Defoliation during flower phase

I would advise against any defoliation, especially during flowering. Your plant needs each and every leaf she has to make the energy she needs to grow her biggest and best flowers. Lollipopping the small inner/lower growths is a better way to go about the problem of small crappy buds. Just remember - Maximum amount of healthy green leaves = maximum energy produced = maximum growth and maximum health. Besides, if your plant did not need the leaves, she would not grow them in the first place! Your plant also needs the older fan leaves as a source of pre-made nutrition that she will draw upon during flowering, as it is far more efficient to do so, rather than grow flowers AND make the stored elements (carbs, sugars, amino acids etc) in her older leaves from new, at the same time as trying to grow flowers. So, not only does defoliation reduce your plants capacity to produce energy, it also robs her of a vital source of pre-made nutrition she needs to grow her biggest and best flowers. This recycling of the elements from her older leaves is also why the leaves go yellow (the fade) during flowering on otherwise healthy and well fed plants during flowering. Hope this helps,............ Organoman.

Ahh yes its something asked on this site over and over even myself has asked it and what most growers will say is yes you defoliate in early flower though its a catch 22 situation. Yes sometimes plants can grow too bushy and they can create loads of hiding spots for mould spore or any other nasty pathogens or bugs plus more foliage will create more humidity which is bad in flower though you have to consider that she needs all the energy she can get at the moment she is making a massive change trying to produce flowers and make them flowers nice and large in order to attract male pollen now healthy fan leaf you remove is taking that energy away from the plant when it could of been using it for making your bud that much bigger. I do defoliate in flower but only if my plants are growing fast and are perfectly healthy which is very rare though to keep things neat this is my defoliation routine. first 3 weeks of flower I leave her to it she needs this time to stretch then after the stretch is complete I will then defoliate some of the larger leaves that are blocking the light to buds sites i will only remove a leave if I cannot move it out the way or tuck it under the net. Then after that she will have one more burst of fan leaf production which I keep until the 7th week of flower in late flower is stresses the plant much less in my experience this defoliation will be large and mainly getting rid of the majority of the fans blocking light then one week before harvest on week 10 of flower I will do a prep defoliation ready for harvest :)

Hi mate, I answered a similar question today and i think it really comes down to the space you have. I have a small 2x2x6 and to keep good airflow around plant and have a stable environment, I felt the need to defoliate. and probably will again in a couple of weeks. I'm still learning myself and can't see any correlation between lower yields and defoliation. I logically think it will take a little longer to mature. It may need more nutrients than expected to supplement whats been used to recover. I hope this helps, good luck and happy growing