Plucking leaves/ defoliating 3 weeks till harvest

[Joncoh101]

Hey guys, i have read conflicting evidence that defoliating is good. All of them say just before flowering starts, but i have given it a go as my plant was topped, and has like 7 branches that come out of the plant, and those have like 2 or 3 so it has a christmas tree shape lol.

So i knew it needed to be defoliated as its bushy AF. Once i defoliated it, i can now see all the bud sites and they will get more sun, so in my mind the buds will get thicker. If i didnt do it, i would have thousands of weak fluffy buds. Uuuuhhh.

So what do you guys think, will defoliating at this stage really decrease health and vitality and therefore less yield for an outdoor plant

 

[Tas devil]

I never pull leaves off outdoors.bend or position your branches for more light..more leaves you got the bigger the plant..fluffy buds comes though either poor genetics.not enough nutrients or using too much nitrogen in flower..bit different scenario indoors but i have no experience in that..

 

[Rainbow Warrior]

I never pull leaves off outdoors.bend or position your branches for more light..more leaves you got the bigger the plant..fluffy buds comes though either poor genetics.not enough nutrients or using too much nitrogen in flower..bit different scenario indoors but i have no experience in that..

Going with the devil on this one-started defoliating one of my girls last year; a second one I left untouched other then bending; the bald one had defo a smaller yield

RW

 

[waterproof808]

Day 21/42 are said to be the ideal time for defoliating indoor.

 

[Chief_Broom]

Plants use photosynthesis to produce energy in the form of carbohydrates. They then use those carbohydrates to grow. Cellulose is a carbohydrate and the physical structure of your plant is primarily cellulose. While every part of your plant that is green is involved in photosynthesis the plant structures that are the primary source of photosynthesis are leaves. When you remove healthy leaves from a plant you are hampering it’s abilty to produce carbohydrates via photosynthesis.

 

[BobBitchen]

 

[Joncoh101]

Before and after! Definitley an experiment as it's the first time I'm growing. As you can see the plant was super bushy before

 

[too larry]

View attachment 4308152

Cousin Wayne used to call the fan leaves Factory Leaves since they produced the power for the plant to grow. He had a lot of Bogus Ideas about growing weed, but he got that one right.

 

[xtsho]

Before and after! Definitley an experiment as it's the first time I'm growing. As you can see the plant was super bushy before

What's wrong with a bushy plant?

 

[Joncoh101]

Just want to reduce the amount of popcorn buds in the middle of the plant as there were loads of bud sites but they were getting no light

 

[Thundercat]

I just followed a thread over the last couple months. A grower posted on here about his laborer taking it upon himself to defoliate 300 of 800 plants in their garden before the boss stopped him. Well he posted updates and in the end the defoliated plants averaged something like 60 grams less per light. While that isn't a lot, I thought it was interesting enough.

I've tried lots of experiments over the last 13 years and I am all for some selective pruning. I will typically remove a leaf here and a leaf there all throughout my grows. However I've tried defoliating the plants like some guys do, and they NEVER do as well as the more natural route. I prune heavily in veg to force the plants to grow how I want them to, but in flower I want them as stress free, and healthy as possible. I also don't want to be lighting my flood tray, so I always leave the bottom leaves to catch as much light as possible, and only prune upper leaves that are really blocking other plants or blocking air flow.

 

[Capn-Crunch]

Growing outside here I remove most leaves that are growing in toward the center of the plant for better light and airflow because our fall season is usually cool and wet and bud rot is a big issue. I usually don't touch the out growing leaves.
Just before the plant transitions to flower I strip the lower part of the main stalk and remove all the little sucker branches that aren't going to amount to anything anyway because I want the plant putting it's energy in to the bigger colas.
For me it's a waste of time trimming larfy buds.