You might say, I'm a dreamer but I am convinced that the
hardore-defoliation-approach did something positive -apart from the momentary stress that it caused.
As I said already, from a scientific point of view, it would make sense to have an empiric comparison because without comparison I can't tell with certainty whether the results that I have noticed are really due to my approach. Nevertheless, I feel quite sure of this and it makes sense to me that all those small new branches
would not have arisen otherwise.
I can reckon that it doesn't meant that the more branches a plant has the better the yield will be or that all those branches will ultimately bring good results. In fact, there are experienced growers who swear by the fact that pruning your plants thus removing small branches will make sure to bring more energy to the bigger branches and achieve better results. Along the way, I will see/recognise/learn what branches might as well be removed but I think that I will not remove any in this grow.
I'll be focusing on those branches which though indeed still small nevertheless seem promising, apart on the bigger ones of course!
Anyway, my plan is not to - as some might think - defoliate the plants like a crazy
just for shits and giggles, without even having a plan/purpose or reasoning.
Let's sum up what I have done so far:
- After circa 10 days of the vegetation stage,I carried out a light defoliation first, slowly focusing on the first coming branches.
- After that, I have carried out two drastic defoliation-sessionswith one week recovering time in between.
- Afterwards I started with the LST.
There is still much to do with the LST but I think that this is really a good start. All the branches are exposed and pointed towards the light source.
From this point, the next step is to focus on all the existing branches and supporting them. This means that the intensity of the defoliation is going to drop.
From now on,
I am not aiming at new branches. Now it is time to make them all - more or less - grow and become stronger.
Thanks to the LST and the exposition of the branches, there will be no need any longer to remove more fan leaves than needed. I will stick to my plan adopting both the defoliation and LST but I consider this now to be
the next stage of the plan, whose aim
is not exposing as much of the plant as possible thus encouraging/supporting the grow of new branches
but to focus on the existing branches and make them grow. Only fan leaves that -
in my personal opinion - cause hindrance will be removed.
As I said: I am stickig to my plan but always observing how the plants react. They will show me on the way what should be done next. I will adapt but stick to my plan.