Hey guys, I'm in week 4 of flowering my 2 Super Lemon Haze plants. It's a 10 week flowering cycle for the strain, so I'm almost halfway done. Is it bad to trim a lot of my fan leaves off? I've read that doing too much trimming during flowering can strain the plant and slow growth, but just wanted to see what some people on here think, because trimming a lot of the fans would get a lot more light to my lower buds. I'm growing hydro with CFLs. Any answers appreciated, thanks.
The never ending debate. Use the search, their are soooo many posts about this. I like to let the plant keep them but needs must and in SCROG I remove nearly all of them. SLH will go 10-12 weeks, in your situation unless you have a lot of big CFL's you will have no light penetration. Get your scissors out
Your plants are already struggling because all they get is CFLs. You want to add some plasma or HID so they get the right intensity and PAR light. Photosynthesis is what drive bud development. Plants store sugars and other nutrition in their leaves. Instead of harming your plants by trimming them, give them more and better light, from the side and the top. Trimming does harm plants, especially as early as you're proposing to do it.
Everyone has their own opinion on it. For me I figure if it's not needed, don't do it. Through some more cfls underneath for more light, or like Greg said, upgrade your lighting. You will be shocked on the light penetration difference from CFL and HID (I was). And some say if you cut the bottom leaves or even branches, it focuses on the top colas. As in you either get big colas, or decent sized smaller buds all over. Never tested it myself, just other things I've heard around here...
Thanks for all the responses guys. Like a few of you mentioned, I have been considering getting a 150w HID. I'm just growing in my closet so I figure 150 watter would be great. But I WON'T go above 150w due to heat issues and fire hazards. (Live in an apartment complex, can't burn the place down!) Yes/no?
Ive always trimmed all the bottom crap for scrog and never trim fan leaves..buds in the shade seem to get just as big anyways so it's probably due to the fan leaves
Ok if we are talking about SLH which is my fave smoke then she will cope very well with the loss of a few leaves. That's my last comment and it's strain specific, everyone and his dog will ramble on and on about this subject, it usually results in blades disagreeing, seen it a hundred times. BTW the SLH will fill in massively from week 9 on. Don't chop her early. Peace, I'm unsubscribing now as I can offer no more help, only add fuel to the fire of dispute lol. Peace Gid
The chemical/hormonal process of cutting vs tucking is significantly different. move those big leaves out of the way, but only remove them once they start to shrivel and are about to fall anyways... they contain nutrients your plant can and will use.
I call bullshit on every post including my own. No one knows the answer for this guy because no one knows his EXACT situation and set up other than him. I gave him some rep and advised him to go with his gut feeling. Bye
Ya seriously... Most every post in here is crap hearsay... Make sure you add on time at the end cause you are stunting growth taking leaves?? For real dude? Spreading false information will get you nowhere and confuse others.. Best to just keep your mouth shut if you don't know what you are talking about. Chop some of them leaves off bro! I just try not to take more than 1/3 of the plant at once... You should be golden if you do that. Most plants take to defoliation quite well, while others do not. Start with taking a few every couple days and seeing how the plant reacts.
