Can you prune TOO MUCH?

[Intense]

Sorry, I missed that you were just wanting to prune the fan leaves. I thought you actually meant you want to prune the plants themselves (tipping/topping). If the leaves are already burnt, you might as well remove them.

 

[Cannasoir]

Sorry, I missed that you were just wanting to prune the fan leaves. I thought you actually meant you want to prune the plants themselves (tipping/topping). If the leaves are already burnt, you might as well remove them.

oh ok, haha I was kind of worried I had messed up.

 

[mrfixit]

Something I discovered the hard way and never really considered; I overdid some fan leaf trimming late in flower (to improve lower SCRoG and inter-node light penetration), what I didn't consider was this also affected the plants overall ability to absorb light versus overloading/burning!
Nothing changed other than an overdone trim and within 3-5 days I ended up with the picture below. The good news is that the actual buds are gorgeous but I'll have to do some serious manicuring after harvest and the sugar leaves will be used for extraction only!!

 

[5x5]

Old thread, I know, but I was searching for other, similar problems and didn't find any straight answers on the web, so I figured I would add my recent experience in here...
Can you prune too much off of a plant?
YES.
I pruned too much off a plant and it died!
The story:
I cut off the top 4 inches from the tops and any tall branches on almost all of the plants on my table recently (for cloning; and yes, I know the tops are not ideal for cloning but I had other, height control issues, so trying to kill two birds with one stone, and it doesn't matter at this point how long the clones take to root). Most of the plants did fine, but two of them got shocked really badly. One is most likely going to die, and the other, well, I'll be lucky if it survives. The point being, take the advice here (and everywhere else): only prune a little bit at a time. The two that look like they're going to die were both cut back pretty far down the main stem (approximately 1/3 of the total height of the plant).
Anyway, the point is, if you are going to prune, especially from the main stalk, I'd recommend pruning just the very top node (the newest growth), or at most 1/4 of the total height or less if you don't want to lose any plants in the process. You probably won't kill the plant, but you do run the risk of doing so (in my experience it's a roughly 1 in 30 chance). Not a big deal if you have many plants on the table (thankfully that's the case with me), but a disaster if you are only growing 3 plants! If you do need to control the height, best to just take a little (2-3 inches max) from the top node off and let it heal before cutting more.
I was taking the other normal precautions: I was using a razor-sharp SCALPEL that was sterilized between each cutting, so it wasn't a matter of not creating a clean cut or infection in the wound causing the plant to die: I believe it was directly related to the fact that I simply cut too much material from the plant at one time (I also think that the fact that the cuts were from the main stem are a major contributing factor), and the plant went into shock and will now likely die. I have a few leaves that still look good on both, and they may pull through, but I doubt they'll produce nearly as much as they would have (if anything at all at this point) if they hadn't been over-pruned.
I've done a LOT of pruning in my time, and never seen this happen before, so I figured I would add this as a warning to other, less experienced growers.

 

[3N1GM4]

Leave at least three nodes when topping.

 

[hawkman]

many grower take (defoliate) fan leaves at week four of flower - sugar leaves are doing their think at this part of growth

 

[3N1GM4]

I was told that some strains need a certain amount of fan leaves per bud to survive. Can you prune all fan leaves from any strain at week 4? @hawkman

 

[hawkman]

I was told that some strains need a certain amount of fan leaves per bud to survive. Can you prune all fan leaves from any strain at week 4? @hawkman

Each strain has it's own genetic's , your right

 

[noone88]

I've been debating this in my head for a while. aka_texaskid does a lot of pruning, but it really depends on the strain and grower skill.

I look at all the extra fan leaves as an insurance policy for my plant. If a plant develops an illness or is stressed, those fan leaves become the source of nutrients for the plant. It will keep the plant alive until harvest.

However, I do heavily prune the bottom 1/3 of the plant.

 

[kbellfoy]

I haven't lollipoped my plants. I flipped em 10 days ago but they have not flowered yet. In fact most haven't shown sex yet. Can I still lollipop them now?

