So I posted a while ago about my sick plant and ya'll did a good job of helping me out. It has grown substantially in the last 2 weeks and has been under LST for about a week now. Now that we've been LST'ing we've got some pretty good new growth. As you can see from the pic, we've got 2 or three really large fan leaves. Would it be better to keep them for now since they are so big and take in a lot of light, or should be trim them off so the new stuff gets the light? I'm hoping the big guns on this site respond b/c I REALLY don't want to screw this plant up. Also any other advice that you can offer from looking at the pics is more than welcome. Thanks a lot guys. Pic 1 Side view of her in LST. The stem and leaf going out of the top of the picture is one of the fan leaves. Should I let it grow more and then tie it over? Pic 2 Top view of her, you can see how big the fan leaves are in comparison to plant size.
Don't trim. Those fan leaves are like solar panels, converting the light into energy the plant needs to grow. One of the main advantages of LST is that you can train the plant to grow in a way that exposes the lower nodes to more light and precisely so that you don't have to trim. Eventually if grown to a huge bush you may need to trim, but for now just tuck if you have to, or just wait until it is long enough to tie individual branches out of the way of the lower ones.
what can be expected if the fan leaves are cut off? Would that particular branch split into 2 directions? Should they still stay? They are getting pretty clustered. Thanks for the input.
The stem of a fan leaf is not really a "branch," it will not grow after it is cut and certainly won't split into two fan leaves.
the advantage of pruning is to allow sunlight to penetrate the shadow areas that big fan leaves make.
YOu can trim if you like, i trim all the time, but hey its a "solar panel" so follow who you want..... If the people telling you about solar panels actually continue reading what they read they would know that ANYTHING green on the plant is contributing to Photosynthisis (sp) In order not to upset anyone on this forum, i will tell you to follow his advise, but at least try to tuck or hold that leaf down (out of the way of the blocking the light) (funny thing is, wow, its now tucked under and not really recieving the light it should be so why even bother having it if its a "Solar panel") Anywhoo move it out of the way, or like i sometimes do if i dont feel the entire leaf needs to be removed is to cut the blades in 1/2 Up to you. good luck.
So if we were to prune off some of the bigger leaves, where do we make the cut, right next to the main stalk?
i think id cut right next to the stalk if i had to cut at all..... Dier, i like to think that the leaves i tuck under still serve a major purpose .... just because their not getting direct light doesnt mean they dont aid photosynthysis.. those tucked leaves are still off gassing and still retriving light from the bottom .... i agree 100% and will never NOT LST .... it just seemed like you were second guessing yourself there ...... MUCH MUCH more than a solar panel those things..i personally opt to not trim unless there is a problem...
The fan leaves are getting much bigger. Everything facing the light is getting pretty clustered as well. Should the fan leaves stay?
No way would I take anything off that little thing. Let it grow! I dont start taking fan leaves till well into flowering. and then only a few. I am going to try a new method of pruning that i learned for peppers. if you would watch that process, keep checking my journal. my goal, as i believe every growers is, to get several big fat buds of each plant. harvest is a pain with tons of little weak ass buds. Though, if you only have one plant, you may not want to trim at all.
Dier, speaking for myself no need to spare my feelings, if you want to offer different advice I am all ears.
Are you growing that plant in volcanic ash? It looks soooo grey. In a normal upwards grow, I would agree with Dier to cut up your plant, but since you use LST and there are no significant shadows being cast I wouldn't take off any parts.
Haha, no, it's not volcanic ash. It only looks grey b/c when I was resizing my picture I found a cool little button that greyed everything out but the green. I thought it looked interesting.