Marijuana defoliation is a process that removes the leaves from marijuana plants. Also known as lollipopping, marijuana defoliation is used as a process to improve the indoor yielding capability of marijuana plants.
For this post, let’s talk about the benefits and methods to achieve heavy defoliation during flowering, to provide you more information about the proper way to do this tricky process.
Although defoliation is an effective yield-increasing process for marijuana plants, it somehow created a divisive opinion between indoor growers. According to those who oppose this kind of practice, it is not entirely beneficial for yielding the ability of the marijuana plants in all possible ways.
Is defoliation effective for higher yields?
However, there are pieces of evidence that proved defoliation can work indeed through carefully following a certain process of it. This means that you have to strategically pluck the leaves and alter the natural process of your marijuana plant to achieve bigger yields.
Defoliation, however, is not for every indoor grower; you need to be experienced in growing marijuana so that you are familiar with your plants’ overall condition. Defoliation is very effective in a particular growing environment and situation.
Defoliation done the wrong way will surely affect your plant’s yielding ability. One common mistake is applying this method for outdoor growing which does not improve the yield for the outdoor plants. Defoliation is only effective for indoor growing and it must be done the proper way to achieve positive results.
Defoliation is an effective way to increase yield. Here’s why.
Not everyone in the marijuana-growing industry is familiar with heavy defoliation during flowering since it’s not popularly practiced by many. It may be counterintuitive for some, but some of the notable marijuana cultivators utilize this particular technique to achieve a higher yield while improving their plant’s efficiency and health.
This practice simply involves pruning and the removal of leaves from your marijuana plants. Contrary to what everyone thinks, defoliation is not harmful to your plants. Although you pluck and prune your plants’ leaves, it may damage the plant minimally, but this forces the plant to thrive and increases its ability to survive in its stressful situation. Through defoliation, you encourage your plant to grow healthier as it tries to survive the process. It will absorb more nutrients and light, thus it improves its yield.
Why defoliation only works for indoor growing?
Indoor marijuana growing lets you set a controlled growing environment for your plants. You can easily control the most crucial growth factors of your plants. You have control of the light, humidity, temperature, water, and other important factors that affect the overall growth and yield of your marijuana plant. With that in mind, defoliation is only suitable for indoor growing.
To give you an overview of why heavy defoliation during flowering only works for indoor growing, check out our detailed list below:
Space
Indoor growing always has a specific space that controls many factors of the marijuana plant’s overall condition. Space is premium for those who grow their marijuana plants indoors. For outdoor growing, your plants can grow as much as it can; however, indoor growing needs the right amount of space to prevent overcrowding. With that being said, defoliation is recommended for indoor growing to save up space by controlling the growth of your plants.
Light
Outdoor growing provides your marijuana plants the entire day. Your marijuana plants enjoy sunlight regardless of where they are placed even in shaded areas while plants are grown indoors; it only absorbs artificial ultraviolet rays from the top down. The result of the artificial light supplied to marijuana plants grown indoors usually benefits the top portion of the plant while its bottom portion only benefits minimal absorption. This means that the leaves on the bottom portion of your marijuana plants have unequal energy absorption and it forces you to draw the energy from the top portion of your plant. With the indoor growing amount of lighting, defoliating your marijuana plants’ bottom portion to promote smooth energy absorption.
Ventilation
Your marijuana plant also breathes air by absorbing carbon dioxide and expelling oxygen that promotes moisture in the environment. Indoor growing is highly-required to provide good ventilation or airflow to help the plants breathe easily and maintain their good health. Aside from that, bad ventilation and airflow are the root cause of bacteria, parasites, mildew, and molds to grow which will damage your plants and ultimately wither it. Defoliation is very effective for indoor growing because it creates more space by pruning the excess leaves to promote better airflow around the growing environment.
What type of marijuana plants is perfect for defoliation?
There are more reasons why not all growers are suitable for defoliation since not all marijuana plants can survive and thrive in this kind of process. Defoliation is not the solution to revive an ailing marijuana plant, but it only works for healthy and sturdy plants. Since healthy marijuana plants have abundant leaves that can easily manage the stress it undergoes through the process of defoliation, but, sick plants, meanwhile will just hasten up its demise.
What are the traits of a good marijuana plant for defoliation?
Leaves abundance
Your plants must be strong and completely healthy before you can consider it a good candidate for defoliation. One of the best signs it is healthy is the abundance of leaves that can be overlapping from each other or it’s already touching each other.
Durable strain
Delicate strains will not survive defoliation that is why you have to check the background of the strain you’re planning to defoliate. You must always choose a durable strain that can withstand the stress defoliation will do to it.
Great foliage
There are marijuana plants that can simply grow leaves excessively. You can simply identify these plants if its leaves are already blocking the room’s light and already disrupt the airflow of your growing environment. If you have this kind of marijuana plant, you have to set it aside for defoliation to increase its yield and improve its overall condition.
Final Thoughts
Heavy defoliation during flowering holds a lot of potentials especially if you know how to properly do it. Before you decide to defoliate your marijuana plants to increase its yield, be sure to follow the techniques we provided to achieve success.
