here do? and when you say 4 sets of fan leaves would they be in succession? For example I cut node 4's fans today, wait a couple days, cut node 5's fans and so on. Or is it more based on "is this set of fan leaves blocking too much light?" Sorry for the barrage of questions lol

[SleepyTibbs]

Canuck147 Pruned the fans from the 4th node as shown in the pictures. Pictures are about 40 minutes to an hour after the cuts, seems like it didn't phase them so far . Probably will wait more than a couple days before pruning another set of fans from the smaller one but if they don't show any negative impact I will be cutting the next pair of fans off of the larger plant after a day or 2 of observation as you suggested. Thanks again for your response. Can't wait to see the progress next time you update your training thread too.

[Canuck147]

Looks good

[bboyfromwayback]

Your cat’s timing was perfect lol

[Canuck147]

Hilarious - sticking its tongue out at us.

[SleepyTibbs]

Yeah Oggy loves the artificial sunlight and the air that blows on him from the exhaust line, little dude was asking me to open the closet door where the tent is at last night lol I don't know how he timed it so well to stick his tongue out though lol

[SleepyTibbs]

Canuck147 I remembered that she didn't care when I took everything below the 4th node about a week ago. So I actually went back in last night and took the fans from the 5th node too on the bigger one. Both plants grew just about a half inch vertically over night and the leaves blew up a bit so if she did slow down it was barely. The fans at node 6 are huge in comparison to the others and definitely blocking light but I am assuming I should wait at least a day before snipping those? I also cut off the weird dwarf growth that was coming from between where the 1st and 2nd nodes used to be. lol no need for her to waste resources on whatever that was trying to be.

[Canuck147]

I've learned to remove the first node and its branches early on.

[SleepyTibbs]

Yeah I noticed that Canuck147 after giving your autoflower training thread a more thorough read through and checking out the pics real close I realized it would have made things easier for me to take the fans off as I trained the branches at each node and probably would have led to more mature branches at this stage. They didn't seem to mind being pruned in anyway though, grew damn near an inch since the cuts last night so I went in and took one more set from each of them; in total the bigger one has had 3 sets taken and the smaller one has had 2 sets taken. I know I might have been a bit hasty, but these plants almost seem a bit masochistic so I think they can take it. I am definitely going to wait a couple days until their next watering to take the final set from the bigger plant and the 3rd set from the smaller plant though. As for my LST so far, I seem to be on the right track I think. Branches are at a similar height and have started to grow out from the main cola a bit, although the wires are messy looking. Will definitely have a plan in place for my next grow. Really appreciate the info you have passed a long so far.

[Catfish22]

Just an observation from the one I laid down, the top is going to start to twist a bit as it grows and you start to turn it, if that's your plan.

[SleepyTibbs]

Catfish22 I was thinking about working it around the pot when I first made the bend but then realized that might be a bit advanced for my first grow lol. I am really interested to see what yours looks like at the end though. I thought circling the pot would make for a pretty cool looking plant.

[Catfish22]

Once you get it turned you just tie it off to the rim. Leave it enough space off the rim for growth movement.

[dilvish]

Remember fan leaves are what soak up the light and the light is food. The more you hack off, the potentially smaller yield. Instead do more plant training.

[SleepyTibbs]

dilvish I don't plan on cutting any more off until the fans on the branches fill out more, hopefully by next watering. I just wanted those branches to get as much light as I could allow for now so they grow stronger. I may have hacked off a bit too much, but they don't seem to have cared much so far. I took a measurement of each of them when I made the cuts. Smaller one was 6.5", bigger one was 7.75". They've been growing about 1" a day for the past couple days, hoping they don't slow down from the cuts too much. It's my first time growing any sort of plant though so, full disclosure, I don't really know what I am doing lol. After reading Nebula's article on defoliation and seeing others have success I figured what the heck I'll give it a try.