Harvesting every leaf off of psychotria viridis deterimental to plant health or not?

[Meditator]

So i dont know how the shamans in south america go about harvesting psychotria viridis, but im wondering if it would be safe for me to harvest all of the leaves off of my 3 psychotria nexus plants. I dont want to hurt the plants obviously.

 

Has anyone harvested all the leaves off their plant(s) before? If so was the plant ok.

 

Im fairly new to growing plants and dont know all that much about it.

Edited June 8, 2016 by Meditator
Typo

[Zedo]

Not that I have experience specifically with viridis, I'd say prune it back back keep some leaves. Maybe just take the older leaves.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

I'd like to know this also.. Mines leggy after flowering and was wondering how they fair if I gave it a trim.. I wasn't gonna go all the way like you tho man, taking every leaf will surely harm the plant.. But what about 1 or 2/3s of the bush?

[Conv3rgence]

I would also like to know this, for both P.Viridis and S.Divinorum. Is a winter prune possible on either or is it best to wait until Spring?

[El Presidente Hillbillios]

mine lost every leaf one winter, it came back in spring but was heap slower than it regularly does

[Meditator]

Well i chopped two different strains of brugmansia off down at the root and they grew back.

 

i dont think this will harm them. If they die or something i guess ill only have myself to blame haha.

 

 

i will post back in this thread in like a year or so and update on what happened:)

[inwould]

12 hours ago, Conv3rgence said:

I would also like to know this, for both P.Viridis and S.Divinorum. Is a winter prune possible on either or is it best to wait until Spring?

 

The Salvia Divinorum Growers Guide mentions pruning heavily for overwintering.

 

Quote

Another winter option is to force your plants into dormancy by cutting them back and moving them to a fairly

will-lit but cool shelter----no colder than 4º C (40º F). With little or no leaves on them, the plants require water-

ing only about once every six weeks (no misting is required) and can withstand at least four months of such

conditions without harm (Beifuss 1998). This is a good technique for those who wish a vacation from tending their plants year-round.

 

[Horus]

I will report back in 6 mths, as I have recently done every option mentioned to answer this for myself.

3 plants of similar size and age.

1 leaves left on

1 leaves stripped and trimmed

1 pruned back hard but with leaves remaining left.

All P.Viridus including Nexus struggle thru winter in my location.

So I am interested if any of these options improves their spring vigor.

 

[kadakuda]

short answer, ok.  but has a risk.

 

long answer:  ok first to compare to salvia, it cant be compared.  salvia has s very succlent stem and even old growth structure is very different than a very woody hard stem like pschortira.  so cutting right down the regrowth habit will be different. with only a small bit of experience and very harch fungal tropical environment here i will refrain from commenting on salvia other than it can be very bad....

 

brugmansia grow in a very different environment usually than psychotria.  they are also spread quite commonly naturally via stem breakage and rooting, this is why in many areas of distribution brugmansia species will grow in valleys/rivers etc.  they will grow well in streams, break and root and carry on.  In my country they are naturalized but cannot reproduce.  meaning all plants her ein the wild are started via animal and they proliferate via cuttings.  here we have typhoons and crazy ass storms and they break naturally go down stream, rot and grow.  i know places kilometers long where they cover the river valleys.  but not one seed is ever produced.  anyway, this kind of plant is easily rooted, even the bare stem in sun has pre-spooge on the stem they can rot from.  psychotria can as well but not so readily or fast, so it takes more time.

 

So if you are worried about losing a plant, dont.  the plants will normally stand for total defoliation bt i like to play safe, leave a few leaves.  your purpose will also differ as to methodology.  if you want to cut down to get compact growth or yo just want to harvest?  we have regularly  harvested everything but the tips without harm.  thast for harvests.  if yo want compact growth you could cut down but i dont see why?   if you hack away all the foliage (thus getting a harvest) and leave the upper most pair of leaves the stems will sprout new stems and yo will still get super lush compact growth so its win win as i see it.  granted with new stems the first pair or few of leaves will be smaller in size but htey get large after #2-4 node. plus small leaf size is often due to not enough shade/too much light.

 

in the end, if harvest is the goal, 1 good leaf is something like 0.1 gram...are you going to suffer leaving a couple leaves on to ensure the plant is happy and transporting water/nutrients and eating light?  I get in the beginning we all get over excited, but the weight gain witha  few leaves vs. the plants recovery time isnt worth it IMO.