I have a novelty plant right now that I grew and budded in soil, I purposely did not feed it nutes just to see a few "theories" in practise, I also put it into budding when it was still a seedling, so it's been in budding for about 3 and a 1/2 months. IT is only about 20 inches tall, it's leaves have all yellowed, but they are still standing up straight and true, though the kola has remained skinny... It never fattened up.
I noticed right off that leaves do not "Store" nutrients, defoliating does nothing(I did not defoliate, there was no need, the planet never produced fan leaves large enough to make a difference), and flushing does even less...
In about another week I intend on harvesting, I will take some pics.
The variety is some sort of indica that I received from a friend as a seed, it ended up being a mother and I've cloned it.