2nd and Last Defoliation in Flower

[Msizzle]

Officially 4 weeks into flower and I felt it was time to strip her leaves. Background info, sprouted from seed on 9/26, placed in DWC on 9/29, 17 gallon tote, filled with 12 gallons, under a 600 watt, daytime temps from 73-80 degrees F, night temps 44-60 degrees F( I'm tryna get night temps into the high 30's to low 40's consistently but the weather has been rather mild in NY. Gordo Master kush and blue dream. I topped each plant 3 times and took 10 clones only kept 2 clones, one of each, gave the rest away. I put the 2 clones in 1 gallon pots (coco). Going to try to do a side by side grow and see if I can tell the difference between the smoke on hydro and coco but I digress, I always read ppl talk about if you overdo defoliation you will reduce yields. I always defoliate twice in flower and I always strip them in this manner do you concur or do you disagree? Let's have a healthy debate.

 

[homegrown]

Looks Good Msizzle, by the looks of the before pics, they were ready for a good trimming. Opened up everything for some good air flow and light penetration. Probably have to clip a few more in a week or so.

 

[dilvish]

fan leaves are solar collectors and are crucial to optimal growth. Defoliating should really only happen if there is a congestion issue in the grow space or there is no circulating fan present.

 

[homegrown]

If your growing outdoors with lots of sun, usually no defoliation is necessary, however if your growing in a tent or confined space, and plant training, LST, Topping,Manifolding, fimming, then Yes you will need to defoilate several times. Probably twice during veg to select best growing stems, and twice during flower. Once fairly early and the last when the buds start fattening up.

 

[Msizzle]

Does she need a 3rd defoliation? Technically going into week 6 of flower, saw pre- flowers at 2 thru 2.5 was into flower. I was gonna leave her alone