Should I prune the sun leaves?

[BzDave]

Hey y’all, so my girls are just now starting to flower and I’m not sure if I should trim som of the bigger sun leaves or just leave the plants as they are. Here is a pic of one of them.. any suggestions?

 

[Varsityredz]

You can defoilate them a little it will help with all nuds to get light

 

[Dirtbag]

Outdoors, leave them I'd say. But you're gonna get a a good number of people on both sides of this one. Sunlight has more than enough energy to penetrate leaves compared to artificial light.

Only thing I'd prune on an outdoor plant are the small "sucker" branches lower down and deep inside the plant to prevent it from becoming a rats nest. I'd bend the branches outward to open up the plant to more air and light instead of heavy pruning.

 

[Bema]

Hi Dave
I'd leave them alone. they are solar panels generating food for the plant.
BTW she is a bonnie looking girlie

 

[OdlaFett]

Im a huge defoliator, but Im with Dirtbag on this one, outdoors no need to defoliate and epscialy now in begging of flowering you risk stunning them.

Edit: Nice looking plant btw, very healthy good job, leave her as she is

 

[BzDave]

Ahhh... ok, I see what you all are saying. I kind of have them both inside and out. During the week I often have to leave for a few days at a time and I bring them inside to my grow room while I’m gone to make sure they stay safe from weather. I’ve got about 400w of light which was good enough when they were small but now that they are much larger, I feel like it’s just enough to get them by while I’m gone. So I like to keep them out in the sun as much as possible. Thanks for the compliments!! Means a lot. My first attempt was almost a complete failure with bad shit happening the whole time. From malnutrition to caterpillars, it was a mess. Here’s all three together

 

[JohnnyApp]

Yes, but be careful not to overdo it. Any green material is photosynthetically active, meaning it helps your plant to process light energy Into nuggets. By removing photosynthetically active material you reduce your plant's ability to process sunlight. Think of each leaf as a solar panel, if it's not in the way of something more important, leave it.

 

[JohnnyApp]

Hey y’all, so my girls are just now starting to flower and I’m not sure if I should trim som of the bigger sun leaves or just leave the plants as they are. Here is a pic of one of them.. any suggestions? View attachment 930390

I had the same question a while back and did some digging, apparently when you grow outdoors the benefit of defoliation is not as high as indoors bc the sun penetration is a good deal better than lights indoors, especially considering the changing of position in the sky.

Essentially, it's not really beneficial outdoors for increasing harvest weight. That being said, airflow through your canopy will be a very important factor as your buds start to become denser and you may benefit from removing a few here and there from the center of the canopy to decrease chances of pm.

Keep a watchfull eye during the last few weeks if it's raining to prevent bud rot. If you see some, remove it and don't cross contaminate. They sell omri organic sprays to combat it as well if it pops up.

Best of luck

 

[Vagician]

These look great. Don't defoliate. Only remove those pesky little sucker branches that form at the trunk as @Dirtbag stated. A light breeze will be plenty strong enough to move the leaves so that the lowers receive what is called "dappled" light. The sun penetrates much better than any indoor light. You've got some great looking ladies, keep doing what you are doing.

 

[Edinburgh]

Yea i would thin it out a bit before it really starts to flower, get light on branches and improve airflow, nice job!

 

[Vagician]

Yes, but be careful not to overdo it. Any green material is photosynthetically active, meaning it helps your plant to process light energy Into nuggets. By removing photosynthetically active material you reduce your plant's ability to process sunlight. Think of each leaf as a solar panel, if it's not in the way of something more important, leave it.

Just to elaborate on your idea because you are right but there is another level of thinking to add. There are "source" leaves which are fully formed and pumping sugars, then there are "sink" leaves which are currently forming and consuming those sugars. Every cultivar is different on the best source:sink ratio, but you want to maintain a balance between your sources and sinks. Then once you are into flower pretty much every fan leaf is a source and every flower is a sink. Slow growth or bad yield means too many sources were removed and you have to up the ratio next time around. That's why I love growing the same flavor multiple times so I can play with the ratio.

 

[JohnnyApp]

Just to elaborate on your idea because you are right but there is another level of thinking to add. There are "source" leaves which are fully formed and pumping sugars, then there are "sink" leaves which are currently forming and consuming those sugars. Every cultivar is different on the best source:sink ratio, but you want to maintain a balance between your sources and sinks. Then once you are into flower pretty much every fan leaf is a source and every flower is a sink. Slow growth or bad yield means too many sources were removed and you have to up the ratio next time around. That's why I love growing the same flavor multiple times so I can play with the ratio.

If you have a link to further reading, I'd like to continue researching the subject.

The closest thing to a credible scientific study I found on defoliation was in regards to cotton crops, and the general consensus was that there was still a heated debate on it's ability to actually "increase" yield.

Time must also be considered. If we remove vegetation, which causes stress, time to recover is required. If we provide time to recover, it extends the grow cycle. If we extend the grow cycle, our production per day average may be lower.

We could also consider quality of the final product and bud size, however, technically those are separate variables from yield. If defoliation results in a higher quality of final product, but a smaller yield, then defoliation is simply a personal preference.

And down the rabbit hole it goes

 

[Vagician]

If you have a link to further reading, I'd like to continue researching the subject.

The closest thing to a credible scientific study I found on defoliation was in regards to cotton crops, and the general consensus was that there was still a heated debate on it's ability to actually "increase" yield.

Time must also be considered. If we remove vegetation, which causes stress, time to recover is required. If we provide time to recover, it extends the grow cycle. If we extend the grow cycle, our production per day average may be lower.

We could also consider quality of the final product and bud size, however, technically those are separate variables from yield. If defoliation results in a higher quality of final product, but a smaller yield, then defoliation is simply a personal preference.

And down the rabbit hole it goes

I wish that I had an article linked directly to defoliation and the stresses it puts on a plant and its oil production. Unfortunately, it was something that was only discussed for about 10 minutes in my plant anatomy & morphology classes. But, it came from the brightest botany professors in my state, some of them were 40-year horticulturists.

Removing some leaves will cause stress, basically increasing the herbivory responses in plants up to a certain point = more oils. Take off too many leaves and you definitely start to change the ability of a plant to produce its secondary metabolites. It's that a fine balance between stimulating oil production and not removing too many of the energy producing leaves that feed oil production process. It's a slow day at work so I'll dig around today and see if I can find anything relevant and report back if I find anything.