Actually you brought up lighting among other things so I picked one, so irrational as it may seem you brought it up
. And I guess it's up to the observer (you) to decide what should be tried and not tried, wether it's relevent or not? Like I said I tried it, not a controlled peer reviewed test but after trying it I decided it wasn't for me. That's all it took no more, no less.
Different lighting has quantifiable, repeatable effects, just like different pot sizes etc. Defoliation has been experimented with greatly, showing extremely varied and heavily subjective effect with the carrot on a stick ''You just didn't do it right'' hooking people to try it again and again. Nothing wrong with you trying it once, nothing wrong with me pointing out it's very likely going to be a waste of time, as so many have discovered. You want to go try the old mars lights to make sure they do what the company claimed?. Maybe the thousands of other growers reporting they are shit were doing it wrong.
And what are all those tried and tested things you said that everybody should follow? Dont you realize that at some point in time somebody might have actually did an informal experiments on the very methods you said that are tried and tested? If we have to follow your logic, the world would be starving by now or this planet have turned into an arid planet. The ancient farmers believe too that their way is the best way since its tried and tested.
A lot of serious experiments are started by informal experiments which normally begins with....what if
I've pointed out quite a few tried and tested methods of improvement already. Nothing wrong with experimenting with something. For example I've experimented with multiple cuttings of the same mother in the same pot, grafted together at the main stems to possibly reduce over dominance or root competition. The idea was to see if it could reduce veg time in bigger pots due to having more plants>root mass > canopy. It works very well with no hint of stress in veg/flower but proved overly difficult to keep on doing due to the very fiddly nature of grafting. In essence it's easier to use smaller pots but more of them, but could be very helpful and repeatable in some setup situations (single pot scrog perhaps). I done this experiment because while a few seeds in a pot was nothing new and not advised, using the same cuttings and grafting them together was something I found 0 info on. If I'd found the kind of info on this that is available on defoliation then I certainly would not have tried it for current setup, because people would have reported the same findings, saving me the time.
I think you're the one that's missing the point. This thread is not about how to grow mj correctly otherwise I would have declared specifically that 'defoliation is the way to increase yield' then you could correct me on that one.
Why do you want to ramp down my throat your own philosophy? Do I do that to anybody? Did I insist that my way is the only way? What is my 'unscientific' experiment have to do with being a smart grower?
A smart grower will do whatever he/she thinks is good for him or her, period.
A smart grower will listen to people like you, like me, or whoever who has an opinion and will decide for him/her what is best for him or her.
How would you know if a person can comprehend how difficult this particular experiment is? Do you? Do you even realize the hypothesis behind this experiment? All you know is that this experiment is about a defoliated plant and missing leaves. Do you even look at the bigger picture of this experiment?
Let me ask you something, since you're implying that you're so knowledgeable in this field. What is the relationship of roots to defoliation? What is the relationship of Cytokinin and Gibberellic acid to defoliation? Do you know? Heck, do you even really know the flowering structure of cannabis? I bet none of you understood the flowering structure of cannabis. Because if you do then maybe you can answer this...what are the 3 main structures of a plant...any plant for that matter aside from the root? I'm gonna give you a hint, it's not stem, leaves, and flowers.
For the longest time, the flowering structure of cannabis puzzles me. I've been devouring any botanical phytomorphology of cannabis flowering structure and aside from the basic form there's none existed that deal deeply into the flowering structure, none.
Your OP made no hint what so ever of your intended purpose for cutting off all the leaves. Your second post also made no hint of any other intentions than ''does defoliation work''. People who do defoliation appear to look for one thing, yield increase. This is how your thread started out in tone and continued until you started dropping in other more complex things that were not talked about until you felt threatened. Then you loosely shift toward maturity rates, or was it curing or taste?, forgive me for getting confused on the intent of this topic. If your intent is not yield, what is your method to verify other results, even if only for yourself?.
I am not implying that I am so knowledgeable in this field. I have implied the exact opposite by advocating people should learn from others who actually are or to avoid those who are not, all be it with a hint of caution toward experienced yet bias growers. I don't need to know the inner workings of any or every aspect to perceive progress. How does sulfur interact with the plant? can't really tell you that, but I can tell you it is widely accepted to increase potency so please, give me some of that.
So maybe you can decipher what I see on this picture.
View attachment 4036030
Because this picture alone meant more than all the botanical books I've read in regards to cannabis flowering structure.
This picture alone influence my grow style (not talking about SOG), my light schedule, my feeding, my reason for defoliation.
If you are on a personal crusade with no care for yield etc then you should start by mentioning this in the OP. Any comments that have undermined your growing knowledge you have brought on yourself. I won't get sucked into this mind game.
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. I'm not going to run a flooded system this winter and going to switch to DTW hydroton pails I think, still waffling 
