Stripping plants of their fan leaves??

[SVC889]

the majority of the light reflected by plants is green so its the color they use the least of end story, I'm sure they can adapt to use it more efficiently because of this especially if that is all that is supplied. You can grow a plant under a incandescent the spectrum of light is near useless but the plant will adapt and photosynthesis will still happen. But hey if you believe what you have had me read that light in the green spectrum drives photosynthesis more efficiently than red, yellow and blue Im sure you are growing some brilliant looking plants under a heavy green spectrum grow light. I sure would like to see them.

 

[altitudefarmer]

Fan leaves produce mad amounts of carbs; they are the sugar factories of the cannabis plant. Thinning your plant may produce a slightly larger yield, but the buds will not fully realize their potential when it comes to flavor and potency. Personally, I trim up the bottom 3rd or so of my plants, and then I only remove the fan leaves that the plant "self-prunes". To each his own. Here's a fair rep of my plant structure and yield; this is a lucky cross I threw together in the early 90's that is still one of the nicest strains I've seen in CO...

Rocky Mountain Dream

 

[SVC889]

Fan leaves produce mad amounts of carbs; they are the sugar factories of the cannabis plant. Thinning your plant may produce a slightly larger yield, but the buds will not fully realize their potential when it comes to flavor and potency. Personally, I trim up the bottom 3rd or so of my plants, and then I only remove the fan leaves that the plant "self-prunes". To each his own. Here's a fair rep of my plant structure and yield; this is a lucky cross I threw together in the early 90's that is still one of the nicest strains I've seen in CO...

Rocky Mountain Dream

Looks like you cut back the Nitrogen to almost zero also. It does happen to be a foliage based flower so a little more nitrogen is needed in flower than what is commonly thought.

 

[altitudefarmer]

The yellowing happened during the flush. I cut back on everything except humic/fulvic during the first 7 days of flush. I only use organic nutrients, so there's really nothing to flush except excess phosphorous, which will make your dried buds burn like a sparkler, lol. If my plants do not cannibalize their fans leaves during the flush, I push 'em another couple weeks until they do. When temps are cooler, I get a rainbow of color instead of just shades of yellow... :) Peace

 

[SVC889]

The yellowing happened during the flush. I cut back on everything except humic/fulvic during the first 7 days of flush. I only use organic nutrients, so there's really nothing to flush except excess phosphorous, which will make your dried buds burn like a sparkler, lol. If my plants do not cannibalize their fans leaves during the flush, I push 'em another couple weeks until they do. When temps are cooler, I get a rainbow of color instead of just shades of yellow... :) Peace

ok cool good to hear I am organic myself, I guess I made an improper assumption, I just see a lot of growers running high P ferts with no N in flower and it makes me shake my face.

I have been thinking about an alternative to flushing organic because it doesn't seem all that effective considering the nutrients aren't as soluble as our brothers that run the chemicals. It involves cutting off all of the leaves while the plant is still alive so that its forced to use whatever is left in the plant and putting it in the dark for 36hr to stop its ability to make more sugars and starch. In theory it could work but I haven't tried it and will probably only do one plant like this just to see the effect.

 

[altitudefarmer]

Keep us posted with the results, man. That sounds like a great experiment. That may be one way to speed up the 2 week flushing process, also. I use super soil and supplement with Age Old Organics. The Bloom formula is 5-10-5; I also believe most cannabis strains are flowered with Nitrogen deficiencies that limit quality and yield. But I also run a couple sativas that seem to hate Nitrogen and start to claw at the least bit of excess, so I've had to get creative to keep it out of the mix. I just made a batch of super soil specifically for those sativas; with a minimal amount of nitrogen amendments (just a few worm castings). I'm eager to try it on those strains, once it cooks for a few more weeks.

 

[420king-spaded]

sway suggests pluckin leaves off if they are bigger then your hand but only in flower

 

[amstercal]

If you want to do some reading on it, Mr d is right. Check out that other thread. Why not maybe try trimming a few and lst a few like jk suggests? Couldn't hurt and then you'd be able to form your own opinion about which works better for your strain. Working on that myself! Good luck!

 

[SVC889]

Keep us posted with the results, man. That sounds like a great experiment. That may be one way to speed up the 2 week flushing process, also. I use super soil and supplement with Age Old Organics. The Bloom formula is 5-10-5; I also believe most cannabis strains are flowered with Nitrogen deficiencies that limit quality and yield. But I also run a couple sativas that seem to hate Nitrogen and start to claw at the least bit of excess, so I've had to get creative to keep it out of the mix. I just made a batch of super soil specifically for those sativas; with a minimal amount of nitrogen amendments (just a few worm castings). I'm eager to try it on those strains, once it cooks for a few more weeks.

Yeah I will for sure likely I'll just start a thread if it works out right. If it does I might even try running full nutes all the way till the last week to get the must yeild possible maybe just water and a small amount of molasses for flavor. Every plant is different in its needs so just let them tell you what they need not the nutrient companies that are trying to get your money$.

 

[RedSky]

:fighting0003:Just Say NO Buddy!

:sunIts All About Surface Area and the Sun Mango ...


:bong2:Just Remove anything that Obscures the Lower growth or is definitely dead anyways as flowering progresses, trim the crap off the bottoms because it won't yield dick chan anyways ! Tie your Tops down and Lay the Ladies out a bit...At Harveest..1st. crop the tops...then 2-3 weeks later crop the bottoms and U are Done..:mmm


:party0044:Well not really get your scissors out..the work begins now...Good Luck Dude !:)

 

[Blaze]

The interior of the plant should almost always be thinned, but removing outer fan leaves when growing plants outdoors is utterly moronic. Removing the outer fan leaves hurts growth, yield, stresses the plant out and has absolutely no benefit.