To Defoliate Or Not To Defoliate

[DingusKhan]

Don't do that, post a side by side grow instead!

 

[alltatup]

Absolutely.

 

[alltatup]

Excellent advice.

 

[alltatup]

DANGERDAN wrote: "I just prune bottom branches and leaves prior to flowering. The rest is training practices to make best use of the available light source."

Dan, does this mean that you convert shade leaves to sun leaves by training the plant, or that you expose the buds to light? If you do it to expose the buds to light, then again we are looking at empirical evidence that demonstrates the impact that light has on making buds bigger. If everyone agrees that exposing lower buds to light makes them get as thick as upper buds, then I'm convinced that when done correctly (and I take everythingTika wrote above very much to heart), defol. directly impacts the size of colas.

And Dan, you shouldn't worry about what others will think of the articles you post: we're never all going to agree 100% and see things exactly the same...

 

[DrPhoton]

Neither. I train the plant to fill the canopy to make best available use of the light source. This means to prevent light from being wasted by completely missing the intended target. If a plant is not trained to fill the canopy then all that energy is being wasted that is not reaching the plant. Instead light is converted into wasted energy in the form of heat. The pruning of lower plant material is a practice called thinning (thinning can be of branch, flower or fruit). This is a common practice in agriculture to control the brix (sugar content) and individual fruit size by reducing the branch or flower-fruit sites.

Actually the content and questions provided by the people on this forum allow me to think in areas perhaps i have not thought of and use that to further improve the articles i write here.

 

[snowballnhell]

Last year I went to a old-time well known local growers house where I live and saw something really unique. He had what seemed like a small typical grow room with 4 plants under a 600w hps. But what I found really intriguing was that on each plant he had (2) 16 inch 40w 2800K/4100K T9 circline with reflectors spaced a about a foot a part lighting up the lower parts of his plants and the lower bud sites on those 4 plants were huge! I recall him saying something like, he never defoliates, as there isn't a need to do that if you give your plants all the light in all the places they need.

 

[DrPhoton]

Side lighting is a good example of methods that just do not prove effective, its such a poorly ineffective method that even comercial grows dont use them for yield. Nebula herself does not recommend side lighting for best light/yield efficiency. This also to me goes against defoliation as flowers are more exposed from the side than from the top. This is because leaves cover more horizontal surface area as the flat shaped leaves are in a mostly horizontal position. Where as from the side the surface area collapses. This is why flowers are easier to see from the sides than the top. If exposing light to flowers was as effective as thought to be, side lighting would prove at least as effective as top lighting. But infact its inferrior.

 

[DrPhoton]

Improved readability and added further information.

 

[Cab1080]

Thanks Dan, I have read through the articles. Good stuff! I have gotten help from you and others on this forum. I am sure I have done some things wrong but this is my 1st grow. Not sure how much longer they have but they seem to be doing pretty good. Heres some pics.