Who's up for answering a few random questions?

luckytrees · Feb 11, 2025

So I'm wondering if it should trim more of the fan leaves off (on week 5 of flower). I don't really want to and i think they would be just fine if i don't, but i see alot of posts of beautiful plants with huge buds and zero fan leaves, I've read alot conflicting things on fan leaf removal? What is the process? I generally don't like to remove anything unless I need to.
Another thing I see alot, is people using totally blue or totally red lights, I've seen almost purple light too. What is the advantage of this? And should I be doing it?
I have a vivosun 200w full spectrum light, it is capable of being adjusted to all red or blue or whatever but it has presettings for seedling/vegatative/flower and they seem to do just fine. All i have to do is adjust the light intensity, it seems to me that it mimics sunlight more than say red or blue but I am wondering if I'm missing out on something.

OldOneEye · Feb 11, 2025

I defoliate and prune at day 21 with lights at 12/12, if it is a bushy plant i will usually defoliate again about 2 weeks before harvest.

OldOneEye · Feb 11, 2025

As far as the light is concerned..full spectrum means just that....you get the full spectrum of light
The blue if memory serves me correctly is supposed to mimic spring/summer colors. While the red is geared to fall colors. Specific to what a flowering plant gets outside.
I want as much light and power as I can get from my lights so I use full spectrum.
As a bonus the blue, spring color, helps trichome production as well.

goner · Feb 11, 2025

i dont defol, but i prune heavily. i have read lots of conflicting info too. but i dont defol because i am in an arid climate and dont need to.

i have seen posts where people defol and then the leaves grow back, so they defol again.

leaves are stacked with chloroplasts, so i tend to leave them alone. i grow in living soil so they add a nice buffer for my screwups.

but all the sucker branches? gone.

OldOneEye · Feb 11, 2025

goner said:
i dont defol, but i prune heavily. i have read lots of conflicting info too. but i dont defol because i am in an arid climate and dont need to.

i have seen posts where people defol and then the leaves grow back, so they defol again.

leaves are stacked with chloroplasts, so i tend to leave them alone. i grow in living soil so they add a nice buffer for my screwups.

but all the sucker branches? gone.

Humidity has nothing to do with why I defoliate. It has more to do with light penetrating to the center and lower buds sites.

LoveGrowingIt · Feb 11, 2025

luckytrees said:
So I'm wondering if it should trim more of the fan leaves off (on week 5 of flower). I don't really want to and i think they would be just fine if i don't, but i see alot of posts of beautiful plants with huge buds and zero fan leaves, I've read alot conflicting things on fan leaf removal? What is the process? I generally don't like to remove anything unless I need to.

When we see conflicting ways to do something, it probably means more than one way works. I've tried various methods of removing leaves and ended up with good weed every time.

My practice now is not to remove many fan leaves. I let the plants do it for me when they're ready to do it. I top plants, and how many times I do it depends on how tall they want to grow. I tend to remove fan leaves along the main stem, especially if they're getting in the way of buds.

luckytrees said:
Another thing I see alot, is people using totally blue or totally red lights, I've seen almost purple light too. What is the advantage of this? And should I be doing it?

I use full spectrum lights. That could change, but the lights I have work well enough. So, I'm just watching the market to see which type ends up being more popular. So far, I haven't seen anything that compels me to run right out and buy new lights.

luckytrees said:
I have a vivosun 200w full spectrum light, it is capable of being adjusted to all red or blue or whatever but it has presettings for seedling/vegatative/flower and they seem to do just fine. All i have to do is adjust the light intensity, it seems to me that it mimics sunlight more than say red or blue but I am wondering if I'm missing out on something.

Sounds like a nice light. You're mostly right about mimicking sunlight, but there's been plenty of laboratory research, too. Sunlight directly overhead, like it is midsummer, is bluer. Sunlight lower on the horizon, like during the fall, is redder. It has to do with how much atmosphere the light passes through or the angle or something like that.

LoveGrowingIt · Feb 11, 2025

OldOneEye said:
Humidity has nothing to do with why I defoliate. It has more to do with light penetrating to the center and lower buds sites.

You don't consider air flow?

OldOneEye · Feb 11, 2025

LoveGrowingIt said:
You don't consider air flow?

Not when I defoliate. I defoliate for light penetration. Fans create air flow.
I grow in a basement and use a dehumidifier so humidity isn't a problem for me.

goner · Feb 11, 2025

OldOneEye said:
Humidity has nothing to do with why I defoliate. It has more to do with light penetrating to the center and lower buds sites.

this makes sense. i pollenated a lower branch last grow and the seeds werent developing. so i tucked and bent, and the light seemed to make a difference.

but most of my lowers get pruned. so like @LoveGrowingIt says, there are multiple functioning techniques. super good point, man.

keeping all my leaves helps my tent humidity stay up. im cheap.

luckytrees · Feb 11, 2025

OldOneEye said:
Humidity has nothing to do with why I defoliate. It has more to do with light penetrating to the center and lower buds sites.

This is exactly the reason I was thinking of maybe doing another defol. Airflow is fine, but there is practically a whole other canopy of bud sites under my main colas. I just don't want to stress her too much at this stage.

luckytrees · Feb 11, 2025

Here are some examples of what I've seen.

OldOneEye · Feb 11, 2025

luckytrees said:
Here are some examples of what I've seen.

I would bet they are getting ready to harvest.

OldOneEye · Feb 11, 2025

goner said:
this makes sense. i pollenated a lower branch last grow and the seeds werent developing. so i tucked and bent, and the light seemed to make a difference.

but most of my lowers get pruned. so like @LoveGrowingIt says, there are multiple functioning techniques. super good point, man.

keeping all my leaves helps my tent humidity stay up. im cheap.

Every grower has to do what they feel comfortable with. There are both positives and negatives to every technique.

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