Do cannabis plants really 'cannibalize' their own leaves?

[Delps8]

I don't know ... I've seen it's been done for years - I first saw it on a strain hunnter video years and years ago.
It's been gaining popularity for the last 2 years (about the time i first heard of the word Schwazz ... which sounds a bit rude really lol)

No science yet, but the pudding looks tasty enough and could save one hell of an end trimming job (and a mold risk)

10 years ago, people would go crazy if you said you topped or defoliated your autoflower ... but not now!

I've got my eye on it, but since using an autopot (and having a few heavy foliage plants that ultimately caused a mold fest), i've been quite happy to strip leave where necessary (although i've never tried a schwazz either!)

Food for thought ^_^

Unfortunately, I think the answer is the first word in your second paragraph.

Other than that, it seems that "a lot of people do it because of a lot of people do it." Personally, I'm hard pressed to join a passing parade "just because". One item I found interesting while learning schoolboy French is that the French word for "crowd" is "foule". In the 49 years since I graduated from high school, I've come to see the wisdom in that.

 

[Rick Dirte']

Unfortunately, I think the answer is the first word in your second paragraph.

Other than that, it seems that "a lot of people do it because of a lot of people do it." Personally, I'm hard pressed to join a passing parade "just because". One item I found interesting while learning schoolboy French is that the French word for "crowd" is "foule". In the 49 years since I graduated from high school, I've come to see the wisdom in that.

Check this float out. 1.92lbs auto

 

[Delps8]

Check this float out. 1.92lbs auto

Thanks for providing that link. I need to re-read that grow journal.

The colas looked very much like to my first grow last year. Two plants in a 2' x 4', yielding 21.07oz from one plant and 4.96oz from the other. The total was 26.04 ounces but from two plants. IIRC, the 1.92 pounds is from one plant. That's a lot of weed.

 

[Cannaficionado]

Understood and that's why I didn't reference your statement when I asked my question.

I'm trying to find hard evidence about schwazzing. It's completely counterintuitive to me which is one of the reasons why I find it interesting. I haven't come across any research about it in the two years that I've been at this so I'm thinking that if schwazzing is the cats meow, someone would have looked into it on a formal basis.


If only…

I've been on four cannabis sites for >= two years now and haven't run into anything other than anecdotal evidence. :-(

If something "crops up", it would be great if you could post a link.

It may not be as easy to find evidence of this that you would think but you can look at it this way....

Gibberellins is the hormone responsible for the switch to from vegetative growth, to flowee production. These hormones are produced throughout the plant but are transported to the very tops of plants during flower which is why your colas are usually the biggest most dense buds out of all of them becauss it is the most exposed part of tge plant and highly susceptible to being pollinated for reproduction.

With that said the amount of available hormones and how its divided up through the plant during flowering is "proportional" to how many available bud sites there are and how well the plant is growing. So it should go without saying that reducing the number of budsites on the plant will increase the overall gibberellins to each budsite because it has no where else to send it.

This is the most basic way I can describe how schwazzing helps improve yeild. Now this could just be an improvement of size and potency but it may not make your yeild larger, but it will increase the size and density of your top most buds.