Bloom Diary #1

Week 4 of Flowering: Defoliation Experiment I decided to try defoliating my cannabis plants this week. After consulting some good resources, I felt confident in giving it a try. At this stage of flowering, the plants are thriving, but some of the large fan leaves have grown to block bud sites and lower canopy areas from receiving optimal light penetration. To address this issue, I performed the following actions: 1. Defoliation: I removed a significant amount of biomass, focusing on the large fan leaves that were obstructing light from reaching the bud sites and lower canopy. 2. Light Adjustment: To further improve light penetration, I lowered the grow lights from approximately 14 inches to 11 inches above the canopy. While defoliating this late in the flowering stage carries some risk of stress, the plants are growing so vigorously that I'm not overly concerned about potential setbacks. The goal is to promote better light exposure and, consequently, achieve a larger yield at harvest by taking these measures now. Moving forward, I may consider defoliating earlier in the flowering stage to prevent excessive leaf growth and shading. This could potentially minimize stress on the plants while still reaping the benefits of improved light distribution. Overall, I'm optimistic about the potential positive impact of this defoliation experiment, and I look forward to monitoring the plants' response and eventual yield.