Hello Growmies,
I went many different paths on my last few grows when I would defoliate at different times and different methods.
I struggle with how much to take off the plant after flip and would love some guidance from experienced growers. I have 4 currently in flower. 2 autos and 2 photos. The autos are much smaller in the below pics.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I just want to give the flower a chance to make the biggest and best buds.
Only take big fan leaves that are blocking light . The actual buds are powered by leaves, they are solar panels that power growth, leave any you can. I showed my seed run, there were buds that actually grew through and above the light and finished fine with no direct light, the leaves did it. I usually do a defol at 3 weeks into flower and at 6 weeks if needed.
I agree with @Growdoc. I only take what is needed to achieve good airflow…mostly interior fan leaves on the lower half that are pointed inward towards the main stalk. Maybe a few bud sites that im certain will never get close to the canopy. Yours dont look very compact so as long as you have air moving in the tent i dont see an issue.
Pretty much what I do if I don’t get lazy haha.
These are approximately 10 days after flip.
Thanks for responding!
One of the best things you can do for better buds is to eliminate any new starter buds lower then about 14 inches AFTER stretch is done.
Clipping the new buds and leaving the fans that start will concentrate the nutrition on buds that will be successful.
Leaving the fans in an organic grow is something that every organic grower knows is important. Organic nutrients take a while to process and mobile nutrients can be stolen from fans during the nutrition conversion helping to save the grow in flower.
In addition having a lot of extra fan leafs is also good for overwatering issues if you are still having issues with that.
