HYDRO Blue Dream Auto: To defoliate or Not to defliate

[tsquez]

Hey there,

Quick question: I have a hydro grow going on, with two Blue Dream autos, 4 or 5 weeks, they are getting busy and I want to defoliate a little bit and let the light start hitting some of those bud sites. I know autos are sensitive AF, so I was curious: should I defoliate by trimming some of the leaves or just LST the shit of them? Thoughts?

Thanks in advance and I greatly appreciate the assist

[Orggrwr]

Most people on this site will tell you to never defoliate auto's but when they get nice and bushy like yours I feel they benefit from a light defol. Just enough to let some light and air flow to get to all the bud sites, but not as much as I would defol a photo. Just remember they don't have any more veg time to recover so use a light hand. Just my opinion and many will disagree but has worked for me well in the past. Good Luck

[tsquez]

I agree, a light hand is needed. I think I'll take a closer look today when I change the water and see what I can see and hopefully do. I know its gonna start budding here within the next two weeks possibly, so I gotta do something now. I'll drop back in and let ya'll know what I did....and thanks again, appreciate it.

[Rwise]

Taking a few is OK, just remember those fan leaves are really storage tanks that the plant can recover nutes from. Maybe tuck a few under instead of removing.

[tsquez]

Yeah thats what I did to both but there is still more bud sites id like to expose...thanks for the help.

[Going2fast]

Try tucking leaves as much as possible but it's ok to take a few off during veg just go slow. There's always that one that shades everything after you start lst. Wait till at least a dozen leaves. only take one a day. Do this till you have a few dozen . . After that you can remove a few a day but go light as you can. Once they hit flower stretch those leaves you though we're in the way are now lost nutes.

[tsquez]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all of the assistance, greatly appreciated. Basically what I did was remove about 5 or 6 big fan leaves from each one, these were the ones that were ginormous and had no bud sites on the, if it had a bud site, it was safe. This morning they look more perky than they usually are (it could also be because i changed their water yesterday) but I'll take it, Thanks again

Oh and by they way, the one in the middle is a photo and a clone of a strain called "The Soap", my step son gave it to me for X-Mas, anyone ever try this? I've read up on the strain but then agin that doesn't really tell me much? Let me know if you have tried it and how did you like or dislike it.