Trimming Leaves At End Of Flower

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StonedBlue

StonedBlue

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After chopping some plants I removed most high fan leaves and plants I didnt I came to following conclusions. Not much difference. Removing csn leaves resulted in bigger buds in secondary canopy and smaller buds in top canopy. Since the top ones are better, I will not do this again. Instead I will harvest top canopy first, allowing secondary canopy to further develop before harvest. Since I only grow for personal, this is easy. Large grow would make that difficult.
 
Inbudwetrust

Inbudwetrust

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I am a defolinator , been doing it for 10+ years . As long as you supplement your nutes with additional carbs your good to go. I literally remove 95% in week 3/4 depending on strain . Then again in week 6 but not as drastically . It’s all about supplementing what the fan leaves are providing the plant . I do add more than just carbs but I don’t want to hijack the thread with my nute nerdness.
 
Inbudwetrust

Inbudwetrust

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Short Story:
When I was in college one of my bio professor smoke with me on breaks, and after coaxing him with some free smoke he sat me down and explained some things. One of those is that the "fan" leaves contain energy stored by the plant because later in the cycle it not be able to keep up with the growth and acts like a battery, storing the energy for later. So i just let the leaves do their natural thing. :)

Yes the energy is basically carbs .
 
shaganja

shaganja

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I am a defolinator , been doing it for 10+ years . As long as you supplement your nutes with additional carbs your good to go. I literally remove 95% in week 3/4 depending on strain . Then again in week 6 but not as drastically . It’s all about supplementing what the fan leaves are providing the plant . I do add more than just carbs but I don’t want to hijack the thread with my nute nerdness.
im kinda interested in what nutes you use to suppliment this? i think messed up a little. week 3 of iranain x phone home (bodhi). i was totally blazed and saw all these huge fan leaves (outdoor) blocking so much! bigger than my hand size! so i just pulled all the big fans.....so stupid. some say not i guess. should i expect shock? how do i make up for this loss?
 
Jimster

Jimster

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Short Story:
When I was in college one of my bio professor smoke with me on breaks, and after coaxing him with some free smoke he sat me down and explained some things. One of those is that the "fan" leaves contain energy stored by the plant because later in the cycle it not be able to keep up with the growth and acts like a battery, storing the energy for later. So i just let the leaves do their natural thing. :)
One of the more truthful statements made on this thread! Plants don't think. They don't know they are going to die and react differently. Selective defoliatipn can increase your yield considerably, by allowing extra light to het deeper into the plant, growing during veg stage. The fan leaves are the main energy producers for the plant, and they store some of that energy and nutrients. When flowering, the plants use this extra energy along with the energy made locally by the smaller leaves. If the bud sites don't get direct light, they don't grow much. The more light, the better and faster or larger the buds grow. As the plants grow the seeds, hopefully to them, it uses all of this energy to create seeds, which takes a ton of energy.
Plants live to make seeds, that is ALL they do. We exploit this purpose and use it to fool the plant to keep trying to accomplish that. It isn't really a conscious decision by the plant to increase bud production.
 
Beachwalker

Beachwalker

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I could never bother pulling all those leaves off, it's enough of a chore sweeping up every day as it is, forget about it. Near the end I'll cut whatever is directly blocking bud underneath it & recently I've started stripping the bottom 6- 8 in. of my plant after I'm sure I don't want any more cuttings from it in week two or three of flower and that's it for me but if y'all want to strip and poke and prod your plants that's cool too, cuz it's good to have some fun while growing this herb, Good luck!
 
B

budman65

1
1
I never do. Leaves are like lil solar panels for your plant. I doubt it would hurt anything though...noticeably.
i found or so it seems i have put the plant almost back in veg leaves are growing like crazy and buds have stopped i hope it goes back to flower
 
