Defoliate or keep. That is the question. Veg…

[Crucialfarmer]

Hey, and good evening

Opinions welcomed, leave or remove BIG fan leaves when defoliating in veg? Solar panels for growth but no other value and block airflow? That’s my thoughts and dilemma.

Something has to go, too much like the Amazon in there, so what to defoliate.

Second indoor grow. See big leaves at the bottom of the pic. Trim them and other lower growth as needed until flower.

24 Blimburn Blackberry Moonrocks, 2 600W lights on 18/6 cycle. Drip irrigation 5 gals every other day. In ground 11 days. One month to flip.

Thanks!

 

[Crucialfarmer]

There are lots of threads on this but each grow is different. Right?

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

Opinions welcomed, leave or remove BIG fan leaves when defoliating in veg? Solar panels for growth but no other value and block airflow? That’s my thoughts and dilemma.

My thinking is it depends on how the plant is growing. I generally don't remove many leaves. I fall on the side of leaving them for the health of the plant. I agree about airflow, though, but that depends on the plant's environment. If the humidity is good, then there's little risk of mold. I'm not sure shade from them hinders lower growth. I do tend to remove the fan leaves on the main stems or near the center of the plant. I don't do the "lollipop" method, because the plants tend to do that for me.

 

[trustyagut]

I'm doing similar to Lovegrowingit. Also they stretch out a bit during flower which opens things up. I remove a few from around the base so it's easier to water mainly. Your plants look fine to me.

 

[Brotofsky]

Hey, and good evening

Opinions welcomed, leave or remove BIG fan leaves when defoliating in veg? Solar panels for growth but no other value and block airflow? That’s my thoughts and dilemma.

Something has to go, too much like the Amazon in there, so what to defoliate.

Second indoor grow. See big leaves at the bottom of the pic. Trim them and other lower growth as needed until flower.

24 Blimburn Blackberry Moonrocks, 2 600W lights on 18/6 cycle. Drip irrigation 5 gals every other day. In ground 11 days. One month to flip.

Thanks!
View attachment 2298561View attachment 2298562View attachment 2298563
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Just flip now and perhaps it won’t be an issue, sea of green! You will indeed have a jungle if veg for another month!

 

[Crucialfarmer]

Just flip now and perhaps it won’t be an issue, sea of green! You will indeed have a jungle if veg for another month!

No not yet, last year in the same spot outgrew 60 in those bags and had no problem there yeah it was thick and it was wider than it is now but there was no problem. They’ve only been in the ground two weeks and I’m gonna be waiting another month now so we get about waste level then flip and try to get to just overhead.

 

[BudRanger1919]

Damn dude, those are some healthy plants, VERY nice!

Some strains have fan leaves the size of dinner plates, and they often don't have long stalks so they block light to lower branches that you want to develop. When those big fan leaves that grow from the main stalk grow over and block the branches I need? I remove them.

You don't have to do this. But I would remove these 2 fan leaves circled in red on each plant, especially with how many you are running. Not the currently growing fan leaves I circled with BLUE right up top, leave those there, they are too small to be bothering anyone yet. The ones just 1 node down, I circled them in red, those are the 2 fan leaves I would remove on each plant.

But its up to you, that's just what I do. I say "I want the top 3 nodes to grow" then I remove any fan leaf blocking those nodes. I don't go hard with defoliation, I am much more of a "wait until the strip before flower" type of guy to remove too many leaves. Below, my main cola fan leaves were fully grown and were blocking all my lower nodes, so I removed them.

I ask myself, "is this massive stalk fan leaf blocking an important branch I need in the future?"

Before

After

The top 3 nodes I needed are now in the light, because the main cola fan leaves were removed after being so big they shaded everything below.