Should i defoliate these autos

[Cong88]

Hi this is my first grow im doing 2 gorilla glue, 1northern lights and 1 og kush. I just wanted to know if it would be a good idea to defoliate my autos at all as 2 are 4weeks old and other 2 are 3weeks and are quite short and bushy (PICS BELOW) plus does it look like i will have enough room in this tent for the 4 plants or do they look like they will be crammed together as they grow bigger.Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[idiopathic neuropathy]

"Enough room" yes, but if they keep growing without problem it will be crammed a bit and somewhat difficult to mess around with them babies. One thing about tent growing----we never have enough room...lol.

"On defolitation" and timing defoliation. You will find many schools of thought on this subject. Some say leave them alone, they are light factories.
Some say they defoliate to open up the budsites and create better airflow to eliminate potential mold problems if they have high humidity.

My take----i defoliate according to environmental consitions and the plants structural growth. For example if my tent is high in humidity, then I defol. If the plant is squatty and tight with many leaves I may pull 4-6 leaves one day then a couple days later another 4-6.
As far as timing, I have pulled leaves at all different stages of development and not had problems. Some may argue not to defol at transition stages, e.g. preflower, seedling stages in order to not create stress during "prime times" or more critical stages of development.

Have fun with it. Maybe experiment and do 1 or 2 plants to see what happens. Once you do defo, they often just grow more leaves back rather quickly.
They are weeds.....Have fun with it.

Note: I always defol the leaves that touch the medium or very close to it to create more airflow at the base.

Did I say have fun with it? Enjoy your grow----you are looking good!

 

[Death The Cultivator]

I don't believe defoliation increases yield but can save yield in certain environmental conditions.

Do you have good air circulation? Bud sites don't photosynthesize and leaves don't technically block light. However you can reduce the chance of mold through pruning and managing your VPD

 

[CannabisMingus]

Bud sites don't photosynthesize and leaves don't technically block light.

This is very interesting. So, is it not productive to "expose bud sites" to light to increase yield (putting aside humidity/mold prevention)? I assumed the conventional wisdom (expose as many bud sites to light as possible) was correct. Maybe there is a nuance I don't understand.

Thanks in advance for your response(s)!

 

[Death The Cultivator]

This is very interesting. So, is it not productive to "expose bud sites" to light to increase yield (putting aside humidity/mold prevention)? I assumed the conventional wisdom (expose as many bud sites to light as possible) was correct. Maybe there is a nuance I don't understand.

Thanks in advance for your response(s)!

There was a study I posted in the defoliation thread in the myth busting section. It discussed how a certain degree of leaf removal caused roots to shut down. Bud sites only have sugar leaves and they are diminutive in comparison to fan leaves.

Look at the surface area of a fan leaf compared to a sugar leaf or the fact that a calyx doesn't have the tools necessary to photosynthesize on its own. Leaves take in c02 through their stomata underneath the leaves, transpire, and convert that energy to sugars that affects the rhizosphere.

Imo, when you do stuff like schwazzing it encourages vegetative growth hence the burst of new growth that follows. I want flowering and buds to set as quickly as possibly rather than growing more leaves.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

This is very interesting. So, is it not productive to "expose bud sites" to light to increase yield (putting aside humidity/mold prevention)? I assumed the conventional wisdom (expose as many bud sites to light as possible) was correct. Maybe there is a nuance I don't understand.

Thanks in advance for your response(s)!

It Depends ...................... Ok my personal beliefs that can mostly be backed by science and my observation "BroScience". The mainstream belief that you need to open up bud sites to the light comes from training photoperiod plants into various configurations. As you grow/train the plant laterally each node that is exposed to the light will become a cola given enough time. There is a time vs yield curve to this practice and it is really only done by home growers now as far as I can see in commercial grow pic and videos they have more of a SOG approach.

Autoflower plants do not afford you the time to do that kind of lateral bud work to any appreciable extent. Topping above the fourth node has been my most successful HST - one snip. Then I just let them grow.

Like others have stated above I only defoliate for air circulation. I know that the leaves are the plants little energy factories, the more factories the more energy to make buds! Do you know why the leaves in the lowest part of the plant look green? Because the green light penetrates right through the leaves above. Some newer science is beginning to learn how the plant is actually producing energy from the green light! So lower leaves are still contributing to the plant.

 

[Cong88]

"Enough room" yes, but if they keep growing without problem it will be crammed a bit and somewhat difficult to mess around with them babies. One thing about tent growing----we never have enough room...lol.

"On defolitation" and timing defoliation. You will find many schools of thought on this subject. Some say leave them alone, they are light factories.
Some say they defoliate to open up the budsites and create better airflow to eliminate potential mold problems if they have high humidity.

My take----i defoliate according to environmental consitions and the plants structural growth. For example if my tent is high in humidity, then I defol. If the plant is squatty and tight with many leaves I may pull 4-6 leaves one day then a couple days later another 4-6.
As far as timing, I have pulled leaves at all different stages of development and not had problems. Some may argue not to defol at transition stages, e.g. preflower, seedling stages in order to not create stress during "prime times" or more critical stages of development.

Have fun with it. Maybe experiment and do 1 or 2 plants to see what happens. Once you do defo, they often just grow more leaves back rather quickly.
They are weeds.....Have fun with it.

Note: I always defol the leaves that touch the medium or very close to it to create more airflow at the base.

Did I say have fun with it? Enjoy your grow----you are looking good!

Thank you brother, this is some of the best advice ive got on this subject i think i might remove my og kush auto i have in there in a 2.5 litre pot just to make a bit of extra room for better air circulation.this may be a really stupid question but if i do defoliate is it safe to remove the large main fan leaves or only the smaller ones, i no that might be a daft question but this is my first grow and i just learned the basics befor starting my grow and am now learning everything else as i go along.

 

[idiopathic neuropathy]

From my experiences, I have removed both, IMHO it doesn't matter. If you want, like I said before do it to one plant and see if it has any effect comparatively.
Like others have said above, its a personal theoretical choice. Pull a leaf or 2 or 3. I have defol. The f*ck out of 3 plants as a test and they still grew some great buds. But most of the plucking was towards the last 3 weeks of of lives of the plants. I have even stripped the sugar leaves without problems. Here is the grow I aggressively defoliated. You can see how close the stems/buds are to one another-‐-i felt the need to strip to prevent bud rot. Do I do this all the time? No .....it depends on the plant structure.

Here is my present grow....I don't see the need to defoliate this one, at least not yet.. and if i was, it would be the plant on the left at a later time.. but, that's just me. Sorry for the duplicate pic.

 

[idiopathic neuropathy]

Check out mesaboogie's grow and his thoughts on fastbud gorilla

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/fastbuds-tent-takeover.77335/page-4#post-2348264

 

[Vapo]

chop chop chop......I am a serial defoliator bro and say always be busy with the chop chop to expose budsites lol