Defoliation and side lighting

[growopz]

I've got a little jungle going for my personal grow, about 4 weeks into flower. It's all drip fed on a timer, at about 1.2 EC, and 6.4 pH. Been away and haven't trained it at all, except for a few supercroppings before going away.

Aurora Indica, GG#4, and "Bob Marley", under 180W of 4000K QBs.

I'd like to up the lighting now, for the second half of flowering. Wondering how crazy to go with defoliation, and whether it might be a better idea to skip defoliation on the lower branches and instead add side lighting around the perimeter? Or, defoliate AND side light? 

Anyone have experience with side lighting? I've only done it in bucket grows. Not sure of the value of light hitting underside of leaves, and whether red would be best, or white.

And defoliation, still a good idea at week 4 of flower?

Thanks

[CleanGreen]

I only defoliate the bottom 40cm once in flower. not sure if u wanna defoliate anything at the top with LED lighting. Also it looks Sativa dominant they tend to have more space btw the leaves and branches. 

[GGG]

I have good results with defoliating alot, done side by side with no defoliating and better buds with defoliating.


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[PsyCLown]

So what have you decided to do?

Also why are you using 4000K during flower as opposed to something with a bit more red, such as 3500k or 3000k - just for interest sake.

Edited June 18, 2019 by PsyCLown

[Pat999]

So what have you decided to do?
Also why are you using 4000K during flower as opposed to something with a bit more red, such as 3500k or 3000k - just for interest sake.

Sup Psy, the 4000k can be used for the first part of "flowering" as it transitions. I think Growopz had a long holiday and decided to keep it with those boards till he got back. He did say he's changing the light for the last half of flowering which is the time the buds really start to fatten up.

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[Dank]

Hi @growopz , growing outside I usually defoliate quite a bit of the older fan leaves as they lose some luster, depending on the strain I could remove up to 60%-70% of the bottom 2/3 (fan leaves) by harvest time. Outdoors this helps a lot with the PM, and getting those popcorn nuggies to get phat.

Indoors I usually go bare bottom (no leaves or growth) below the screen, then some defoliation through flowering, mostly to remove yellowing fans, or to get light on a shaded bud. Side lighting should increase the lumens and production I would say, ofc considering the direct heat on the plants. I am a LED noob so I am not sure how close or far lights need to be, growers in Canada love using side lighting (sommer HPS) in their massive grow rooms.

Here is a excerpt from 420Magazine posted by Weaselcracker , he is quite experienced with it.

"As for defoliation- I think first we would have to define it. The term could cover a pretty large range of practices. Usually I think of it as -major stripping of leaves to ‘increase yield’. 

Some people go around constantly pulling off fan leaves
Almost all people do some amount of thinning and trimming.
In general sativas seem to dislike getting tortured in flower. Sometimes that’s a good thing when you’re trying to slow them down. Most people doing a lot of defoliation and getting away with it seem to be doing it to heavy indica strains."

 

Edited June 19, 2019 by Dank
many mistakes waking and baking eish

[growopz]

Thanks for the info, I think I'm gonna go for the side lighting. 

[growopz]

@PsyCLown I've just had so little free time this last week, that the plants are just on autopilot for now.

I've flowered under 4000K before. It's good for keeping the plants shorter. But yeah I'll add some warmer light, soon.

[growopz]

Starting to look pretty frosty!

[growopz]

So, in the end, I've added 30W of strip light around the perimeter, in the lower canopy. 

I thought I was adding warm white, but turns out I added cool white by mistake. Oops. But should help anyway. 

Will likely add more side light this week too.

[growopz]

Ok, did some defoliation, and added a panel of 50W of warm white & red side lighting. So, an extra 80W for the last couple weeks. 

Pistols are starting to redden, so it might have been a bit late for the strip lighting. Can't hurt though. 

[growopz]

Update:

The extra 50W panel of warm white and red does seem to be doing a good job. (Off-camera, on the right). So I think underpowered QB panels on the side is probably a win.

The strip light is probably not helping at all though. I think it still has its place in space buckets, but not in bigger areas. Just lacks intensity, and has poor efficiency.

Couple of the plants starting to get cloudy trichomes, but still a week or two left for some of them.

Just been defoliating any leaf that loses colour, every few days. Will have to work on my defoliation game.

 

[Pat999]

Looking lekker lekker bru!!

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[GGG]

Update:
The extra 50W panel of warm white and red does seem to be doing a good job. (Off-camera, on the right). So I think underpowered QB panels on the side is probably a win.
The strip light is probably not helping at all though. I think it still has its place in space buckets, but not in bigger areas. Just lacks intensity, and has poor efficiency.
Couple of the plants starting to get cloudy trichomes, but still a week or two left for some of them.
Just been defoliating any leaf that loses colour, every few days. Will have to work on my defoliation game.
 

Nice grow, plants look happy


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