Strain That Makes Lots Of Big Leaves: Clearing Out Leaves In Flower?

[DGP]

My strain I am currently flowering, makes these huge ass leaves even up high in the canopy. I can't believe how fast the girls produce these leaves and they sometimes get to chest size, just friggin enormous. Kind of a good problem to have vigorous growth but there is a lot of light blocking going on. I trained them into a net and kept the canopy height fairly constant and even.

My question is: How much do I trim these huge leaves to allow for all the bud sites to get some quality light or do I just let go a little now? Do I aggressively trim to clear out space for light?

They are 2 weeks post flip and are about 28" high. They are producing very thick stalks even hollow ones up high in the new growth but even with pruning out under the net (all the scruff) and keeping the tops trained they are just too dense right now. In the past I have trimmed and so on pretty aggressively but I don't really know if that was the right way to go and now I am getting more fussy and want to refine my grow to get to the next level of skill and yield.

So, this time I thought I would throw this out there before I go all clipper happy on the poor plants.

Thanks,

Dee

 

[Harp]

A very common question with no easy answer.
There's a couple things you might be able to do.
First thing is you lightly defoliate a week before the flip. It'll give the plant time to recover.
The first three weeks the plant greatly stretches and still produces a ton of leaves. You can lightly defoliate on days 7, 14, & 21. After that let it be till about two weeks before harvest. I suggest you do the skirt method and remove leaves from the top area, leaving the bottoms, sorta making look like it's wearing a skirt. That way if you happen to have a deficiency it'll take whatever it's deficient in, from the lower leaves. Also it'll open up a lot more space for light to get through (which I'm sure is your biggest concern) and reach the lower buds.

You may also consider doing a partial harvest. Harvest the tops and let the lowers fill in and finish out better.

Hope I was able to help ya.
-much respect

 

[DGP]

Thanks very much for the advice.

Dee