So i'm doing a scrog, about 10 days into flowering now. I want to remove the growths below the screen that don't get much light and will probably never reach the screen. Is it ok to just clip em? Or will the plant be stunted if i clip em? Should i just let it do its thing? thanks.
If your only 10 days in, then go ahead and hack the undergrowth. Bonus tip: make clones from any of the shoots that are long enough instead of just throwing them away. You can do this up to a month in, if your careful. Try not to cut too much after that, just from my personal experience. Send that energy up to the tops above the screen, for sure.
As a rule of thumb, its not a good idea to prune after you've transitioned your light cycle. the reason being is it is focusing growing buds in those points as of now, and that energy will now be wasted, when if you pruned a bit earlier, that same energy would have been focused on the buds your keeping. Being only 10days in though you'll definitely be ok doing it. I don't use clippers or any type of pinching device. Always use like a razor, exacto knife, i use a scalpel. Keep it clean w/ alcohol till they rust then toss em and get a new 1. Hope this helps.
Don't trim all at once...Trim a little every couple days giving the plant time to repair and recover itself while in the dark cycle untill you reach your goal....
You could remove some fan leaves so the undergrowth gets light. Otherwise remove them because they'll just be small and immature buds when you harvest the tops. Removing branches during flowering is some stress on the plant so it depends on how hermy-prone the genetics are.
No, no, no...do NOT remove any fan leaves! That will cause a lot more harm than chopping the spindly undergrowth. Fan leaves are what is turning the light into food to grow those big buds. Keep them green and healthy. Your fine. Cut the spindly, weak branches underneath the canopy that aren't getting much light. Depending on the size of your plants, one technique often employed with great success is pruning your plants to have between 2-6 main branches that are all pretty even with each other at the top of your canopy. Again, this depends on plant size and techniques used BEFORE flowering, i.e. Topping, LST, SCROG, Supercropping, etc. In some cases, it is not unreasonably to have 10, 15, sometimes 20 lush, healthy tops that get fatter and fatter as they mature. This little junk underneath will rob resources from your tops. You can cut and clone up to 3 weeks in flower, give or take, with no negative reprecussions.
Ever do a scrog? I have 2 plants growing. I have removed 12 to 15 fan leaves from my plants. They are in their 3rd week of flowering. The growth has been incredible, and the plants are so healthy. There are a lot of people here with awesome grows that have removedfgan leaves due to the leaves blocking light. The plants do just fine. It is a weed, and therefore it adapts to the conditions given it. Anyway to the poster, have no fear if you need to remove a fan leaf or 2, your plants will be just fine.
No, removing fan leaves doesn't cause much harm, even a few weeks into flower. Removing them allows more light through to the bottom buds, which can fatten up if they get enough light. You're trying to grow buds, not leaves. Fan leaves aren't the only leaves performing photosynthesis. Your buds have leaves poking out of them for that reason; big fan leaves can just get in the way.
Right, only the most important ones. True, its a weed and will survive, but unless the fan's are dying or diseased, its a bad idea. To each there own, though. Your not suggesting that the actual BUDS themselves are processing the light, are you? Come on, this is basic gardening 101 guys. Advanced section?
The most important ones... until the branch attached grows its own leaves and can support itself. There are leaves in the buds.
True, but the biggest fans are the heavy lifters, i.e. more surface area=more light absorbed=more food. ALL the leaves will take in light, yes, but they have to a lot more work if the fans start yellowing/dropping or are cut off. Some swear by the technique, and if that works for them, great, but I prefer to keep everything green and healthy, only removing spindly, scraggly undergrowth and leaves that are diseased or dying. But, if your buds get you to that place you want to be, then thats all that really matters.
Rule of thumb that serves me well, never more than 10% of the leaves per week and never more than 50%. Ive never hermed or killed anything. Good luck.
My opinion is that you should keep all fan leaves if at all possible. If they are blocking bud sites try and tuck the fans out of the way. If they can't be tucked go ahead and cut a COUPLE. Not more than that. My other opinion is that the yellowing and dying of fan leaves in flower is NOT a normal healthy process. Keep the leaves green and you will have good bud production. I know 2 growers that have the biggest cola's (2.5 oz in 1 cola!) and largest yields and this is also the path that they use. KEEP THE LEAVES GREEN!!!
