Defoliate? How much?

High Papajon, You only defoliate for 3 reasons! 1. Leaves are stacked on eachother blocking airflow. When moist can not escape it can cause mold or fungal. 2. There is a large leaf on top blocking a lot of light from a larger part of the plant below. 3. All the way at the bottom where light doesn't reach enough. Next to the 3 reasons mentioned above it is just decreasing yield! So study your plants, make a plan and only cut when necessary. Happy Growing Buddy! 💚

u don't need defoliate but If the light is this close u burn it brother .You should keep some distance

Agree non needed looks perferfect

none, looks well spaced out.

I always like to remove as many leaves as I can that are covering up any bud sites from direct sunlight. Then I also remove anything under the canopy that are not getting much sunlight as well. I take the majority off around week 3 of flower like most commercial breeders do. If you are experiencing high humidity it may be required to defoliate a lot more then normal to cut back on humidity and increase airflow through your plants. I have found major benifits from clearing out the big fan leaves from covering up any bud sites so you may want to at least do that. Hope this helps.

I see no reason to defoliate. Can't see everything in this 1 picture, but it's easily explained. Leaves overlapping or constantly touching the wall is an acceptable reason to selectively prune some leaves. Otherwise, there's not too many good reasons to remove a leaf. Try tucking/training before pruning. You want to keep as many leaves as possible. Cutting them off does not 'allow the plant to focus on buds' or any other bro-science reasoning you may run across. If your dehumidifier can't keep up with a full canopy you should either need more dehumidification power (an extra one or a stronger replacement) or you need to downsize your canopy relative to your equipments capabilities. If you don't have a dehumidifier, you better start growing in local seasons that have low humidity, if possible. Exhausting outside can help too, but this also raises cost of any heating/ac in your home.. if you remove leaves, you hinder yield. Leaves are lungs. CO2 is your limiting factor for photosynthesis potential of the plant, i.e. growth potential. Reducing leaf surface area reduces intake of CO2 which also reduces potential growth, which includes flower growth... anything the plant has to expend energy to do, it will be negatively impacted with fewer leaves. It looks like you have removed some leaves at earlier points, likely too many. It's quite barren just below top portion of colas. That area receives strong light even if not at the top. You'd be better served if you retained those leaves in the future. Despite a lot of ego-stroking techniques and urban myths, you'll realize 90-95% of potential, relative to the individual plant, by just doing the simple stuff well. Keep it healthy and the plant will do all the work. check out cocoforcannabis.com -- "to defoliate or not..." is the first article you may want to read. All of their guides are good. You should read all of them as you can. you'll like re-read a couple, too. The author admits when they are making educated guesses and busts some myths. 'Dr. Photon's corner' as well as the guides and there's another site-authorized author of articles too, but i don't recall the name. The forums are just as riddled with bro-science as anywhere else, so beware of the user-submitted comments in the forums.

Hello! The amount of defoliation you do is dependent on your environment. There are some details missing from your diary. But how well are you able to control humidity? And what kind of airflow do you have? If you able to control humidity well and you have good airflow, then minimal defoliation would be my strategy. Yes, some of the buds will end up being popcorn (but you can clip these into a freezer bag and then store for a press in the future). If you are not able to control humidity well and/or maybe not able to get good airflow, then I would basically strip the bottom third of the plants as well as remove leaves that are touching or overlapping each other to better expose some bud sites. Ultimately, it's your call...and your environment...so you're best to judge. You want to negate risk of mildew and mold but also minimize stress to the plant and preserve its solar panels (leaves)