Id like to hear some opinions on trimming of a few fan leaves before I actually do it. Would it be beneficial to do it if it gets a bud out of the shade and into the sun? I don't know if the plant uses the fan leaves for food when the plant is budding but I only have one full sized mature female plant I don't wanna pluck anything off and risk killing her, Id like to get a good harvest from this one since my others were autos
Taking a few fan leaves off won't do a thing...in fact many people cut off all growth at the bottom of the plant so the tops grow fuller and no popcorn buds..mostly SCROG growers. You are right though, fan leaves are important throughout the entire grow, mostly in veg of course. But I clip fan leaves if they are shading a cola, it's no problem, I treat cutting my plants like surgery, I wash my hands and sterilize the cutting tools before I cut my plants so I don't risk infection...I did it today on my own plants in fact
other than cutting off the stubbly, miniscule growth protruding from the base of the plant and topping a few times when the plants are young, i personally let my plants grow as is. if you have a branch with huge fan leaves shading other parts of the plant (or other plants), grab a bamboo stick & some string and bend the whole branch away from the shaded area. im not saying it is bad for your plant (cutting), but it does induce some stress. stressed plants = unhappy plants = a "stress" on your yield and quality....for better or for worse in your case, ymmv besides, fan leaves have a larger surface area than buds, generally speaking. they contain more chlorophyll than the buds, making the leaves the real "powerhouse" behind photosynthesis. its really personal preference. i never snip leaves in half. not even when taking clones (which some personal friends cant believe i dont trim them). I received a 100% success rate the last time i took clones, and this last harvest was my biggest yet. i have cut leaves in the past, but i did not on this grow. i only removed the leaves when they were completely dead. in summary, i think there are many other factors that go into achieving a "great harvest." does cutting leaves away play a role into getting a "great harvest?" possibly, but miniscule if any. this is one of those things everybody could argue about, but its insignificance doesnt even rank it as a "technique" in my book. its just....you know....cutting a leaf, lol.
I snip no leaves at all, and don't remove yellowed leaves until they've browned. The reason for me is, the plant "knows" what it needs as far as making structures on itself, and it knows when it no longer needs those structures. I leave the yellowed leaves on so that the plant can utilize all those sugars in the leaf, with the idea being that it doesn't have to work as hard to remake them in other parts of the plant. Could be purely superstitious though.
I think I'll try to re arrange them to get some light on my buds, more light = more growth right? The plant itself is not too bushy but far too many of the buds are in the shadows. I deafinitly need to get the buds with some bug poop into the sun because Ive noticed the ones with poop in the sun lost a lot more of the poop naturally than the ones in the shade.
If you're going to clip leaves to get more light to the buds, you're doing it for the wrong reason. Fan leaves have much more surface area to collect light for photosynthetic processes. The little sugar leaves have very little area. There are many, many biological processes going on inside a plant when the sun is shining and the plant is photosynthesising. Removing these solar panels can be counterproductive. There are those that swear by defoliating a plant <cannabis> and there are heated debates about it in several threads. Cotton farmers will defoliate for increased cotton yields. From a botany standpoint however, I have a hard time removing healthy leaves from a healthy plant unless there is a real need to. One reason for removing leaves would be to get air circulation into the inner plant. Most IPM strategies call for pruning a plant to prevent plant fungal disease. If your outdoor MJ plant is bushy, opening up the inside will allow better air flow. Another reason would be to remove any diseased or scorched leaves. Prune wisely if you must prune........try to leave the lion's share of healthy leaves....... especially those that are in full light most or all of the day. That's my take on removing leaves. The following thread had to be closed because of the arguing on this very subject. http://forum.grasscity.com/plant-training/668315-defoliating-higher-yields.html You should read it to get the opposing points of view Chunk
I'll take a look at it in a bit. Personally for me I believe that the plant should just be left as is, that if it didnt want a leaf there it wouldn't be there. I wouldn't want somebody taking limbs off of me just because they didnt want them there. I just went up to see my baby and shes looking better than ever! My method of using dawn dish soap to clean bug poop off was incredibly successful I tried three different ways and one specific way removed almost all of the bug poop, I suppose after this weekend of rain the next time I can go up there and do it again I'll do it for sure!
LOL "chuck" <a lot of folks get that wrong dont they>. I've gotta say I was certainly part of that passionate and vigorous discourse in the closed thread. IDK now what position I held at the time but I'll say now that I don't remove any leaf material unless it is dead, dying, decaying, or about to fall off. Every single reason you highlighted are the reasons why I QUIT defoliating an otherwise healthy plant. Bend, tuck, tie, is the better approach unless air circulation is the reason for removing plant material. I mean it's not like if one took a HID spotlight and trained it specifically on the budZ that it would grow bigger. Just doesn't work like that does it. BudZ are the result of photosynthesis. Without the engine (the leaves) the budZ won't come. Oh shit. Here i go again. Bye-bye