Some how it just seems wrong to strip so many fan leaves at the beginning of flower. I resisted the urge to remove lower branches and inner ones during the veg process. They grew up to be large and full of buds. Did remove some leaves that seemed to shadow lower or inner sites. Doesn’t the plant need the energy provided by the large leaves. The plants have stopped producing large leaves only sugar leaves and buds at this point. I have read many posts about hormonal changes at flower, some what understand the process. Can not seem to find the way to tag growers for their in put. (@ covertgrower ) and (@ canniban ) come to mind. Just because I have read so many of their responses.
I like to look at what’s growing and just thin out enough so I have larger buds growing. You have to experiment because some genes are diff on other plants or it seems like one I can chop off a bunch and it helps another plant I have doesn’t like me at all it’s five months old and just now is starting but then it went from being sick to growing well just hasn’t produced I grew four autos in time these two took to think about budding I’m lost on these two but when they bud out I’m hoping they’ll be arm sized since has hundreds of budsites on the right branches
Yes, this is why I recommend tucking or leaving them. Towards about 3-4 week of flowering you may see some yellowing of the fan leaves. At that point you can remove them.
I do try to keep the bottom 1/3 of the plant stripped to keep larf to a minimum.
To tag a grower @skipper1
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This is my first time out of the gate. I guess I should have mentioned they are from bag seeds germinated on June 3 due to cold spring transplanted to grow pots 5 gal buckets on July 5. They are now over 6 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter would make nice shrubs for around the house. Started flower about two weeks ago.
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I have schwazz’d cannabis right before flipping to flower with success. It’s just a heavy defoliation before flipping to flower. Essentially removing all growth below the Top-tops. I wouldn’t recommend this as the benefits imo are yet exceed the loss In yield. The other plants during this grow ended up yielding more and grew taller (healthier)
What I’ve found is with a heavy defoliation right be flower is it allowed more light to get to the Bud sites, but the plant will spend some time In the first few weeks of stretch focusing on creating leaf and won’t stretch as much.
Recommend lollipop before flipping to flower clearing the bottom 3rd of the plant of wasted energy on big fan leaves and popcorn buds.
I again defoliate at week 4-6 of flower to allow more light to enter the canopy and then tuck and hide till the end
Welcome to the forum
Thanks for the reply I am a heavy reader and do not post much.
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I like to experiment and just so it’s clear, I wouldn’t recommend this technique for someone growing just a few plants. At this time I can’t recommend schwazzing at all. I’m still playing with it usually schwazzing one or two plants in my tents.
It was fun and I learned more about the strain and it’s behavior, but I’d stick to the tried and true method of topping and lollipopping.
I will have to give that a try I have a fairly large one just starting to get hairs this plant also has been prepped for super cropping is it too late to try this on this one do you think with hairs beginning
I schwazz my a select plant or two 3-4 days before I flip to flower. This will allow the plant to heal from the shock of the heavy defoliation that just happened. This heavy stress can herm your plant. Don’t do it in flower. That’s always my biggest concern doing this is the potential for herms. So far in two grows it’s been all good
Ya I figured it may be too late I just turned off my lights for two days and it’s started them all I’m using two 1500 watt King led all more of an experiment with these lights and seem to be great these are eight weeks old with two auto Afghan mass almost done
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if you look at a tree, especially in a thick forest, you may notice 2 things, trees grow leaves where the sun is more than in the shady side, and trees abandon leaves and branches inside the canopy or beneath the canopy. When they do this, the cannibalize the foliage first to feed energy to the roots and working parts of the plant.
Cannabis is a bit different than a tree, because the tree needs to survive the winter and make blossoms in the spring, it sequesters sugars in the root which are used for that. Cannabis, however, is a one shot deal, those same sugars are not sequestered to the root, but are sent to the bud specifically for seed production. When no pollination happens the sugars are used to make bud material and resin.
In my opinion, leaf stripping can be used on some strains better than others and generally only on indoor grows. The concept is that leaf stripping causes stress and the response to that stress is seed production, no different than pine tree that is stressed making a huge load of cones.
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Ya that is two that got to like four feet tall so I supercroped all the long ones now they went wild these two came out of some bag shwag that was great one seed from an oz this entire setup was an experiment I usually use ml and hps lights so I looked at bargain lights the king 1500 led seemed to shine the best at $140 actual watt 600 so with 2 I’m getting 1200 actual and autos love it I started two with those other ones auto almost done it’s eights weeks almost nine so two months n my electric bill is half but gently bending them over to breakage really made them from crazy hope I get good amount from them I will post pics
Yeah those blurple lights are not going to produce nearly as much weed as a decent hlg. Good job though, the buds you have growing there are pretty impressive for a blurple.
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Ok well I’ve done it removed some of the lower leaves and inner most bud sites. It is a lot scary for never having done this before, didn’t go to crazy just a little makes me nervous have spent soo much time and effort to get them to this point. Wifeie says if I paid her as much attention to her as to them well you can guess the rest of the story. Told her sorry I can’t smoke her.
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