Poll - Do you defoliate in flower?

[narnia]

Image snatched from GrandMasterLevel

 

[Totemic]

Every leaf feeds those buds. No or fewer leaves, those that are left have to work that much harder.

[narnia]

Every leaf feeds those buds. No or fewer leaves, those that are left have to work that much harder.

 

When would you last prune? Right before flipping?

GML's  leaf strip is ultra aggressive @ day 14 and thereafter left alone.

[Totemic]

It really depends. Scrog is always agressive defoliating. You have to as a leaf without light is actually more of a drain to keep alive. By the second week of flower I stop messing.

 

Most of my growing is outdoors and base my answer on that rather. The sun penetrates all the way through, and I never prune except for training which I also dont do much. The buds on the natural expression of single main cola plants is what im after. 

[narnia]

Can't argue the yumminess of that one apical bud   :-blazed

 

As an aside, his [no]topping tech is the tits (removal of young leaves surrounding the growing shoot(s), without disturbing shoot itself) accomplishing similar effect to pinching, without the variability and excess stunting.

[Jland]

I'll second that Narnia   

 

The GML technique is very affective, minimal stress and growth doesn't stop (slows down a tad). You can achieve a topping affect without topping and at the same time you still got that Queen cola and her sisters. 

 

I'm trying to move away from srcog and topping ,avoiding as much stress as possible. 

 

By the fourth week of 12/12 I don't like tampering with the girls.

[Thatoneguy]

This is a very grey area as there will always be some growers who defoliate and some who dont. There is the fact that all leaves feed the plants and some say just tuck leaves back to allow for light penetration while others will pluck. I have defoliated and i have also left the plants as. I think for outdoors one should not defoliate at all as there is no point as the sun is strong enough. However in flowering what i do for indoor grows is i take my plants out stand above them and look down. And what ever fan leaves are blocking the buds in the middle or centre of the plant i either remove them or if they can be tucked back i do that. 

 

At the end of the day if you defoliate u must take into account that your plants will need to recover if its a heavy defoliation u do to them and also u will be messing with the plants metabolism so to defoliate is really a growers choice. How much they take off when they defoliate etc. I think there is some benefits to defoliation but at the same time not all strains respond well to it some do some dont. Just my 2 cents

[Thatoneguy]

I also would have to say that lollypopping ones plant 2 weeks into flowering, or before one puts the plants into flowering should illiminate the nees to defoliate. If one does defoliate heavily it should be done in veg stage and not the flowering stage. But if one wants to defoliate when plants are in flowering they should be very reaerved with how much they remove.