I second that motion.. I keep to this rule of thumb and have been blessed. Leaves are the solar panels to your plants... the more panels the more energy the plants will have. Tucking is the best, no stress and if that leaf needs light bad enough it will raise itself up.. I do an LST thats more like a scrog with the screen under it... I have noticed that pollen sacks tend to develop at points of major stress.. I have had hermies every grow so far, (except current) and only ended up with 4 seeds. But I have noticed that balls seemed to develop where I topped plants or other points of major stress.. I have had no problem identifing them either. Good luck... nothing better than dope you grow yourself...
In reference to this old topic i just read, id like to be the first to just let people know that this is cannabis we are talking about, incase we didnt realise, this plant is a lot more intelligent than we think and fan leaves as someone rightly said are just like little solar panels and during flowering i have always stopped pruning. i dont even top the plants, i just 24/7 them for 5-6 weeks gradually increasing feed as the plant is bigger for obvious reasons, keeep area clean, keep temps nice and always good to keep an eye on your humidity too but not essential during veg unless your growing inside something that leaks cold air or is submerged in water or around it as long as you have a fresh air intake and a slightly larger exhaust fan with a filter, you shouldnt have mold or mite isssues. make sure your area is kept clean and sealed up, keep dogs and cats out and if poss dont stroke them before you go near your plants, just common sense really. you can purchase a bottle of might wash and periodically rinse plants, but to be honest if you know how to bloody google and all the rest of it im sure you can ffind a step by step grow set up guide. one thing i willl say is forums sometimes help but more often than not you will find that everyones methods are always somewhat unique but this probably has something to do with the set ups ect so just go off trial and error and as someone said adjust by small amounts, no need to prune, if there is a fan leaf covering a bud its there because the plants wants it there. just leave it trust me your buds are all still getting nutrients and light does reflect of almost any surface anyway so dont worry. The last prune i would do would be when you decided which of your branches your keeping to concerntrate the plants efforts on certain buds, then take off all leaves and skinny ass branches from underneat and create a canopy. this will enable you to tie branches down if you wish to stretch your branches out to build a fuller plant and sometimes helps if you have height restrictions to tie branches down GRADUALLY though. I will post a pic of some of my beasts soon and i have never ever pruned after week 2 or 3 of flowering. keep it simple and keep it happy. easy. hope this helps like i said everyone has their own skills and experience so i dont claim to be bang on or anything but i do get nice yields and lovely stinking fresh buds ....off 2 plants a year of course..wink wink 3rd week flower btw and super silver haze and blue cheese in there somewhere haha
Not to be rude to you in general, but it's quite amazing to me how far downhill the knowledge on this site has come in such a short time. I've never seen so many people that clearly don't know much about weed plants saying things like it's gospel that they got from the weed Gods. Simply amazing, and it makes me not want to bother helping on this site because even when you do, you end up with 20 "experienced" growers telling you it's not true. Whoever said you're growing bud, not leaves is 100% right. I trim many leaves. I grow plants that you have no choice but to trim by the time they are flowering. When you grow big boy plants you have no choice but to prune them to get the best yield and have all the plants energy to to where you want it to... IE. Plant buds. It does me no good to have a million, giant leaves on my plant.
a light trim can be beneficial, depending on the circumstances. but just aimlessly hacking away at your plants, is only detrimental and yield will suffer.. edit: i wouldn't do it after flowering has been induced. litfa
Not to hijack the thread, but you should investigate defoliation. Could help you, I've seen it create ridiculous yields. Probably not a good idea if they haven't been trained to do it from the start however. Perhaps for your next grow. http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hydroponic-gardening/176415-increasing-yield-defoliation-indoors-what-s-mean-how-do.html
I know this is older but i do this when im bored lol I've found that with purning as long as its done purposely , slowly and i use my thumb nail to cut and clean with alcohol just cus i always drop my blades and they get gross too quick. But yeqh make sure you move tge branch and if its better without it then cut and for undergrowth if it takes more then 2 leafs to have light reach it i just let it go and if it starts to brown from no light then i remove it but ir will most likely be fine but i never cut tops unless im cloning or they are dead i dont even like topping i rather fim anyday The reason why i say take it slow is my last grow got a little burned but i had purned her the day before now if i didnt purne all at once i couldnt have saved it but because their wasnt enough fan leafs to make sugars it died. So take it slow you dont know if ull need the growth for tomorrow oh and one more tip feed your premature clipping back to your plants up to 2 weeks into flowering and whenever you prune for veg its good for N but just remember it wont be helpful to the plant right away or at all but it will help later or next girl you use the soil for i use my dirt 2ce then do somethings to it to get it useable again