Defoliating

[Django_TO]

Hi all. I'm finishing my first grow, and i still don´t know how to defoliate/prune "weaker" branches properly. I always end up with a lot of bud sites, too many, and so many leaves. So can anyone point me to a good guide for defoliating autos. Or any advice if you have. Thanks.

 

[BallsackSal]

Hey Django I'm in the same boat as you and will be watching. I grow rDWC with spider farmer led's. It seems like instead of the plants putting their energy into making bigger denser buds, it just keeps creating new growth and more leaves branches and little crappy bud sites.

 

[Arthur]

Don't know that this'll help at all, removing the suckers and clearing out nurfle seems to be a learned thing. I start at the bottom of each plant and clear all growth that won't make the light. This I clear out a week or two after stretch stops.
Clearing the undercarriage isn't as difficult as the next part, knowing what to remove to thin a canopy... honestly its something that will develop over time, you need to see a few rounds go by to get the feel. In soil I try and keep bud sites to what I feel would fill the bag their grown in. More than that and you begin trading size of nug for #s of smaller nugs. Coco is another beast entirely, and that "estimate" goes out the window.

Defoliation, anything blocking light to good bud sites goes. Anything below the canopy deck (8 to 10") goes.

Obviously personal choices, I tend to grow more of a scrog style.

 

[Capt.Quirk]

With all my autos, regardless of training method, as soon as I get a sixth node, I remove under 4.
No more popcorn. Just what works for me. Organic soil auto grower.

 

[BallsackSal]

With all my autos, regardless of training method, as soon as I get a sixth node, I remove under 4.
No more popcorn. Just what works for me. Organic soil auto grower.

nice! thank you, good description and the pictures really helped. The final pic of the mature plant, is that picture defoliated right before harvest or do you keep it that lean leaf wise for a while?

 

[Capt.Quirk]

nice! thank you, good description and the pictures really helped. The final pic of the mature plant, is that picture defoliated right before harvest or do you keep it that lean leaf wise for a while?

I stop watering and start a final trim one week out and dry in the pot.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

I have done LST, HST heavy defoliation, lollipop, no defoliation all manor of manifolding and the thing with autos is they all seem to yield about the same regardless to the torture plan . Now this is not true with photos where manifolding will actually increase the yield considerably. I do believe that the quality of the flowers both autos and photos is much improved by leaving most of the fans. I am lazy and now the only thing I do to autos is top above the fourth node and defoliate low for airflow only if and when needed.

 

[Django_TO]

With all my autos, regardless of training method, as soon as I get a sixth node, I remove under 4.
No more popcorn. Just what works for me. Organic soil auto grower.

Hi. thanks for the reply. How long does it take to "clear" everything under the 4th node? A few days, a week? Do you start LST before defoliating? I usually start LST around when the 4th or 5th node appears. I want to try new things next grow. I might try this way.
Thanks.

 

[Django_TO]

I have done LST, HST heavy defoliation, lollipop, no defoliation all manor of manifolding and the thing with autos is they all seem to yield about the same regardless to the torture plan . Now this is not true with photos where manifolding will actually increase the yield considerably. I do believe that the quality of the flowers both autos and photos is much improved by leaving most of the fans. I am lazy and now the only thing I do to autos is top above the fourth node and defoliate low for airflow only if and when needed.

I have never topped. My issue isn´t the final weight, is the space on the tent. I have new bud sites appearing until the end of the grow. New branches and things like that. So i would like to find a way to defoliate/prune that allows me to have better space management, and less branches.

 

[Django_TO]

Hey Django I'm in the same boat as you and will be watching. I grow rDWC with spider farmer led's. It seems like instead of the plants putting their energy into making bigger denser buds, it just keeps creating new growth and more leaves branches and little crappy bud sites.

Yep. My story exactly. Let's find a way out together brother (i assume by the username)