Defoliate or not ?

Raspberrykiwi

Well-Known Member
First time grower here indoors and not sure if I should defoliate or just let them grow natural . They are about to finish there 6th week of veg since they have gone in the tent . Thinking of flipping them on Sunday but should i defoliate ? Thanks
Don’t defoliate. The reason for is because your leaves are the power plant. They absorb the light and help your plant grow. The more leaves, the faster the plant grows. When you defoliate you will often see slower growth. The only leaves I cut off are the ones on the very bottom of the plant just so I can get in and water easier. Otherwise I’m tearing leaves and sometimes not even sprayed water into the pots
 

Verrice

Active Member
I did some “light” defoliating today... :lol:

Before:
44B81E29-D102-42F5-A8F0-474F8CF18691.jpeg

After:
9910C91D-4835-4F2F-86C7-5687FFAEC3B8.jpeg

IF you decide defoliating is for you, I’d still wait a bit. I don’t start taking them out until there are a couple layers barely getting light and/or they’re getting too unruly to tuck.
 

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
Nothing wrong with gutting the bottom of the plant like this guy did ^

But if you do that, it is best to wait a good week to flip to flower so that it has a chance to recover.
 

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
First time grower here indoors and not sure if I should defoliate or just let them grow natural . They are about to finish there 6th week of veg since they have gone in the tent . Thinking of flipping them on Sunday but should i defoliate ? Thanks
Also, How big are you planning to grow it?
 

Horselover fat

Well-Known Member
Don’t defoliate. The reason for is because your leaves are the power plant. They absorb the light and help your plant grow. The more leaves, the faster the plant grows. When you defoliate you will often see slower growth.
When there is an abundance of leaves it may be beneficial to remove some in order to have.light travel further down the plant. If a leaf doesn't get light it will not be photosynthesizing either. So removing too many leaves will reduce the leaf area that is producing energy, but if your leafs catch most of the light even after defoliating there should be as much photosynthesis going on as before. New leafs will also be more efficient at producing energy.
 

Groot510

New Member
I did some “light” defoliating today... :lol:

Before:
View attachment 4666124

After:
View attachment 4666125

IF you decide defoliating is for you, I’d still wait a bit. I don’t start taking them out until there are a couple layers barely getting light and/or they’re getting too unruly to tuck.
Wow looks nice ! How long did you veg yours for ? From what you and others have said i guess i won’t be defoliating them any time soon . Thanks though
 

Verrice

Active Member
Wow looks nice ! How long did you veg yours for ? From what you and others have said i guess i won’t be defoliating them any time soon . Thanks though
Thank you! :weed:

45 days from seed through veg, in this case. LOTS of training, tying, pulling, prodding, and so on. Had three plants of the same strain (Black Widow) and did mostly the same to each, but changed up a few things. All were topped above the 4th node. All have been fairly rigorously trained to spread out and even out the colas. One was super cropped to bring the topped two main colas into alignment with the side branches. The second had it's top two mains slowly stretched outward to even them out, and the third is such a wild curvy LST jungle, it's almost hypnotic (partly it's that plant's personality, partly it's me working with its personality). :lol:

They're almost a week into flowering, now. My little shrubs, they grow up so fast. :lol:

Have a Cherry Chem OG that just went into Veg two days ago... I think I'm going to try mainlining that, so planning on, at least, an extra week or two of veg for that one. So, if it turns out male, I'm going to be very disappointed in it.
 
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