 

[3N1GM4]

People here recommend doing all supercropping/pruning before starting flowering because it can stunt the growth of or herm the plant. For extreme situations you can supercrop/prune up to the second week of flower. I supercropped mine in second week of flower and they are doing fine. I had to lollypop one well into the third week of flower because it hermed on the bottom branches and it shocked the plant. It is just now into week five and just starting to recover.

 

[sweetolmaryjane]

what do you mean when you say lollipop

 

[hawkman]

what do you mean when you say lollipop

It's a type/method of growing You have LST, Supercropping, Sea of Green, SCROG are growing methods

 

[3N1GM4]

You trim off all the bottom growth leaving just the stalks and the main colas, a better analogy might be "corndogging" wait, thats not better lol, how bout popsickling...

 

[hawkman]

You trim off all the bottom growth leaving just the stalks and the main colas, a better analogy might be "corndogging" wait, thats not better lol, how bout popsickling...

Yea I know there are names for everything one does to a plant - what a bout just plain growing ? !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kbellfoy]

People here recommend doing all supercropping/pruning before starting flowering because it can stunt the growth of or herm the plant. For extreme situations you can supercrop/prune up to the second week of flower. I supercropped mine in second week of flower and they are doing fine. I had to lollypop one well into the third week of flower because it hermed on the bottom branches and it shocked the plant. It is just now into week five and just starting to recover.

Thanks for that info. Much appreciated. I flipped em but no flowers yet. Not even any pre flowers on some yet.

 

[hawkman]

Thanks for that info. Much appreciated. I flipped em but no flowers yet. Not even any pre flowers on some yet.

it takes 5-7 days to start seeing bud development (that time is called pre-flower stage) It will happen just takes time - one of cultivators biggest thing to over come is dealing with TIME /Patience !!!!!! One you bud development happens you are in the early stages of flower (early, middle and late stages of flower require specific NPK amounts)

 

[kbellfoy]

it takes 5-7 days to start seeing bud development (that time is called pre-flower stage) It will happen just takes time - one of cultivators biggest thing to over come is dealing with TIME /Patience !!!!!! One you bud development happens you are in the early stages of flower (early, middle and late stages of flower require specific NPK amounts)

Ye my last run flowered immediately. Mind you they had pre flowers at 28 days old and were ready. I have heard it could take up to 2 weeks to see flowers. It's just this one strain I'm worried about. They are real crappy and have some kind of virus. Wish I'd never bought the damn seeds. I'm growing 6 strains this time. The bad ones just keep stretching and stretching. The other strains all have pre flowers now but seen as they are fem I already know there sex lol. I'm trying to find that one special strain.....

 

[hawkman]

Ye my last run flowered immediately. Mind you they had pre flowers at 28 days old and were ready. I have heard it could take up to 2 weeks to see flowers. It's just this one strain I'm worried about. They are real crappy and have some kind of virus. Wish I'd never bought the damn seeds. I'm growing 6 strains this time. The bad ones just keep stretching and stretching. The other strains all have pre flowers now but seen as they are fem I already know there sex lol. I'm trying to find that one special strain.....

You will find that one plant out of the amount of one grows usually doesn't do as "good" as the others - that's why one needs to plant more than one plant at a time. Ever think of growing an auto a long with your regular plants - this way you can have a a harvest 1/2 way thru your 4 mo grow? Just a thought.

 

[kbellfoy]

You will find that one plant out of the amount of one grows usually doesn't do as "good" as the others - that's why one needs to plant more than one plant at a time. Ever think of growing an auto a long with your regular plants - this way you can have a a harvest 1/2 way thru your 4 mo grow? Just a thought.

I stay away from autos. Iv heard they can be hard to grow correctly. I only have 2 small tents. Max number of plants I can flower at once is 10. And that's pushing it. I'm building a large box with cfl lights so I can be vegging my next batch ready to go on to flower as soon as this lot are done. I can keep my tents busy with flowering instead of wasting time vegging in them too.
My main crop so to speak is a strain iv never done before and it's the pits. Luckily I have 5 other strains I'm growing just because they are my fave smoke or I haven't tried them and want too (chem dawg)
Lesson learned...don't put all my grow hopes in an unknown company and strain. I honestly feel like just throwing them out.
Can I just apologise to the OP for hijacking the thread.