Prune big fan leaves...don't prune big fan leaves? The jury's still out it'd seem......

[Liberanos5]

There sure is more than one opinion on this. What's yours so I can come to some conclusion myself!!!???:confused:

 

[LexLuthor]

I only prune big fan leaves if they are dieing, blocking branches, hanging down close to the pot or if there are too many leaves touching eachother. Thats just how I do it.

 

[SecretJardinDS90]

I only prune big fan leaves if they are dieing, blocking branches, hanging down close to the pot or if there are too many leaves touching eachother. Thats just how I do it.

Agreed

 

[OGONLY]

I've been removing not only large fan leaves, but any size leaf that directly blocks a bud site below. I used to follow the theory, "the fans are the solar pannels and feed energy to the whole plant." Ever since reading a thread over on ICmag regarding this subject, I changed my game plan.

The thread over there is like 70 pages long. Seemed like 90% of the responses from respected well know farmers overwhelmingly encouraged removal of leaves blocking light from bud sites.

I gave it a try around 4 cycles ago and I'll never go back to leaving the fans be. I feel nug quality and size has increased as a result. I notice no real difference in yield size, although if there is a difference I'd have to say yield is better when light blocking fans are removed.

It makes a big difference come harvest time too. Having half the number of fans on a plant greatly eases the trimming burdon we all know so well. Another opinion of mine is that the plant does not have to focus energy and direct water to so many damn leaves. What are we trying to grow anyway, leaf or bud?

 

[SecretJardinDS90]

I've been removing not only large fan leaves, but any size leaf that directly blocks a bud site below. I used to follow the theory, "the fans are the solar pannels and feed energy to the whole plant." Ever since reading a thread over on ICmag regarding this subject, I changed my game plan.

The thread over there is like 70 pages long. Seemed like 90% of the responses from respected well know farmers overwhelmingly encouraged removal of leaves blocking light from bud sites.

I gave it a try around 4 cycles ago and I'll never go back to leaving the fans be. I feel nug quality and size has increased as a result. I notice no real difference in yield size, although if there is a difference I'd have to say yield is better when light blocking fans are removed.

It makes a big difference come harvest time too. Having half the number of fans on a plant greatly eases the trimming burdon we all know so well. Another opinion of mine is that the plant does not have to focus energy and direct water to so many damn leaves. What are we trying to grow anyway, leaf or bud?

Good point.

 

[LexLuthor]

I only prune big fan leaves if they are dieing, blocking branches, hanging down close to the pot or if there are too many leaves touching eachother. Thats just how I do it.

EDIT: I meant to say "blocking budsites" not branches lol

 

[Liberanos5]

I got that Lex but thanks for the edit anyways,.....good stuff here...my notebook gets thicker. Looks like the "shade" aka: fan leaves gotta go. My little Fiskars pruning scissors will have to get busy once the lights come back on. Re: scissors....LOL!! I was watching some instructional video on cola trimming techniques from a guy with a HUGE operation and he was doing the trimming with a 10¢ pair of Romper Room safety scissors. Come on man. $9 for a nice pair a Fiskars. You can afford it!!!!!! He did have a $4000 trimmer for the little popcorn buds though!!! Go figure! Sorry! I just find stuff like that a major amusement!!

 

[LexLuthor]

^^^^Romper Room safety scissors...LMAO...thats funny.

I forgot to mention, I don't trim more then 10% of the leaves at any given time, I'll sometimes do half 1 day then half the next day to limit the amount of stress.

 

[BudCandy420]

I trim them up slowly during flowering. However lately I have been getting more aggresive on the trimming. I am pretty sure I am getting bigger buds from this.
The next day I give them a good foliar feeding of Magic Green.

 

[true grit]

Ya i do like budcandy above- moderate trim down wk2/3, wk4 make sure any shit budsites/lowers are pulled off, and slowly pull more and more fans til harvest.

 

[reeldrag]

100 percent agreed I long ago found out that by removing large fans from the bottom half of the plant did a few positive things one bud size seemed to increase in the whole plant and two i had les mold and bug issues becuz of increased light penatration and air movement but this needs to b done over time as stated above so you dont stress your plant and dont be afraid to remove lower bud sites as well your over all yield will go up if done correctly

 

[Haggardass]

I tie them back unless theyre yellow.

