I am in my flowering cycle for a week today and the buds are starting to show, all female at this point. They are in a nutrient transition as well as lights and are going to further get a boost when I add water tomorrow from my bat guano tea bag - high phosphorous variety. They are healthy plants and have suffered no major trauma, save for a mid size stalk on one that healed rather quickly and thoroughly (using Superthrive regularly). I have read a variety of descriptions here on the trimming that goes with flowering and I just want to make sure I have it right: Trim bottom third of plant, vertically. Remove 30-50 percent of the major fan leaves above that. Do so over the course of several days to minimize shock. Sound good? It's my first crop and I am medically approved for good reason; I WOULD dearly love to have this come through as well as humanly possible. Thanks in advance everyone. This forum is always so much help! *
I was just reading about this topic in my course book of Oaksterdam university. It was saying you don't want to chop fan leaves off unless you have to. Each fan leave is a factory for making energy for the plant. The more leaves you remove, the less energy the plant can produce. This can slow down the rate of growth making it take longer to finish. If the leaves are not receiving any light then its a different story. You can always add some CFL's to the lower part of your plants to help them get light. Or you can just leave it alone and harvest your plant in half's. First the top half, then a week or two later the bottom half. Thats what I have done and it has increased my harvest by 15-20%.