Mistery Auto #1 (caseeds) NORTHERN SPAIN

I would have loved to have more time to give to this plants, but right now I am really busy and it will get worse with some time 😁. But the plants are doing good, as flowers start to bloom more and more. And now that nutrients are more controlled, as I bought some instead of cooking them, plants finally seem to be healthier. I got rid of the necrotic leaves in Sweet all at once, so now it looks like a bouquet of flowers! In order to make a comparison and study the consequences, I am defoliating Rebel gradually. So I am taking out one leaf each 2 or 3 days. --o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o-- By the way, this is my take on defoliation: logically, leaves are very important in a plant as they take part in the photosynthesis, where they absorb light with clorophyll -what gives them the green colour-. There, they take nutrients from the sap and produce vegetal matter. And the more light they get, the more they grow. On the other hand, they also have an intake of nutrients to be alive -apart from the ones correspondant to photosynthesis-. This wouldn't be a downside of having a leaf in the plant, as 'you' are having a profit out of it: growth or bud growth in flowering -I don't know how much a fan leaf contributes to that, tho-. Then, why defoliate? To understand that, we have to move to a bigger picture, and see the plant as a system. The cannabis plant has in its DNA some survival mechanisms that have been perfected with trial and error in nature, as other plants do. So, once the plant hits flowering stage and we know no new leaves will appear, if there is a deficiency of some nutrient the plant will respond optimally. And how does it do it? Taking those nutrients from the less important leaves, sacrifying them for the wellness of the whole. The plant tends to consider the older ones are the less important. Why? Because generally they are in the lower parts of the plant and are less optimal as they absorb way less light, and consume nutrients. Probably, this fan leaves would be blocking sunlight from budsites, so the right time to defoliate would be determined by your consideration of how profitable is to have that leaf. But have in consideration that if you don't correct the nutrient deficiency and you take the leaf off, another leaves will start to die. And they will be upper in the plant, and more important in consequence. You must also have in consideration that necrotic leaves, while still in the plant, atract pests. This is what happeend in my case, as I had P and K deficiency, but also Mg deficiency. Now it is important to answer the next question: in which cases it makes sense to defoliate too? My point, as it seems to be clear, is to think in terms of profitability of the whole plant. Sometimes you will have to defoliate the lower strati of the plant to optimize air flow and prevent mold and meldew in those parts, and sometimes it will be needed to give more light to some area you are interested in to grow more. That happens a lot when you tie a plant to LST it, for example. However, if you are growing outdoors like me, that will be less neeeded as light is multidirectional and not limited, opposite to growing indoors. Last thing I feel is important about this is considering the stress you are producing to a plant. When you are defoliating you are opening a wound in the plant, and it has to recover from that. So if you take all the leaves out at once, you will lose productivity. At least that is what I think, and what I try to demonstrate with the different approaches for Sweet and Rebel. --o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o-- Nothing else needed to say, just that I watered on day 76 with the shown parameters. If you want to discuss about my defoliation mini 'treaty', I am open to learning some more 😁. Because I am not even close to an expert on this important subject.