If ya really want to learn for the future, just chop some off 1 and then compare your yields at finish,, learn the heck outta it if you plan to stick with your strain,, even with same strain your personal pheno will react differently even if only slightly than anyone else's,
Plants will not be able to absorb the light they need to thrive, without fan leaves. Period. Remove some, and you're removing that much energy potential from the plant. Instead of growing flowers, it now needs to waste the little energy it has on replacing those leaves you removed. Even in scrogs they should be removed only with a great deal of selection and caution, otherwise, you're absolutely stunting growth and decimating your yield, compared to the same plant that still has the ability to convert light into the energy it needs to grow and thrive. Which plant will grow larger, the fastest? The one that has been allowed to keep the foliage required to take in sunlight and perform photosynthesis, or the plant that once had roughly the same number of leaves, but instead had portion of its foliage removed? Common sense, guys! A big root system is nothing, without the power required to keep it healthy. Remove leaves, and you're removing yield. Shaded buds grow fatter, than buds without fan leaves. If the leaf isn't yellowing, and doesn't come off easily with the lightest tug, leave it be! If you want plants like these, anyhow... The plant she came from, upper left side... West Aus clone-only, Feralocity aka 'Aussie Big Bud'. And a few more... some Feralocity, some Widow of Oz, some POG... By leaving the fan leaves alone during the both growth and bloom phases, I'm not plagued during trimming, by those annoying little triangular leaves, that desperately try to replace them. And a bit of the average bloom room (around April, this year).. The best fan leaves to remove, to enhance the growth we desire, are the lowest leaves that are already shaded by bud growth and the above major fan leaves. The light is generally a healthy, and highly-functional distance from the upper canopy, but it's often a bit far away from the lower portions of the plant; these base-leaves are no longer contributing as much as they otherwise could to the overall health and growth of the plant, and they require a small amount of maintenance energy themselves. If you're compelled to remove foliage, that is where you need to begin, rather than removing the very most useful leaves, which your plants have spent the better portion of their lives producing and developing.
If you REALLY want to compare, and ignore what we know about how plants react on a chemical level... Then 2 plants isn't a fair comparison, OP should do 40 plants divided into two groups...otherwise its not likely to be statistically relevant. Am I asking too much for this forum to take an educated or scientific approach rather than going by hearsay, wifes-tales and guess work?
Wowzers those are huge colas! You grew these yourself Kitty? Big ups if you did for sure! Did you use C02 during that grow? They look crazy big!
Yes, all the above are mine from over the years, to as recently as April, but no I've never used CO2 in my smaller rooms... I've been responsible for and have grown plants where it was used, for a few larger warehouse contributions, which I can't even come close to taking credit for, though! But in my little rooms (the photos above, and those others I share on the forums, just a few thousand watts ) I've used a variety of nutrients over the years, from Aussie organic and inorganic brands when I was over seas, to local organics and teas, home brewed blends, even a few strictly vegan crops, in everything from coco, to basic peat/perlite/hydroton, guano and sulfer blends, aquaponics (providing live fish the healthiest environment possible, for their safety and in order to allow the plants to thrive, in nft/dutch-type systems, as well as simple bubblers, where the fish 'hang out' with the root systems of the plants), indoor and out... I've probably used Dutch Master the most often as far as inorganics go, and this grow I'm playing around with more home-brewed teas made from local 'dynamic accumulators' (basically fermenting molasses and common weeds, known for isolating and sourcing high quantities of specific elements, such as plantain ((not the 'banana' )), dandelion, clover and a several others I can find easily... I'll give a list I compiled for another thread below ), feather, bone and blood meals, bat and seabird guano, elemental sulfer, and (for the first time) a bit of the General Organic range as a supplement (BioThrive & their CalMg+) as a supplement. It's a 'mostly' organic grow, mainly because the General folks don't want to disclose their 'secret recipes', so I'm told, and in part because one can never be sure what the local 'natural' plants have been exposed to even if found deep in the wilderness... Anyhow, as for those accumulators... Skipping the middle pages.... (you can find them in my photo albums if you're interested, I don't want to overwhelm the page with text, for those who aren't interested ) Sorry to blab on so much!... I'll be heading back to the bong for the evening, I think
What nutrients were these plants grown on? They are super impressive.. I mean.. not to be rude or disrespectful at all, but I have noticed the true affect with my plants face to face what a good defoliation will do far a good strong plant. It really opens it up and allows more airflow throughout the plant. Taking leaves off in the way of bud sites has a pretty big effect and I invite anyone to take a few off their own on one side and take comparisons to the other side.. pretty easy to see how the plant reacts. Its def not for every strain though, I suggest taking a few to see how it reacts and going from there.. I have some that wither up and die from a few and some that can take a buttload and keep on ticking.. I think its of course its dependent on the environment, nutrients, lights..etc as well, but most plants will react positively to defoliation... just takes a little time to figure out if yours will.