Scientific evidence that selective DEFOLIATION is beneficial

Look at this AWESOME free text I found online, anyone who is serious about growing should read it, maybe it will stop all this 2nd grade regurgitated information about what leaves do, yes we all leaned about photosynthesis.

Bottom llne is if your not removing SOME fan leaves strategically, and your growing indoors, your not maximizing your space or yield.

Here is the text, it's free

http://plantsinaction.science.uq.edu.au/edition1/?q=content/home-page

It's called ADAPTATION IN NATURE AND PERFORMANCE IN CULTIVATION

I read the entire thing. Turns out leaves are REALLY important...some are more important then others. Some, like the really big large fan leaves actually compete for energy with your buds. Hey I'm not a scientist, but the people who wrote this book all are.

Those really big fan leaves everyone says are big storage units that directly influence the size of budz...well they aren't, they are competitors.

I know from my personal experiences on EVERY strain I ever grew, that removing these big fan leaves(when you need to for room/air movement/light penetration to lower branches) during veg(the ones at the base of a branch where it meets the stem) caused a growth spurt in the branch it was cut off of.

Here's proof!

"
Distribution patterns of 14C-labelled products relate to developmental morphology of fruiting shoots. Typically source leaves are nearby on the same lateral branch, both above and below the fruit. In apple, fruiting spurs may develop primary leaves (emerging soon after budburst), then spur leaves (in a rosette at the base of the flower), then bourse leaves (growing on spur bourse shoots). Each in turn provides assimilate for the next phase of leaf growth (primary → spur → bourse); then as leaf expansion ceases, all provide assimilate to the developing fruit (Tustin et al. 1992). Leaves on adjacent extension shoots can provide some photosynthate to fruit, but if indeterminate growth continues furthermost leaves become progressively less important as suppliers, and more significant as competitors. If the normal suppliers are removed, carbohydrate can come from longer distances, sometimes from leaves more than a metre away (Bollard 1970).

Relative strength of source and sink is a major factor for distribution patterns, but transport options are dictated by vascular connections. During plant growth, development occurs in an orderly and patterned manner, creating separate files of leaves. This pattern (phyllotaxis) is accompanied by a matching pattern of vascular connections. Photosynthate tends to move along a pathway of least resistance, following these direct vascular connections where they exist, hence distribution patterns generally follow phyllotaxis."

So there you have it, leaving all your fan leaves on while your growing indoors is taking energy away from your buds. The plant needs energy to support those big ass fan leaves.

In fact those big fan leaves are only suppliers when they are about 50-70% their final size, once they reach any bigger they are no longer the plants main source for energy, quite the opposite. They were made to produce energy for the new branch, once the branch is developed, it actually takes energy away from the bud at the top of it-it competes for food and the food reaches the that fan leaf first.

Read the damn book, think critically, and stop listening to people on cannabis forums-we're a bunch of sheep who listen to hobbists over scientists. Do your own research, the information is out there and it has been out there for a while.

I tried to leave all my leaves on my plant before, I got leafy larf bud towards the bottom of my plant and big beautiful fan leaves all over the place.

I am NOT talking about defoliation! I am talking about selectively pruning and manicuring your plant-those people who grow the darkest red roses know what their doing, and they know which leaves to remove to accomplish this.

In nature, the leaves serve a FAR greater purpose then turning light into energy. They are big resin coated pollin catchers. Plants don't want to grow big buds, they want to become fertilized as soon as possible and put their energy into making seeds.

I want nice fat buds in a nice even canopy, I don't see how this is possible without removing some of these leaves.

It seams the people who are against removing leaves grow huge trees-no wonder they are happy with their yeild!

Squidbilly said:

Look at this AWESOME free text I found online, anyone who is serious about growing should read it, maybe it will stop all this 2nd grade regurgitated information about what leaves do, yes we all leaned about photosynthesis.
eaves all over the place.I am NOT talking about defoliation! It seams the people who are against removing leaves grow huge trees-no wonder they are happy with their yeild!

