to snip fan leaves or not to snip +photos

Don't cut any leaves they aren't nearly big enough.

 

^^^ what he said....you just slow growth that little

 

Not a fan haha

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I remove all but 4 fan leaves, never remove more than two per day, snip the leaf stem right by the leaf, leave the rest of the leaf stem intact and let it wither naturally.
 
This will create a whole new plant. It is for varieties that don't like to be topped. You will end up with one large main cola, and many little popcorn buds, plant will take on a beautiful shape.
 
the pot I grow is so potent, I cut it with the fan leaves. Sometimes I just smoke a full bowl of fan leaf.

 

I try to keep the lower big fans out when my room is very full for more light and have never noticed a problem. A good friend of mine removes them all regularly and grows some of the most beautiful bushes I have ever seen. It never hurts to experiment as its the best way to learn not to do.

 

It is not the best way to learn. The best way to learn is to take the advice of those experienced growers who went before you and not repeat their mistakes. If you were doing something new and ground breaking then it may worth trying.

 

Dudes, did you sleep through the 1st grade "How plants grow" lesson? Leaves are the "food factories" of your plants! The more leaves you remove, the less food your plant produces for growth!

Plants have been growing without human interference for millions and millions of years- far longer than there have been humans walking the Earth. Plants know how to grow. If you MUST remove leaves, remove only those that are yellowing or damaged (which the plant would eventually drop on its own). All of the healthy green leaves are feeding your plant and should stay there to do their job!

The week before harvest, the buds have pretty well done their growing, so if you want to remove leaves to get light to the buds, to "color them up" a bit, it won't hurt your yield.

And I find that by letting the seedling or clone to grow tall, and then gently bending it so the stem is parallel to the ground, encourages those side branches to grow larger buds. Lowering the terminal shoot so it and the side branches are about level, causes a change in the plant's growth hormone set up. Normally, the top shoot puts out a hormone that keeps the lower branches growing slower. Removing the top shoot, or lowering it to the same level as the side shoots, disrupts this hormone.

Without the grow-blocking hormone, the side shoots all "think" "I could have the biggest bud!" and grows accordingly. You end up with several good-sized buds, instead of one big one and lots of popcorn buds.


Granny

 

just use some training of you want more light to the bottom..
 
removing your fan leaves is never a good idea, as granny pointed out.

 

yeah I've heard all this before, the great defoliation debate. When you remove a fan leaf, you are in effect creating many, many more leaves. Carry on.

 

oh yes, it's been going on a long time
remember, never more than two fan leaves per day and start at the bottom and leave the stem of the leaf untouched
 
http://forum.grasscity.com/plant-training/668315-defoliating-higher-yields.html

 

The leaves have very important jobs  to do,  removing them stops them from doing those jobs.  Do you see all that light hitting the floor?  That's all wasted light,  those leaves you removed could have been collecting some of that light.  
 
They also transpire through the leaves,  this is the plant's equivalent of breathing. Removed leaves can't do that anymore 
 
I must ask though,  what are you trying to accomplish by removing leaves?  I mean,  what drove you to decide to do it? Perhaps I'm missing something 

 

I agree, leaves are important. When you remove the large fan leaves, many more just magically appear. No light hits the floor, it all hits branches of leaves. And all bud sites get direct light. Let me guess, you already know, but you've never seen it or tried it. Do a google search on something like "defoliation cannabus" there are many many arguments all over the place, some right here on GC.

 

If you're cutting fan leaves off the top to let light down you're just hurting your top buds to help the bottom ones slighly, what are you accomplishing

 

 
I have been growing marijuana for 20 years, cutting leaves off is nothing new.  Those leaves that replace the ones cut off that you speak of will  still grow if you dont cut them off,  and they will grow much faster with those leaves helping the plant to grow them. 
 
The problem is that you think they "magically appear",  but they don't,  they have to be grown.  For them to  grow the plant needs to gather resources.  It's the leaves that provide those resources. 
 
Bud doesn't do any real work,  bud is the plant's reproductive organs.  They are to make seeds,  they  dont contribute much at all to the growth,  the leaves do that 
 
Google "how plants work for beginners".  It will explain what photosynthesis is 

 

 
why would you want to create many many more leaves?

 

Heres an example of what Granny is talking about.

 

it's not really that it magically creates many many leaves. The term defoliation is used by many in many different ways. I have never read or seen anything on the internet that is exactly the way I do it.
 
I start in veg, removing just the bottom 4 fan leaves 2 per day
maybe a few days later it has 4 new big bottom fan leaves and they are also removed and so on all the way up
 
by the time the plant is ready to flower, I only have 4 big fan leaves left at the very top. Looks weird, never seen a picture of one quite like it. The bottom of the plant by that time has branched out beautifully and is evenly covered with bud sites, all in direct light. And there is still one very large main cola.
 
I believe it improves yield over just doing nothing, but not as good as other topping methods, especially mainlining. The strain I have now just simply doesn't like to be topped, period. So this is a common sense approach.
 
it's just funny that I never hear from someone who tried it and said it didn't work. But I hear from plenty who never tried it and tell me it won't work