Those plants look great….keep doing what you’ve been doing and resist the urge to micromanage your grow.
Defoliating should be done lightly and strategically. First the lower 1/3 of the plant usually doesn’t produce much as a percentage of the overall yield. Taking those leaves and entire sites can open up your plants to better airflow and allow it to use all its energy to grow those big fat tops.
Also any large fan leaves that are blocking mid section bud sites can be removed. But don’t do everything at once….it will stress the plant and slow things down. Just a few here and there is fine.
Trust me, I made the mistake of aggressively defoliating my plants when they were about 2-3 weeks from being finished. It stressed them, many of the remaining leaves died and it made a 3 week finish last twice as long.
Any dead or severely yellowing leaves need to go….they are a breeding ground for pathogens and insects.
Good luck and remember you don’t always have to be doing something to your plants. Not every leaf will be perfect and small issues will arise. But that’s part of the grow.
One last word….I see 9 out of 10 grows end anywhere from 1-4 weeks too early. Let your buds get ripe….meaning NO white pistils left. You’ll be amazed at how much density and heft they put on in the very last 2-3 weeks. I see many grows that never get to that point because the grower is looking at nothing but trichomes……they see some cloudy ones and think the buds are ready. The buds have had cloudy trichs for the last 3 weeks during my current grow……but the buds weren’t ripe. Now that they are ripe the amber trichs will start to pop up and my pref is about 25% amber. I could harvest now with only 5% amber and it would be fine because the buds are ripe. But that’s where you have some leeway with how heavy you want the effect to be. More ambers equals a heavier and more stoned high.
Didn’t mean to ramble….good luck.
2 Likes
Also, I don’t wanna open a can of worms and have a full on debate….but I prefer to feed my buds until they are ripe. I titrate down the amounts but never ever stop feeding weeks before they have gotten ripe and had their final swell. I’m just a few days from chopping the plant in the pic, and I included a pic of it from Jan 14. Many growers would have chopped it then and there.
You’ve got a ways to go….keep feeding and you’ll be one happy grower in another 5-6 weeks.
1 Like