V

Vandy12

7
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Trim all large fan leaves beginning of week 6. When this is done it transfers all the energy that would go to those leaves to the buds.View attachment 649657 View attachment 649658 View attachment 649659This is the beginning of week 7 today. Buds have gained approximately 15% more growth in one week from removing the large leaves.
Diesel Makes perfect sense to me but I ask you this. Many people during lollipopping say only two trims. One before starting flower and one about three weeks into flower. They say if you trim later during flower it will deprive the plant of nutrients it would have gotten for growth from those extra leaves. I am highly experienced now in my seventh grow (HA!!). I am trying to figure out proper way to trim and keep the plant healthy and get most of the nutrients to the buds. Time after time I've read don't trim much during flower. It takes too much of the plants energy to heal. Now you say it is OK late in the flowering phase. I didn't even know about trimming like this until I was almost six weeks into flowering. So I harvest in two, maybe three weeks. So way late, according to the lollipoppers, I started trimming off fan leaves. I trimmed off some and then waited for three days and then trimmed some more until I got my huge bushes whittled down so they could get more light, more air, and also was hoping to get more of the nutrients going to buds. So are you loosing good nutrients the plant will use for healing instead of budding if you trim late in flower? So far I've trimmed total of three times over nine days starting at sixth week and the plants look perfectly fine. Three different kinds of plants.
 
V

Vandy12

7
3
Thanks, it's takin me a long time to get to this point plenty of failures along the way. 24 plants in there 12 in 20gallons and 12 in 3 gallons. I've got a post on this grow "bigs and smalls"View attachment 649722
I'm growing six plants the most I've ever grown at one time. It is grow number seven and each grow I learned something making each successive grow better and better. My plants this time are fantastic. Biggest and best I've ever had. People don't realize how hard it is to do everything just right. You know what though. Even though my first couple tries were terrible I still had some fun with them!! Now I'm growing stuff that is three hits and you are having a wonderful, wonderful time. Smooth and very nice tasting. I have no complaints. It is just as good as anything I bought when I was visiting Oregon. Like you, I've come a long way. Soil, light, curing, trimming, feeding. Whew. I love growing these plants though. Fun to watch them during all the different phases. After you look at them a lot during growth you learn some things about what they are suppose to look like at each phase. Catch problems early. When I first started I had about every plant problem you can imagine...all the illnesses. Now, this current grow, nice, healthy green leaves the whole time and the buds are looking very good. Someone told me to add silica and I needed it in a bad way. My plants at end of grow kept bending over with the bud weight. This time..they are all standing proud and tall for the very first time. Pretty exciting.
 
1diesel1

1diesel1

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Diesel Makes perfect sense to me but I ask you this. Many people during lollipopping say only two trims. One before starting flower and one about three weeks into flower. They say if you trim later during flower it will deprive the plant of nutrients it would have gotten for growth from those extra leaves. I am highly experienced now in my seventh grow (HA!!). I am trying to figure out proper way to trim and keep the plant healthy and get most of the nutrients to the buds. Time after time I've read don't trim much during flower. It takes too much of the plants energy to heal. Now you say it is OK late in the flowering phase. I didn't even know about trimming like this until I was almost six weeks into flowering. So I harvest in two, maybe three weeks. So way late, according to the lollipoppers, I started trimming off fan leaves. I trimmed off some and then waited for three days and then trimmed some more until I got my huge bushes whittled down so they could get more light, more air, and also was hoping to get more of the nutrients going to buds. So are you loosing good nutrients the plant will use for healing instead of budding if you trim late in flower? So far I've trimmed total of three times over nine days starting at sixth week and the plants look perfectly fine. Three different kinds of plants.
Takes less energy to heal a leaf that you remove than it does to feed that leaf.
Make sense?
I let my plants over grow to a point. Trim up a bit before flip. At week 2 of flower I’ll trim out all the lower branches and leaves that won’t get quality light. At week 6.5-7 I’ll trim out the larger fan leaves to a point depending on strain and growth.
Pick below is at overgrown before trim and flip. Plants average 4.5-5.5 feet.
DA492D0A EFAB 4D05 ACE3 C6037CC08C0F
 
1diesel1

1diesel1

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I'm growing my biggest harvest ever right now and it is grow number seven and each grow I learned something making each successive grow better and better. My plants this time are fantastic. Biggest and best I've ever had. People don't realize how hard it is to do everything just right. You know what though. Even though my first couple tries were terrible I still had some fun with them!! Now I'm growing stuff that is three hits and you are having a wonderful, wonderful time. Smooth and very nice tasting. I have no complaints. It is just as good as anything I bought when I was visiting Oregon. Like you, I've come a long way. Soil, light, curing, trimming, feeding. Whew. I love growing these plants though. Fun to watch them during all the different phases. After you look at them a lot during growth you learn some things about what they are suppose to look like at each phase. Catch problems early. When I first started I had about every plant problem you can imagine...all the illnesses. Now, this current grow, nice, healthy green leaves the whole time and the buds are looking very good. Someone told me to add silica and I needed it in a bad way. My plants at end of grow kept bending over with the bud weight. This time..they are all standing proud and tall for the very first time. Pretty exciting.
Rite on bro
 
