Défoliation

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I never, ever defoliate, not even one leaf for more than 30 years. I only ever remove yellow/dying leaves. If your plant would not need those leaves, it would not grow them in the first place!

Hello Gardengobblin, There are only 2 reasons to defoliate. The first one is when the leaves are stacked on eachother and moist can not escape. So check if the leaves all hang free and wind can get through. And the second reason is when a huge leaf on top is blocking a lot of light for the growth below. So check if there is a huge leaf that blocks the light for all the growth below. Next to those reasons you should not defoliate because you will only cause unnecessary stress for the plant and lose yield instead of gaining it. And do not defoliate after the pre flowering phase. The pre flowering phase are the first 3 weeks after you noticed the first signs from flowering. The plant is stretching and growing really fast during those weeks. After the first 3 weeks flowering she will stop growing and stretching and will put all her energy in creating big fat buds. There is no reason to defoliate after the pre flowering phase and it will only cause stress to your plant and decreasing your yield. Enjoy your grow!

Hello, i don't think that you will get a consensus here as it always ends up in giant ego fights everywhere. But i do use - or not - this technique since more than a decade ago Genetics matters. The more equatorial sativa the plant is, the less defolation is beneficial. Like a pure sativa would barely need it. If so. But anything with bubba, deep chunk, monkey ball or pure indica craves for it. And i never got the gut to tickle the tiger by the tail but i don't think the bud density would do great with that much evaporation literally stuck in the canopy I think it's an unnecessary and evolutionary thing, leaves are like water pump, so in the wild it was needed but they adapted themselves to the strong light too - those giant leaves don't exist in the nature The plant density counts too. Like the right side would need it but to me, imo, the left side would have need to be crowded a bit more - i do believe there still a loss with this technique so i always overgrow to compensate it  So for me, yes for heavy indica, no for sativa but in the end it will depend of the grow condition

Best time to do some defoliation is when their transitioning to flower mode. When the light time decreases the growth increases. Great time to defoliate right up until you see buds starting to form. Best time because of the rapid growth. The stress of plucking leaves will slow the stretch some...