Green Crack and HSO Blue Dream

[growaway]

Hey all,

First time grower here - the two plants shown are Green Crack and HSO Blue Dream on day 38F. 2x4x5 tent with a 600 w HPS at 75%.

My question: is it too late to defoliate? I know the arguments for and against defoliation so I don't want to start a discussion on that. For anybody with experience or knowledge with defoliating in flower - is it too late?

The plants have been very healthy throughout their entire lives which makes me think it will be okay. Thoughts?

Thanks!

[Beach_Town_Brit]

Hi Growaway, and welcome. Your garden looks great, you've built a great canopy.
I certainly trim a few leaves here and there right up until the last two weeks or so but I haven't personally grown those strains and some strains can get very delicate at this stage. Can you trim one of each strain and see how it responds before doing the rest?

[growaway]

Hi Growaway, and welcome. Your garden looks great, you've built a great canopy.
I certainly trim a few leaves here and there right up until the last two weeks or so but I haven't personally grown those strains and some strains can get very delicate at this stage. Can you trim one of each strain and see how it responds before doing the rest?

Thank you! I appreciate it.

I should have given a little more context on what I mean by defoliation in this case. At this point I've done two light rounds of defoliating.

What I'm considering is one final round of heavy defoliation similar to a lot of the examples on GWE. I would clip most/all of the large fan leaves.

The "second-level" and lower buds are not as developed as I'd like at this point and I think this could help a lot. What do you think?

[Beach_Town_Brit]

It's hard to say, I heavy defoliate some strains and leave more foliage on others. Given that you've got this far with defoliating I think the plants will probably respond well. My feeling is that a heavily defoliated plant is more fragile but if your environment, PH, and nutes etc. are all "dialed in" this shouldn't be too much of a concern.

To be frank, I'm "experimenting" with this stuff myself right now. I sometimes wonder if heavy defoliation affects the final terpene profile, and/or the sweetness of the buds... and if it does do this will a simple molasses supplement counteract any negative effects...

[growaway]

I think I'm gonna take the plunge and do it tomorrow haha. After doing all my research and posting here and r/microgrowery im convinced there's little risk and high reward. I've scoured that subreddit for a while and I've yet to see a "horror story" post from someone saying they defoliated in flower and had a major issue.

As you said they're healthy and I think it can only help if I do it right. I'll plan on posting an update at some point - thanks for the advice!

[oldjarhead100]

there was a post yesterday that defoliated late in bloom and had quite a problem bud were lite and ariy

[PuravidaC]

That may have been me whining about lite and airy buds but that was totally my own fault. Just be very careful not to touch buds at this stage when defoliating. My grow space is too small once plants fill out and I can't easily access all parts of plants. Will be expanding grow space after current grow is harvested!