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Defoliation & Tent space

I have two questions…

First is about defoliation. I am in week 5 of flower and have already defoliated the plants between weeks 2-3 however; they have become very bushy again. Should I continue to defoliate the plants or just leave them as they are?

Second question is in regards to tent space and yield. I currently have three plants in a 2x4 tent with a very full canopy. I believe two plants could fill the same space and perhaps even improve my yield by giving each plant more space to grow. Is it possible to get more yield from fewer plants?

3 comments

Comments (3)

shough

Jan 27, 2022

Thanks For the comment.

I tried to avoid plucking many leaves and instead opted to use a few more ties to spread out the bushy sections more to get better airflow and light penetration. I also added a fan below the canopy as you suggested. I may only grow two plants next run so they have plenty of space to spread out, I think I can fill the same space with only two and avoid allot of these issues.

I have not found allot of good information on defoliation. I know you want to do it in the first 2-3 weeks of flower or before flipping to flower. You want to remove the larger fan leaves or leaves blocking good bud sites. Generally, most videos I have seen just mention it or do it in a time-lapse and don’t get into very much detail on what, when, and how to do it…

TnA.Homegrown

Jan 28, 2022

Replying to

@shough the method Cap was speaking of is selective deleafing. The subject of defoliation is pretty broad and you have people who will argue for or against it with the passion of such things like Ford vs Chevy, Xbox vs Playstation, Coke vs Pepsi, etc.

I have read a lot of information and can agree with pros and cons for both. With that being said each of those pros and cons is subjective. Each strain has different things which it likes and doesn’t like.

If you want to use a schedule for deleafing then a popular one is to do a heavy defoliation day 1 of flower and then day 21 again.

We can chat on and on about it but if it’s not broken then don’t fix it. if you need more light and airflow then remove what you need (or rearrange with training) to get the job done.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Cap Stone

Jan 26, 2022

Hi, at week 5 I would not go crazy with the defoliation but it's ok to remove a few leaves here and there to unblock good bud sights.

Sometimes less is more. A crowded canopy will prevent light from getting to the lower bud sights and can cause air flow and humidity issues below the canopy. When you flip your girls to flower, they will grow another 20-50% so you have to keep that in mind. So either go with two larger plants or three smaller plants next grow.

With a really crowded grow space, it becomes even more important to add a fan below the canopy. The last thing you want is warm stagnant air trapped below a thick canopy.

Have fun!