Cutting fan leaves during flowering?

I just cut mine one week into flowering. Ill post how it goes in 3 days

 

I consider myself the director of my grow. I do cut off fan leaves to a point. You can definitely overdo it. Those babies rely on healthy gas exchange for growth; your fan leaves are power house energy suppliers. However, if they shade other buds, are dying or infested, or if I just think there are too many on the plant to my liking -- out come the scissors. Good luck.

 

One more quick reply...
A sharp clean razor -- better than scissors.
I also prune for boundary control to limit overcrowding of other plants. I don't hesitate to chop underperforming small lower branches early in flower to allow other branches more of the plants energy. You are the production manager, it's just a plant....go for it.

 

Beee careful. I heard it can cause stress. But forsurely cut many stems leaves etc. about 3 days from harvest. I heard it won't hurt an it'll save you time when the time comes

 

[quote name='"zombieSHROOM"']There is only about two different leaves that I need to remove. The others aren't in the way.

Also, I heard that I should keep the plants in complete darkness for 48 hours before harvest. Does this have any affect on yield?[/quote]

Not as far as yield from what I've been told. But it'll make the buds more resinous. Find unsulfered molasses if your not already workin with it. Black strap molasses. Use a tablespoon for every quart. Can cause 20% yield increase and a even better taste

 

Those leaves feed your plant! Keep them on! They give your buds the nutrients they need to grow!

You may wish to remove them about a week before harvest (most the growth is done) just to brighten up the colors on the buds that were shaded.

Don't worry about the little buds at the bottom! Just do a 2 part harvest! "Scalp" your plant of all the biggest buds, lower your light accordingly, then just wait another 10 days or so and those little popcorn buds will fatten up!

Without the big buds hogging all the nutes, they gain weight fast (after a few days of "sulking" after the first harvest)! Laying some foil on your dirt will bounce back light on those small buds during those last 2 weeks- it's not worth doing before then, if your canopy is thick.

Granny

 

[quote name='"Storm Crow"']Those leaves feed your plant! Keep them on! They give your buds the nutrients they need to grow!

You may wish to remove them about a week before harvest (most the growth is done) just to brighten up the colors on the buds that were shaded.

Don't worry about the little buds at the bottom! Just do a 2 part harvest! "Scalp" your plant of all the biggest buds, lower your light accordingly, then just wait another 10 days or so and those little popcorn buds will fatten up!

Without the big buds hogging all the nutes, they gain weight fast (after a few days of "sulking" after the first harvest)! Laying some foil on your dirt will bounce back light on those small buds during those last 2 weeks- it's not worth doing before then, if your canopy is thick.

Granny[/quote]

Always intelligent and informative I'm always looking for your posts lol

 

ask yourself this question. Why would this plant grow these leaves if they didnt serve a purpose? the fan leaves collect light and store food in them to feed the rest of the plant during darkness. these leaves will turn yellow at the end of flowering. this is because the buds are pulling the final nutes from it for survival (winter preparation). the cannabus plant dies off before winter and the bud falls to the ground to protect the seeds until winter is over. by this time the bud will decompose and the seed will germinate itself with the melting snow and start growing a new plant.

 

[quote name='"DTM420"']ask yourself this question. Why would this plant grow these leaves if they didnt serve a purpose? the fan leaves collect light and store food in them to feed the rest of the plant during darkness. these leaves will turn yellow at the end of flowering. this is because the buds are pulling the final nutes from it for survival (winter preparation). the cannabus plant dies off before winter and the bud falls to the ground to protect the seeds until winter is over. by this time the bud will decompose and the seed will germinate itself with the melting snow and start growing a new plant.[/quote]

Ask urself this question: why would a person answer if they didn't know what they were talking about? Don't answer if u don't know, although u were partially correct (and by that I mean u were right about leaves storing nutes and a plant dying before winter i.e. being an annual) but u are ill-informed on ALL the other issues.

A plant doesn't lose it's leaves because it's preparing for winter.

Marijuana will NOT germinate and survive snow covered areas.

The nutrients stored in the leaves are excess nutes used in case of deficiencies, not as the primary source.

The leaves yellow and fall off because growers cut nitrogen during flower. Many a plant have lived right up to harvest without yellowing a single leaf.

And plant materials do NOT decompose while they are frozen in snow as u suggest, that's why a freezer keeps food fresh.

Also it's spelled cannabis not cannabus.

If u want to trim leaves for light to get further down, cut the fingers off halfway. imagine ur hand is the leaf, cut at ur middle knuckles. This will let light further in but will also leave a large portion as a buffer in case u get a deficiency of some sort. Ever seen a plant that is only nugs, no leaves? Thats cuz the grower either cut N too early and the leaves fell off, or they were removed for light.

 

So every post on this subject has mixed reviews... I live in California, I know a few people who have grown for a while...  I talk to the peope at my local grow shops.  I consider myself a pretty good grower... Been doing it for 3 of the past 4 years, 3 indoor harvests, 1 unsuccessful outdoor crop, 1 successful outdoor harvest that wasn't mine (and the owners killed the plants once I handed them over) and now one very successful outdoor crop of my own. 
 
Here's what I've learned.
 
DO NOT CUT LEAVES DURING FLOWER.  Don't do it.  The plant always, ALWAYS, always needs to recover when you cut it.  This is a living creature and you are giving it open wounds that it needs to heal.  During flower it needs to focus all of it's energy on reproduction.  Not on healing.
 
