I have a pretty lanky lady about 35 days into flowering. There are some pretty large fan leaves that are covering some of the buds. So basically i just want to know if it ok to cut them away to let in more light or is it going to hurt her? Just to be clear shes in perfect health. Not a brown or discolored spot anywhere, a absolute gorgeous dark green!
I think that everyone has there own way of doing things. Some will tell you not to cut anything. Others trim a lot in different stages. I am currently on my second official grow, and I am trying to not cut much, but I did remove a few larger leaves from the "middle/crotch" so the buds below get light, but I also just bent some others out of the way. I just bend em down to the lower node and stuff em in a crotch. Good luck with your grow! Get a pic on here if you can so we can see.
In the end its okay to take a few fan leaves here and there if you feel it might be needed. The debate is about when its needed and if it hurt the plant. I believe if you remove a fan leaf or two it wont hurt anything and will only help. Remember when plants are in the wild they lose parts all the time and move on with thier plant lives.
I trim fan leaves sparingly. If they're drained or crispy or blocking a bunch of leaf below them, chop chop they go. You want to leave the bulk of them there though. The plant will start draining them for energy as it reaches full ripeness. That's what i saw mine doing. Trim them from the base. Don't leave pieces dangling.