Defoliating during Flowering - GROWING GUIDE (2024)

FAQs

Is it OK to defoliate during flowering? ›

So there are three different times we recommend defoliating during Flower: Right before you switch to 12/12. Once between the beginning of Flower and the 3-week mark. 3 weeks after beginning flower is the last time you'll want to defoliate.

Don't remove more than 10–15% of a single plant's foliage. If you're more experienced, however, we recommend defoliating from the bottom of your plant up to 3–4 nodes from the top of the canopy.

Schwazzing involves stripping all cannabis fan leaves beneath the top two or three nodes at two key times: Once at the start of the bloom phase, and again at the beginning of the third week of bloom.

Yes you should – but with the correct technique. A proper thinning will remove 20-40% of the mid to upper foliage every 5-7 days. Removing these fan leaves opens up light and produces better air exchange to the lower canopy.

The inexperienced grower may be tempted to over-defoliate a cannabis plant. This can reduce final yield potential, by stunting growth and removing healthy bloom points.

Can you prune during flower? You should avoid pruning during flower. Pruning can be stressful for your plant, and pruning may slow bud development. You can remove large fan leaves if they are getting in the way of flowers, or if you feel they are using too much energy.

Defoliation imparts a severe physiological stress on plants by suddenly restricting the availability of photosynthate needed for growth.

3 to 5 days before flowering: always leave 3 to 5 days between defoliating/pruning and switching your plant to flower. This way it has a few days to recover from the stress caused by cutting its parts.

In week 2 of flowering, you may spot the first white pistils growing on your female cannabis plants. These fine and wispy white hairs will develop at those locations where the big fan leaves meet the main stem. It is these fine hairs that will later become buds.

It won't have a negative effect on the flowering process — in fact, if you fail to properly prune and/or remove the fan leaves, the flowering process is much more likely to go awry. Once your plant has entered the flowering stage, you'll want to execute another round of defoliation.

Do fan leaves help buds grow? ›

Fan leaves contain low levels of THC, which makes them useful for herbal teas and extracts, but not for smoking. More significantly, the fan leaf helps the plant develop the best buds possible. Much like most of the plant world, cannabis fan leaves are a key component of the photosynthesis process.

Don't be afraid to follow these defoliation philosophies to increase your bud's potential: Fan leaves are the powerhouse for photosynthesis so shouldn't generally be removed. Removal, also known as defoliation of fan leaves lets light penetrate bud sites below the canopy and increases overall photosynthesis potential.

Arguably the most common mistake that newbie cannabis cultivators make is stripping too many of the fan leaves from the plant. Cultivators should not prune more than 1/3 of the fan leaves on a cannabis plant in any given pruning session.

How to Defoliate in Week 4. The best practice is to completely remove everything beneath the first layer of trellis. Even if it is a bud site that is flowering, get rid of it. These puny tiny branches will never yield anything worth actually trimming, drying and curing.

Cannabis plants often shed older fan leaves (especially at the end of their life), which turn yellow before falling to the ground. During the flowering phase, plants divert most of their energy towards the flowers, which also tends to cause slight yellowing of the leaves.

Defoliation is defined as a widespread loss of leaves or stripping of leaves on a plant. There are many things that can cause this, such as grazing animals like deer or rabbits, insect infestation, disease, or chemical runoff from herbicides.

Start by removing big, hand-sized fan leaves first. These tend to overshadow almost anything below them, making it hard for light to properly penetrate your plant's canopy. Next, remove any leaves that grow towards the inside of your cannabis plant. These also tend to overshadow important bud sites.

Usually, growers trim the fan leaves weeks before harvest, which is a period that leads to senescence, a phase in the plant cycle when the larger leaves start fading away. It is safe to start removing these dying leaves and continue until harvest.

Lollipopping involves removing growth up to a certain point on each branch of your cannabis plant to maximise efforts towards the topmost bud sites. By lollipopping, you not only help direct light to the right nodes, but optimise the limited energy stores of your plants.

Schwazzing is a term used to describe an intense form of defoliation. The process involves removing many fan leaves from a plant, allowing much more light to pass through to bud sites.

Should you cut off lower bud sites? ›

Plants have to spend energy growing leaves, stalks and buds. By trimming off the unnecessary leaves, more energy is left to put towards bud growth. Additionally, every time a bud site is pruned, two more will be created to take its place – leading to more buds on a single plant.

Slower growing plants, with a large store of carbohydrates, may respond to defoliation by rapidly deploying their root stores to re-grow photosynthetic material or, alternatively, use of root stores may be more gradual, in accordance with the idea that slow-growing species have relatively inflexible growth strategies ...

Two commonly observed responses in defoliated Page 19 16 plants that greatly affect the recovery rate of whole-plant photosynthetic capacity are: 1) increased photosynthetic capacity of remaining and regrowing foliage, and 2) increased growth rates of leaves and shoots.

Well-watered houseplants will last for days, even a week, on their own. If you're heading out for a short time, give them a final drink just before you leave and move them out of sunny windows or hot rooms.

Finally, you can defoliate one last time around week seven of flower if you need to. This will ensure that your nugs have plenty of light and airflow as they finish up. You'll notice that the buds that aren't in direct light are different colors than parts of the plant that were in direct light.

Week 7: The calyxes in the seven-week varieties swell to near bursting as THC is produced in the glands. At the end of the week they will be ready. The trichomes stand more erect and the caps swell with newly produced resin. At the end of the week the flowers reach the peak zone.

Days to 50% flowering(D50F) day Number of days between germination and the day when anthesis is observed in at least 50% of panicle length of at least 50% of replicate plants per treatment.

