Defoliating a vegging plant.

[Marcus]

I'm baffled as to why folks take leaves off plants at any stage unless they want the plant a specific trained shape.

My reason for removing the 1/3 of the plant after stretch is over is that reduces the humidity big time for my growing space. Also at this stage I add support to the plants and usually don't take them out of the tent no more. And if i don't strip the lower growth it starts dying and some areas are hard to reach, which leaves rotting leaves and eventually might lead to bud rot and I don't really want that

Good reasoning Bulls.

I'd be interested to see or do a side by side on humidity and plant (leaf) mass. My RH is in the low 40% high 30% and I don't take anything off.

I also find used up leaves from downstairs don't rot, they go dry and fall off. I was under the impression that Botrytis likes wet living plant matter to break down and grow. Whenever I do the crawl of backbreaking pain to water the buggers, everything that's come off is always crispy.

I've only ever had rot once and that was when I ran a flood and drain, the plants were netted in a scrog and I lollipopped them.

I'd be interested in running hepa filtered air if rot became a problem in the new grow space. (that's a topic for another day)