Help! Do I need to trim some leaves off my plants?

[DwainePipe]

Hi there, vey much a beginner here. On 2nd grow atm. First one survived but very poor yield (3oz from 4 plants, stardog)

I’ve attatched some photos of my current grow. Plants been in flower for a week or so. Spent a good 3 months in veg as first plants took way longer than expected. Because of this they’re quite large with lots of leaves as it stands.


Do I need to trim some leaves? I don’t want to waste nutrients which could be going to the larger buds at the top.

Any help is much appreciated, I understand it’s probably very simple stuff and tedious for you guys to answer but really want to progress as this is turning into a fun hobby for me!

If you need anymore info please ask.

Thanks again!

 

[GrimReffer]

Hi there, vey much a beginner here. On 2nd grow atm. First one survived but very poor yield (3oz from 4 plants, stardog)

I’ve attatched some photos of my current grow. Plants been in flower for a week or so. Spent a good 3 months in veg as first plants took way longer than expected. Because of this they’re quite large with lots of leaves as it stands.


Do I need to trim some leaves? I don’t want to waste nutrients which could be going to the larger buds at the top.

Any help is much appreciated, I understand it’s probably very simple stuff and tedious for you guys to answer but really want to progress as this is turning into a fun hobby for me!

If you need anymore info please ask.

Thanks again!

Typically you want to thin out the leaves right before you flip to flower leaving enough time for your plant to recover before flipping. Then 18-21 days into flower do a second thinning. You don’t want to stress the plant right after you flipped so I would wait until day 18-21 of flower then remove leaves.

 

[2Bad]

I trim leaves whenever. Doesn't stress them. But to answer your question only a couple larger leaves that are blocking new leaves . New leaves generate more photosynthesis then older ones.

 

[freezeland2]

I would trim the yellowing & brown leaves off around the bottoms.

 

[DwainePipe]

Typically you want to thin out the leaves right before you flip to flower leaving enough time for your plant to recover before flipping. Then 18-21 days into flower do a second thinning. You don’t want to stress the plant right after you flipped so I would wait until day 18-21 of flower then remove leaves.

Thanks for the reply! Yeah that makes sense, which leaves would you suggest trimming once I hit the 3 week period?

 

[Justlovetogrow]

Another thing for next time u wanna bend and shape them girls to flatten the canopy out a bit you want shorter wider plants indoor more than the natural Christmas tree shape as grow lights only penetrate so far into your canopy

 

[DwainePipe]

Another thing for next time u wanna bend and shape them girls to flatten the canopy out a bit you want shorter wider plants indoor more than the natural Christmas tree shape as grow lights only penetrate so far into your canopy

Thanks man! Yeah this one has gone a bit tits up I won’t lie, they’re too big partially due to being on veg for wayyyy to long! Got some little baby’s in which I’ll bend when they start to come through, cheers for the advice!

 

[GrimReffer]

Thanks for the reply! Yeah that makes sense, which leaves would you suggest trimming once I hit the 3 week period?

I like to defoliate the lower 1/3 of the plant then thin out as you go up. Look for leaves that are overlapping and trim them and then look for leaves facing in towards the center of the plant. It takes practice and you will learn as you go, you can also google lollipoping

 

[GrimReffer]

I trim leaves whenever. Doesn't stress them. But to answer your question only a couple larger leaves that are blocking new leaves . New leaves generate more photosynthesis then older ones.

Defoliation definitely puts stress on a plant, sure removing a few leaves here or there won’t stress but if you lollipop or heavy defoliation it will stress them.

 

[delps8]

You should deal with your nutrient deficiency and your plant isn't getting much light.

Re. removing leaves - from what I see in your photos, I wouldn't remove any leaves. The plants are tall, they have a lot of space between the nodes ("internodal distance"), and there aren't a lot of leaves. Those are some of the characteristics of plants that haven't been given a lot of light (that's why I believe that they aren't getting much light.)
If you had a dense canopy where some of the leaves were impeding air flow, sure clean up the underbrush but that's not what I see in your photos.

Leaves that aren't getting much light are a net photosynthetic loss but they perform the very valuable functions of transpiration and they act as mineral stores that are used by other parts of the plant during the flower stage. If you cut them off, you're taking those valuable functions away from your plant.

The only way to get light to the lower leaves is to remove leaves in the canopy. Growers hear the word "penetration" and mistake it to mean that light penetrates leaves and gets into the canopy. That cannot happen because a cannabis leaf absorbs about 95% of the light that hits the top of the leaf. Shane Torpey at Migro did a YouTube on this and it's easily repeatable using a PAR Meter or a light meter. My belief is that growers have watched the Bugbee video where he discusses "penetration" and don't realize that he's talking about penetrating the leaf and being absorbed by the leaf with green photons penetrating deeper into a leaf than red or blue photons. Essentially no PAR is available to a given leaf is there's anything between that leaf and the light source.

If you want to get light lower into the canopy, "leaf tucking" is an option but, to my mind, what good does it do to move a leaf out of the way at the top of the canopy (where light is relatively strong) in hopes of getting light to the leaves lower down in the canopy? The lower leaves are older and, therefore, do not photosynthesize as well and, there's a significant loss in the number of photons that hit a leaf at the canopy level versus just a few inches below that level - PPFD drops off very rapidly because photons are absorbed as they pass through the air.

Re nutrient issue - look at the older leaves in the plant and there's significant damage to some of them. I'm not very familiar with nute issues but I'd take a guess that there's a potassium deficiency there.