Solar powered, energy producing wonders, or light blocking, yeild sucking parasites? I have heard variations of those ideas and want to know which is right. To prune or not to prune, that is the question.
dont trim unless the light they are blocking will fuel a more valuable bud site. I almost never trim and I do LST/HST so i have TONS of bud sites. SOME light always gets through so I dont see the need to trim
What I'm doing now is pulling my big fans down close to the stem, i.e. underneath the new growth and big bud sites. Seems to be working well enough, might wire them there. The goal is to take up as much light as we can, so they still help, but without taking anything from the important tops.
Curious to see how you long everybody does the LST or tying down??? I'm into week 3 of flower and i stopped training after I switched the lights to 12/12. Considering I'm using AN and DWC my plants grow with outrageous haste, so anything I pluck off is literally back again 24 hours later
AN? What's that? I'm rDWC and just chilling in my greenhouse it seems I'm constantly poking leaves and new growth stems stems down under my SCROG. Its gonna be a good crop. Out of 10 plants that have showed their sex 8 are female from non feminized seeds. Fen's doin' the happy dance
You can remove about 1/4 of the bottom of the plant and you can do the same to the long branches if you like but you shouldn't cut the fan leaves unless you are removing the shoot that or branch it is by. When I prune I try to leave as many of the fan leaves I can because they ARE the energy givers. They are what is responsible for photosynthesis at the highest level. The more leaf surface area that the light is hitting the more light the plant is processing. If you think some are blocking light to buds then tuck them out of the way but never remove a healthy fan leaf unless you car pruning off that branch. Also the plant will cannibalize those large fan leaves if it needs any thing extra so they help also for overall plant health. General rule of thumb is only remove leaves if they are over 50% damaged. More Pruning is a technique done to the lower portions of the plant only and when done properly it can increase yield.
I gorw ScrOG style as well. You will definitely have to defoliate when you are ScrOG'n, assuming the screen is full. I tend to leave everything alone unless a fan leaf is covering a growth shoot. I also stop tucking the plant under the screen one week into flower. This can vary greatly depending upon the strain but the one week rule is pretty universal for most indicas. On week two I cut everything under the screen that isn't going to ever be above the screen. This opens up the airflow to prevent any mold/rot.
Thanks everyone. I've been tucking as much as I can and when needed trimming part of the leaf blade off. Now that my indicas are showing bud sites those get LITFA'd. My Jack herer is a total bush and still getting tucked here and there