Autoflowering Defoliation: Positive or Negative

[G.Leave]

Everyone's got their own ways of doing things, and what's good for some is not quite as good for others.

All variables need to be taken into account. I defoliate, but I've learned not to bother with LST as my setup doesn't allow for much side lighting.

I defoliate when necessary but apart from that I just let them do their thing, in some cases where all the light is coming directly from above with smaller footprints like my LEDs, I think they're best off doing their thing, the plant will grow the way it's most beneficial for it to use the equipment provided.

Nobody can argue with 912s results however, you grow plants that closer resemble trees, simply the biggest autos I've ever seen!

Hopefully you aren't confusing my photoperiod plants, with my autos! The day I can find a quality smoking auto that will grow 30feet around the outer perimeter with 6 feet tall branches, is the day I quit growing photoperiod plants!

 

[vostok]

I follow Clarke's advice from 'Marijuana Botany' ...and don't

 

[nhdtjq]

I am convinced major defoliation is pretty much like a guy shaving his pubs.
It doesn't change the size of his business, it just makes "the bud" appear a little larger, especially to the one that trimmed it.

Touche, same thing with the darkness period before cutting down - the calyxes shrink up, making the hairs and trichomes stand out...

That said i do remove damaged leaves quite often, just for sake of air flow and aesthetics.

 

[The Iconoclast]

Well after defoliating my OG to within an inch of it's life it looked very sad at the 50 day scrog but ended up producing well over nine zips of quality bud, and even the inside low down buds were hard and well formed. So I'm sold.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Well after defoliating my OG to within an inch of it's life it looked very sad at the 50 day scrog but ended up producing well over nine zips of quality bud, and even the inside low down buds were hard and well formed. So I'm sold.

hmmm...lots of bud covered in mildew, or slightly less bud without any mildew..
thats how i look at it at least. i only remove undergrowth n huge fan leaves if they are smothering other tops..autos seem to do ok with it..
my 2 cents

 

[Loopdub]

I can say with certainty and experience that defoliating autos is ok a leaf or 2 at a time but the idea of autoflowers is to grow as hard and as fast as you can in the lifespan that they have so any stress you put on them is definitely going to decrease your yield I adopted some bad defoliating habits from a bad teacher when I was younger and took me a few bad grows before I realized I was killing my yields . Keep as many leaves as you can think of them as solar panels.

 

[olbobcat]

I have done a lot and I have done a little I would say That some is always needed on my plants because they get so bushy a lot of cola becomes covered and will stay larfy. I try to leaf tuck early on and thru veg.

 

[420autoflower]

I completely leaf strip (schwazzing) my autos 2 to 3 times during flowering without a problem. When the plant is too bushy and it’s in the fourth week of flower I will even use a electric trimming tool to prune leaves off of the colas to avoid touching them. This is necessary when dealing with dense canopy’s to avoid larf. Seems like the plants actually grow better after the leaf strippings. Maybe more of the energy is being used to grow colas instead of keeping the foliage alive, not including more light is getting to the buds.

 

[Loopdub]

ok let me specify a little more, heavy defoliating during the veg stage is no a good idea, as it has slowed my plants down like crazy, once i stopped defoliating during veg i stopped all together. I try to leaf tuck as much as I possibly can. @420autoflower what are your times from seed to harvest?

 

[420autoflower]

ok let me specify a little more, heavy defoliating during the veg stage is no a good idea, as it has slowed my plants down like crazy, once i stopped defoliating during veg i stopped all together. I try to leaf tuck as much as I possibly can. @420autoflower what are your times from seed to harvest?

You are absolutely right!
I grow all ILGM autos that have a very short veg time, and try not to do anything to stress them out during that time. Leaf tucking, bending tops over and maybe plucking a couple leaves is all I basically do, during the short 15-20 day veg stage. I don’t even top my plants at the risk of slowing them down. I don’t start doing the heavy leaf stripping until the second week of flower, and then again at the fourth week of flower. Seems like the plants stop growing leaves at the end of the fourth week and just concentrate on bud growth.