This is a list of tips and tricks on pruning and defoliating your plants and I know this topic is highly subjective, so I want to let you know that this is what I do personally based on generations of experience with plants. I’m not excessive with defoliating, but I do it, so here’s my advice:

  1. Best time to do it is 2 days before flipping/switching and when plants are hungry.
  2. Focus on the bottom half, this is where the most shade is and where the most waste of energy is wasted on dying leaves.
  3. Less is always better, don’t just pull leaves off just to pull them, remember, “You cant undo too much”
  4. Use common sense, if the leaf looks like it’s dying, then its wasting nutrients. If it looks yellowish and it looks like its not getting light, CHOP CHOP
  5. If a stem does not extend past half the height of the plant, I cut the stem off completely.
  6. This is a perfect time to use cut stems as clones
  7. I usually cut off any lower leaves that are facing into the plant instead of out.
  8. If fan leaves are covering any cola’s, chop em, even if its up top.
  9. Never regret pulling off leaves that fall off easily, these are usually the best to pull.
  10. Feed the plant right after defoliating.

You could just use your hands, but if you want to get clean cut clones, use shears. Link to my pruning shears:

That’s all the advice I could give you. Leave a comment if you agree, disagree or have another tip.

Comments

  1. Thank you

  2. Just so I’m understanding correctly, you don’t perform ANY defoliation until you swap from veg to flower? Do you perform any type of pruning or cleaning of the stems during flower? I normally to get any nodes that are really low and close to the stem, to avoid larf and popcorn buds.

    Do you have any tutorials on plant training? I know in the past I’ve trained my plants to look like gangly and spider like, and it was a pain trying to get full light coverage for all my main colas.

    1. Yes, light pruning and defoliation is done anytime I think its overgrown. WATCH THIS EPISODE for a good description. I would prefer to trellis most times and its pretty self explanatory, . Problem is, you cant dunk and theyre pretty much anchored in after you put that up so you cant take pics or take the plants out of the tent.

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