I cut my plants when I see pistils start (yes this is technically flowering but I do it right at the start and it's fine).  I take cuttings for the next grow...   I mostly take these from the bottom where they won't be getting light.  You can tell which ones you should take...  The main stems will all be pretty thick and then you have these scraggly little guys that aren't going to give you any amount of bud worth anything...  Unless you turn them into a clone
 
Anyways, clean up the bottoms of your plants.  Then, I will cut off sections of the top of the plant that are either blocking a lot of lower sections of the plant (which is rare because if you train your plants properly this shouldnt really be happening) or parts that are overlapping the plants next to them (which is much more common cuz I pack these beauties close...  the more the merrier). 
 
Then, I clean up fan leaves.  I cut a lot of them.  I make sure the budsights get as much light as possible, but that's not really why I cut them.  Fan leaves are important for the plant because they transpire water for temperature control.  However, during flower you aren't going to run in to problems with heat unless you are growing somewhere like Texas...  If you're indoor you shouldn't ever have temperature issues.  Yes, they are also important for photosynthesis, but you don't need very many to keep the plant alive and healthy and they take a LOT of nutrients to upkeep.  The people posting that the leaves are "nutrient storages" aren't well informed.  Most the nutrients are stored in the stems and constantly moving around the plant.  The leaves contain a lot of clorophyl and ATP (energy).  They store excess nutrients, but the nutrients the plant NEEDS are traveling through the stem.
 
Most flowering nutrient blends contain sugar...  This is because during night the plant produces energy from sugars!  Yes, that's right...  Plants eat sugar too.  Look up the Kreb cycle.  Photosynthesis is not as important during flowering because nights are long and the plant is running off sugar it's stored during the day and sugar supplemented into it's diet. 
 
If you don't cut your fan leaves off, they will start to drop off when the plant runs low on Nitrogen.  This is because of evolution... The plant didnt need those fan leaves during flower.  The plants that tried to keep their fan leaves were dominated by those that didn't.  That should tell you something. 
 
Your plant doesn't need ALL of it's fan leaves during flower.  It definitely needs some though... Don't go cut-crazy and leave nothing but budsites...  You'll shock your plant and it might not be able to make enough energy to survive.  However, cutting a large portion of fan leaves is healthy.  Your plant is going to need a week or so to recover, but if you were taking cuttings for your next grow it was going to need that week anyways. 
 
I only cut my plants the one time during the year.  I don't top, but I grow outdoor so my plants get light from all angles.  I feel like leaving your plant alone besides the one main "surgery day" gives it optimal growth. 
 
In my experience once the plant has recovered from surgery (ussually 3-5 days) it takes off...  The fan leaves that I left on it grow ridiculously fast, a few new ones sprout up, and buds start to grow like crazy.  The nutrients that would have been used for maintaining hundreds of fan leaves can go to producing bud. 
 
I was looking up cutting fan leaves because I took more than I've ever taken (a full grocery bag between 4 plants) and I was wondering if maybe I took too many.  I'll say I cut off 50% of the fan leaves this time...  Might have been overboard.   I'll post again to let you all know how they're doing.  I'm pretty sure they're gonna be just fine.  They're so healthy.  Cutting off 25% of the fan leaves has always worked for me.  I didn't do it my first grow, but my 2 other successful grows had a much better harvest.  It just makes sense.
 
And if anyone's wondering why I only have 4 plants...  I took 12 clones last year, 8 survived.  Then my ex girlfriend killed 3 by kicking them/ripping them out of their pots as she stormed out of my house... Then her dog dug one up.   
Yah... she's not getting any free weed anymore.
 
*EDIT* Just realized I revived a 3 year old post... Sorry :/

 

Well by all means let me add to your 2 year old response. I've been researching this topic all morning, whether it was beneficial or harmful to remove fan leaves that are yellow and dying. I started cutting leaves once a week for the last 2 weeks and I'm 7 weeks 2 days into flower. The amounts I took were unique to each plant. The plant with the most dead or dying leaves had about 30% removal while 3 plants required no leaf removal at all. I only took leaves that were yellow and displaying other unfavorable symptoms such as burnt tips, PM, half eaten, weird spots, etc. I took a total of 3 healthy leaves from 3 different plants because they were near the top of the main colas, casting way too much shade on the buds underneath. I just got done doing another pruning. I went through each plant thoroughly, taking only what was necessary to open up circulation and light. Glad I did because I found a handful of leaves with PM and a few buds with budrot. Looks like I caught it at the beginning stages; nothing major was lost.

There are so many opposing opinions on this topic out there, it gets overwhelming trying to figure out who to believe. Your experience resonates with me. I noticed the colas getting plumper a few days after the first pruning. Today I took about 25% from a strain that should be ready for harvest in the next one to two weeks. After reading your advice, I'm confident that was a good move.

 

Just tuck them.

 

One of the oldest debates in growing. Most scientists/botanists near without fail will tell you to never ever remove a fan leaf. I don't think most of these people are talking about growing indoors. It's different it's an artificial environment and you'll never get the light penetration the sun does. I think to get the most yield of quality bud on the top you should clean up the bottom that just steals energy and makes inferior product. 1 week into flowering I usually go to the bottom of the plant and clean it up removing most of the small growth that won't amount to much. I try to never touch a leaf on the top/middle of the plant. It will slow growth and you will end up with less bud.

This does not apply to dead leaves that are about to fall off on their own. You can remove those if you want instead of picking them up off the floor.

 

I remove leaves as I see fit, even during flowering. Plants have never gone into shock because if it. Some people lollipop (take all leaves off) and do great. It's no big deal.


Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum

 

It can??

J

Edit: damn, never mind - another 5 year old post... lol

J

 

Look at how I did with my girls not 1 bit of stress from them and removing the bottom and middle made them fatten up like I've never seen before but that doesn't mean everybody who does this is going to get them results hope you enjoy the pics