V

Vandy12

7
3
Takes less energy to heal a leaf that you remove than it does to feed that leaf.
Make sense?
I let my plants over grow to a point. Trim up a bit before flip. At week 2 of flower I’ll trim out all the lower branches and leaves that won’t get quality light. At week 6.5-7 I’ll trim out the larger fan leaves to a point depending on strain and growth.
Pick below is at overgrown before trim and flip. Plants average 4.5-5.5 feet.View attachment 935974
Diesel: My question is if you are trimming off leaves will the plant feel like it has to mend itself and will that mending take away from nutrients getting to buds during critical flowering at the end of the flower cycle. Do you think the trauma of cutting off the leaves will affect the potency of the final product? I guess not since you do it. I wanted to see what you thought about this because so many say NO TRIMMING in flower!!
 
1diesel1

1diesel1

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Diesel: My question is if you are trimming off leaves will the plant feel like it has to mend itself and will that mending take away from nutrients getting to buds during critical flowering at the end of the flower cycle. Do you think the trauma of cutting off the leaves will affect the potency of the final product? I guess not since you do it. I wanted to see what you thought about this because so many say NO TRIMMING in flower!!
I do it and have no issues whatsoever on my end medicine. You have to realize at week 7 trimming fan leaves your plant is so close to being finished it makes no difference to leave the fan leaves. I take off 60-70% at that point depending on strain.
 
V

Vandy12

7
3
I do it and have no issues whatsoever on my end medicine. You have to realize at week 7 trimming fan leaves your plant is so close to being finished it makes no difference to leave the fan leaves. I take off 60-70% at that point depending on strain.
Exactly what I am doing right now. My one last question. You know how people post those beautiful pics of buds only at the very end of grow? They trim off all the leaves or 90% very close to harvest like a couple days. For the cool lollipop photo op. So how many days out from harvest do you think you could do this, and, if you do do it do you think this lack of leaves would REALLY bulk up the bud growth the last few days...week?
 
1diesel1

1diesel1

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Exactly what I am doing right now. My one last question. You know how people post those beautiful pics of buds only at the very end of grow? They trim off all the leaves or 90% very close to harvest like a couple days. For the cool lollipop photo op. So how many days out from harvest do you think you could do this, and, if you do do it do you think this lack of leaves would REALLY bulk up the bud growth the last few days...week?
Bud growth is done around week 6-7 depending on strain. Week 7-8 they are ripening very little to no growth happens. That should answer your question on photos. Personally I do not trim any leaves from buds. Plant hangs till I can snap branches then I remove all buds typically at 14-18 days of hanging. Buds are removed to tubs and trimmed when I feel there at the point no chlorophyll is available.
 
V

Vandy12

7
3
The last couple of runs I've been trimming off all fan leaves about the time I go into final flush. I figure why waste energy growing them at this point plus lots of flowers suddenly get much more light for their finish.
Do you do this? Comments good or bad?

What is your final flush routine? I think last time I flushed twice the last week. No water for three days then harvest.
 
V

Vandy12

7
3
After chopping some plants I removed most high fan leaves and plants I didnt I came to following conclusions. Not much difference. Removing csn leaves resulted in bigger buds in secondary canopy and smaller buds in top canopy. Since the top ones are better, I will not do this again. Instead I will harvest top canopy first, allowing secondary canopy to further develop before harvest. Since I only grow for personal, this is easy. Large grow would make that difficult.

What is csn? Canopy leaves? I just know fans and sugar. So I guess you should trim less on the canopy next time? You could almost turn trimming these plants into an art form. Like shaping a sculpture. I'll bet with just a little practice you could really get good at it. I really have an experiment going this grow. I've also been looking at shaping a plant at the beginning of grow to scrog it just by bending without all the string and wire.
 
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