some of the recent posts in this thread have been bullshit, tempted to unsubscribe, but on that note anyone who believes defoliation isnt beneficial doesnt realize that when another leaf casts a shadow on one below it, that leaf becomes useless(sorry if i repeat anything anyone or i have already said, its common growing knowledge so some people are gonna accuse you of just changing other peoples words from a few posts ago). as well as any branch in the shadows, its just another place for the plant to separate the flow of energy(that should be going to main buds, but some prefer getting a few main buds and a shit ton of popcorn nugs, have fun trimmin genius), so either way you put it, proper defoliation is gonna benefit in the long run. instead of trimming i would much rather suggest training so any growth is hit by direct light, leaves are the powerhouses of your plant and you shouldnt forget that, but whats the use of a solar panel in the shadows? not shit, thats wasted energy the plant could have put towards more significant growth. keep all the leaves you can but if they're in the shadows, you can even put yourself at risk, to thick of a bush is more likely to get mold damage from lack of air flow, and likely an infestation since you cant look at every bud spot up close and all the leaves are practically sheltering them, be smart, do a scrog or train em to grow horizontally. if your method w/o defoliation has proven to work better, its very likely you defoliated way too much the first time you tried, or took off way too many leaves on one day(which has potential to stress your gals but many environmental factors do so its the least of your problems), dont make em palm trees, just make sure some light can hit em. maybe try training them to grow around your pot, exposing the branches allows equal growth(if they're the same height, any one that gets ahead is a clone to me), this way you can also control where energy goes on the plant(if you want one of the buds to get fatter, tie the bigger one down so its not as high as the less developed one) and you wont have to get rid of any leaves really(unless you get the bushiest strain possible probably). we can all argue that nature has the best way of letting things grow, but i dont see any vertical grows in nature, its because nature doesnt focus on efficiency but rather survival of a species, it puts out so many leaves so when a predator eats off some of the plant, theres plenty of other opportunities. we grow plants for efficiency, why proper defoliation always yields better results, and because the plant will mature more evenly, it will likely yield much more, and be more potent since the buds were given the chance to reach maturity.