Days to 50% flowering was determined by recording the number of days following transplanting (DAT) until 50% of plants in a plot had at least one open flower.

The ideal drying room must be dark, as light can damage the THC in your buds. While it does not hurt to have a light source inside to check on the progress of your buds, you should keep it off most of the time, and block all other passages of light that can enter the room.

At the absolute minimum, you should wait until 50% of the trichomes are cloudy and 50% of the hairs have changed color. Again — do not harvest if fewer than 50% of the trichomes have turned milky. And do not harvest if fewer than 50% of the pistils have turned brown/orange.

How do you make buds swell up? ›

To some degree, more light translates to fatter buds and higher yields (you'll need to pay attention to the distance between your grow light and plants or your plant may suffer from light burn). Increasing light intensity is the most effective way to fatten up buds.

The bigger the leaf area, the bigger your buds will be. Nitrogen is the nutrient needed most for this green growth. When plants reach their mature size and begin flowering, they need more phosphorus, the nutrient most essential for budding.

Bud leaves do photosynthesise but to a lot lesser degree than shade leaves. Basically the leaves of the plant will direct them selves optimally through phototropism and I generally leave them where they go naturally..

Yes! During the night, late night to early morning you see new buds proliferating, at dawn or soon after they start to unfold. Daytime is the time for (most) plants to produce food by photosynthesis as that is when they get sunlight and the food/energy generated during the day is utilised at night in performing growth.

During the earlier stages of plant growth, the fan leaves should only be removed if they yellow or dry out. However, once the plant begins to flower, you can trim off some of the fan leaves. However, don't remove more than half of the fan leaves, because they are still needed by the plant.

If you are drying indoors, you can use a fan to circulate the air and speed up the drying process. Make sure you keep the buds away from the direct flow of air, and you might want to consider opening a window or using a humidifier to keep the environment from getting too dry.

Use wet and dry trimming for the best results!

Another option is to remove a lot of the fan leaves right before harvesting. This will take some of the work off your plate after your buds are dry, and result in a faster drying process.

Cut the yellow leaves.

Unless your plant is very young, it's completely fine to trim your plant. By doing so, you can improve its appearance and help it focus the energy on healthy growth.

At the end of flowering, there may still be plenty of nutrients left in the growing medium and leaves. To prevent harsh tastes and unsavoury chemicals making their way into your stash, you can simply stop feeding any nutrients in the last 1.5–2 weeks of flowering.

Flowering stage

At this time, it is recommended to water the bushes at least once every 3-4 days. On average, you need to take water up to 4 liters. You can check the need for watering by probing the soil to a depth of 10 cm. If it is wet, you can postpone watering for a day.

What week do plants stop stretching in flower? ›

Most varieties that display this characteristic will finish stretching by the third or fourth week of 12/12 photoperiod and start to fill out the bud sites, while some strains can continue stretching for a considerably longer time.

A yellow leaf has lost its chlorophyll (pigment) and it can't turn green again even after you correct the problem. Don't worry, if the plant regains its health, it's possible that new leaves will fill in during the next growing season.

The yellowing of plant leaves is simply due to a nitrogen (N) shortage which is a perfectly natural phenomenon as the plants nears the end of its life cycle. You are in the eighth week of flower, so you are likely close to harvest time depending on your strain.

In the last two weeks, the buds will mainly mature and grow no more in size. The white trichomes (small resin-secreting stalks/hairs) on the buds will now slowly turn brown.

Defoliating before harvest allows the plant to heal those openings before the plants are cut down and prepared for freezing. It is a simple step to take that will keep trichomes intact and significantly reduce the amount of chlorophyll in your hash!

Cannabis plants, like any other plants, also need a lot more light during the vegetative growth stage, so defoliation is an essential process anyway.

Week 7: The calyxes in the seven-week varieties swell to near bursting as THC is produced in the glands. At the end of the week they will be ready. The trichomes stand more erect and the caps swell with newly produced resin. At the end of the week the flowers reach the peak zone.

Week 4. At week 4 of the flowering stage, your cannabis plants will likely have stopped growing altogether and are now spending all their energy on growing buds. There will still be white hairs sticking out from the buds, but the buds themselves will become bigger and fatter with each day.

At the end of flowering, there may still be plenty of nutrients left in the growing medium and leaves. To prevent harsh tastes and unsavoury chemicals making their way into your stash, you can simply stop feeding any nutrients in the last 1.5–2 weeks of flowering.

Usually, growers trim the fan leaves weeks before harvest, which is a period that leads to senescence, a phase in the plant cycle when the larger leaves start fading away. It is safe to start removing these dying leaves and continue until harvest.

What happens week 6 of flower? ›

The biggest changes that you will witness in the sixth week of flowering is the amount of weight that has been added to the buds. Your buds in Week 6 will be noticeably bigger than they were in Week 5. At this point, these plants are deep into flower, and are really maturing day by day.

Dry-trimmed cannabis provides a smoother, more pleasant smoke. The longer the buds take to dry, the more chlorophyll they lose, and less chlorophyll means better flavor. You can take your time when you go the route of dry trimming, making for a less stressful trimming experience.

Use the following as guidelines for flushing plants prior to harvest: If you're growing in soil, begin flushing between one and two weeks before harvest. If you're growing in coco, flush your plants for up to one week prior to harvest. If you're growing in hydro, your plants only need to be flushed for one to two days.

However, defoliating too early can decrease yields and result in immature fibers, all of which contribute to reduced profits (Bednarz et al., 2002).