 

[los0420]

i like to remove leaves that are blocking budsites at 4 weeks and i usually do a clean up after the first week in flower too (remove all that small stuff on the bottom and dont be afraid to give em a good cleanout) at week 4 i like to do the whole plant at once so it only gets streesed that day instead of being stressed over a few days

 

[mahboyblue]

Great responses here.

One of my plants suffered from some nute burn so yesterday I trimmed the most affected leaves; unfortunately the majority were at the top of the plant, but doing so exposed many lower bud sites. Today she's looking healthier and seems to be liking the haircut, and I'm expecting good growth soon.

 

[juniorgrower]

I trim the bottom 1/4 of the plant off about a week or so before it goes in the bud room so that it has time to recover before starting to flower. I rarely ever take any fan leaves after that. Not saying my way is better, but just the way I do it.

 

[Jalisco Kid]

Take 4 plants trim two of them and weigh the harvest. I know most(almost all) say nutes are stored in the roots and to some extent the stalk. I feel however that what is stored in my leaves overnight is used rapidly in the morning when hit with 70w/ft and 1100ppm co2.

 

[Jalisco Kid]

I had to go for a min but I wanted to say a friend gave me some slides from an experiment by DM on their penetrate. I noticed those nutes tagged did not migrate down to the roots as I thought it would. I think a plant chooses the least amount of energy to accomplish something, if it feels it will use the sugars/aminos I do not think it will transfer down to the roots. Some will find this not true but I think they are above 1500 ppm conv .5. Those are the same people who harvest green plants.
The last 3 weeks I begin to remove leaves,by the last week there are not that many left. I really clean up the last week as I too worry a little of grey mold and I want the buds to swell and harden up the last week. Also during the last 10 days I use a leather sewing needle to open up my buds so they are exposed to more light and air movement. JK

 

[Liberanos5]

I had to go for a min but I wanted to say a friend gave me some slides from an experiment by DM on their penetrate. I noticed those nutes tagged did not migrate down to the roots as I thought it would. I think a plant chooses the least amount of energy to accomplish something, if it feels it will use the sugars/aminos I do not think it will transfer down to the roots. Some will find this not true but I think they are above 1500 ppm conv .5. Those are the same people who harvest green plants.
The last 3 weeks I begin to remove leaves,by the last week there are not that many left. I really clean up the last week as I too worry a little of grey mold and I want the buds to swell and harden up the last week. Also during the last 10 days I use a leather sewing needle to open up my buds so they are exposed to more light and air movement. JK

Plants choose and feel???o_O Hmmmmmmmmmmm!!?? Thanks for the input!!!

 

[LexLuthor]

I had to go for a min but I wanted to say a friend gave me some slides from an experiment by DM on their penetrate. I noticed those nutes tagged did not migrate down to the roots as I thought it would. I think a plant chooses the least amount of energy to accomplish something, if it feels it will use the sugars/aminos I do not think it will transfer down to the roots. Some will find this not true but I think they are above 1500 ppm conv .5. Those are the same people who harvest green plants.
The last 3 weeks I begin to remove leaves,by the last week there are not that many left. I really clean up the last week as I too worry a little of grey mold and I want the buds to swell and harden up the last week. Also during the last 10 days I use a leather sewing needle to open up my buds so they are exposed to more light and air movement. JK

I don't know about anybody else, but I really don't understand what your talking about. The experiment on penetrate?? Nutes tagged?? They are above 1500 ppm?? I respect alot of what you say so if you dont mind, could you please explain in more detail of what you are talking about, thanks alot.

 

[Jalisco Kid]

I was allowed to have some slides from a commercially paid experiment of a DM's product. I believe they put an isotope in the mix so they could track their product thru the plants structure. You might have seen some of these pics with their ads a few years back. I used 1500 ppm because I find this to be around were I see plants start to suffer from high ec's. I think with this level of nutes, the plants would start sending down all unused nutes because their is no room in the leaves. I believe in feeding your plants well, but I believe in holding back the supply so it is being replaced as used. Like the way the big box stores order supplies for their store. They arrive as needed rather then having to store a lot of product till it is needed.