Click to expand...

Thank you so much. Very interesting.
This is a very controversial subject. I am always shocked at how 'noobs' jump to 'attack' their plants rather than watching them grow and learning to read them. Seems some SELECTIVE DEFOLIATION is beneficial. Makes sense to me.

I will say this: your typical SOG 'Queen' that grows like a cactus (dominant main cola) doesn't like being topped. Lateral trimming seems to be in order here in wk1 and wk3 of bloom. Your multi-cola branching beast seems to tolerate a lot. They love being topped and grow very well as 'four-tower' plants a la Uncle Ben (of course he did not invent these but deserves credit for his thread-very helpful). Trees be trees.

Thank you again for the post.
cheers squidbilly

There is a time and place for everything : )

That's really what I'm getting at. Do I think you have to remove fan leaves? No, of course not. Do I think removing those big ass ones will make your buds swell? No. Do I think selective removal of fan leaves is more benefical then NO removal at all, in ALMOST every strain(grown indoors)? I do.

I wanted to highlight that there is actually some scientific evidence showing how those big fan leaves become 'competitors' after they do their job at supplying energy to form a new lateral branch.

I also wanted to spread some awareness that plants don't use those leaves like solar panels, directly sending energy into bud production-that's not exactly how it works, it's much more complicated then that, and I would argue that ROOTS are far more attributed to nice big buds then leaves.

Case in point: Remove all the leaves on a plant, plant will still produce bud and finish it's life cycle. Now, try to remove the roots. It's obviously gonna die.

People need to think more critically and not just regurgitate their 2nd grade biology theories.

Method Man was got it twisted, it's not Cream, it's...
Sc.R.E.A.M = Science Rules Everything Around ME

Nice post man, going to start selectively removing these fan leaves. So the ones at the bottom that are larger than the size of my hand pretty much have to go right?

I've been defoliating for the better part of a year now and I'll never go back, makes such a huge difference

This is a great article on it http://www.growweedeasy.com/marijuana-defoliation-tutorial

I dont go as balls to the wall during veg as this guy as he uses it to slow down growth to allow training, but during flower, I've been known to get very aggressive with superb results.

You'd think after the stretch is over would be the best time to do it, based on this competitor fan leaf stuff and the fact that budding is the plant filling out, not necessarily growing.

UncleReemis said:

You'd think after the stretch is over would be the best time to do it, based on this competitor fan leaf stuff and the fact that budding is the plant filling out, not necessarily growing.

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This is exactly what I do, I generally start while buds are forming, I remove all larger fan leaves on the upper 2 3rds of the plant.

RL420 said:

Nice post man, going to start selectively removing these fan leaves. So the ones at the bottom that are larger than the size of my hand pretty much have to go right?

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They don't HAVE to go, the point of my ramble was that it's OK to remove some leaves here and there and that those really big ass fan leaves might actually be competing for energy with your buds.

I just wanted to highlight that selective removal is not a bad thing.

i always thought the other side of the argument was, get better lighting, or time it better. If there are sites that arent getting enough light, instead of going backwards and cutting things off, you can go forwards and add side lights.
No doubt if i let them go too long i'll snip off some branches, but i do my best to time things right so there isn't any "defoliation"
i believe it's something to be avoided, it's something that kind of fixes bad timing mistakes

if lighting is good enough, nothing will be shaded, the leaves will move around when the fans hit them and allow light everywhere (even under the fan leaves!)

as far as training goes, you need to cut off foliage to do that sometimes, and is as close as i get to defoliation ( i usually keep the bottom 4-6" clean off the plant if it's really big, to allow air flow and prevent the buds getting dirt on them)

i also want to add, defoliation seems like a big help when you have a big veg room and aren't worried about veg time. To a lot of people cutting off some foliage is no big deal because the plants are overgrown in veg anyways (cause perhaps waiting for flower space)