Why is defoliation so controversial?

maranibbana

Well-Known Member
I've got a Gorilla Glue #4 plant (from a bag seed) that is in week 7 of flower and it's pretty much all bud and hardly any leaves. It just grew that way. It would be silly to defoliate it. The other plant I'm growing is a Sativa-heavy hybrid and so the leaves are thinner and the colas are longer -less chunky plant. In either case, defoliation would be unwarranted. I guess when the day comes that I end up with a super leafy strain, I'll try to remember what was said in this thread! Until then....
You must not grow very often or do much breeding if you’ve never, ever, run into a leafy strain...
 

p0opstlnksal0t

Well-Known Member
Therefore, logic says remove the shaded bud sites and leaves to avoid larf. The upside is, all plant root energy is directed towards the bud sites with remaining leaves.
This is the trick based on my personal experimentation.


Also I'm not sure why people keep comparing growing fruits, apples melons etc to growing cannabis flowers. We are not growing fruit or melons. Growing a fruit is a different animal and hacking the plant for manipulating flower production and quality. its a different animal than growing an apple or a melon. We aren't growing tobacco leaves either so tobacco techniques don't necessary help either. Usually we are growing indoors with a fixed light source. There are definitely defoliation, pruning and leafing techniques to maximize flower yield and quality.
 

Rob Roy

Well-Known Member
When you grow a giant melon do you strip all the leaves off

Defoliation is just stupid.
When trying to grow a giant melon or pumpkin, people often clip most of the "excess fruit" to help the intended giant fruit gain size. While not defoliation it is a form of plant manipulation to gain a certain outcome.

I'm guessing based on your comment, that defoliating isn't for you. I defoliate regularly and get about 10 pounds a light in plants grown in beer cups. Been meaning to right a book about it and charge $1,000 per copy.
 

euphoria526

Well-Known Member
When trying to grow a giant melon or pumpkin, people often clip most of the "excess fruit" to help the intended giant fruit gain size. While not defoliation it is a form of plant manipulation to gain a certain outcome.

I'm guessing based on your comment, that defoliating isn't for you. I defoliate regularly and get about 10 pounds a light in plants grown in beer cups. Been meaning to right a book about it and charge $1,000 per copy.
cmon man, rule of 9's
$999.99
that way it seems cheaper than a thousand bucks lol
 

Severed Tongue

Well-Known Member
So how come the guys like Jeorge Cervantes, say it's bad and don't do it as its a source of food?

Y'all saying he's wrong???? Lol

 

Horselover fat

Well-Known Member
I bend my plants a lot so it is absolutely mandatory to remove A LOT of leaf. Otherwise you would just have a huge damp mess.

Anyway you can't absorb more than 100% of the light, so I do think it's in our best interest to select where the light is absorbed.
 

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
Why not just harvest in stages? Take the tops first, clears the way for lower buds to get more light, wait another week or so, harvest lower buds.
 

Rob Roy

Well-Known Member
Why not just harvest in stages? Take the tops first, clears the way for lower buds to get more light, wait another week or so, harvest lower buds.
That's a great idea with some plants. Years ago I ran a clone of blue widow that I regularly harvested in stages. The bottom flowers would nug up if you gave them two more weeks after the original tops were cut.
 

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
I cant WAIT for my next run. I'm sick of everyone's opinions on this.
I'm going to do light defoliation/lollipop on two clones in my next scrog vs Swazzing 2 clones
In the RDWC it should be a pretty fair comparison
I agree, it should be, and I'm interested in the results. I scrog as well, anything under the netting gets removed. Usually anything under the netting doesn't really do much for me. Maybe some people don't mind larf, but I do. As far as if it adds any more bulk up top, I cannot say, but the science behind it sounds logical to me.
 

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

Well-Known Member
I agree, it should be, and I'm interested in the results. I scrog as well, anything under the netting gets removed. Usually anything under the netting doesn't really do much for me. Maybe some people don't mind larf, but I do. As far as if it adds any more bulk up top, I cannot say, but the science behind it sounds logical to me.
I can't believe there isn't hundreds of grow journals out there with good comparisons on this.
Seems obvious it needs to be
Even if not in RDWC, some clones in soil would even be a pretty good test.
 

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
I can't believe there isn't hundreds of grow journals out there with good comparisons on this.
Seems obvious it needs to be
Even if not in RDWC, some clones in soil would even be a pretty good test.
Again, agreed. How has nobody run tests on this subject. It's like(dare I mention it), flushing. Just recently I've seen a video where they did a test on flushing. Why did it take so long? Lol :bigjoint:
 
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