Removing fan leaves

[Gdiddydank]

So the general consensus seems to be that removing fan leaves, or any other form of High stress, is big no no once your autos are flowering. WHY you shouldn’t and WHAT consequences to expect if you do; this information seems to vary wildly across the internet.

WHY: you shouldn’t remove fan leaves during flower because:
A) they won’t grow back and
B) it causes stress which in turn causes:
1.) lower yields
2.) Longer time to completion
3.) both of the above conditions

MY OBSERVATIONS:
I grow in DWC.... so m rate of growth, and therefore recovery from stress, is super charged and expedited. This both increases the NEED to remove fan leaves as well as the ability for the plant to recover, adapt, and overcome any changes or stressors.

Im in week 7, and although I feel flowering has been slowed down due to some dertogation issues; I’m well into flower no doubt. But I have SO MANY FAN LEAVES that I just cannot standby without doing something. I’ve maxed my horizontal SCROG Space and still have competing branches and leaves on top of leaves on top of leaves. I’ve been tucking the largest of them which, in itself, has become a huge mess. I’ve got massive fan leaves twisted and tucked down into the center - not doing a damn thing but drawing unnecessary energy from my plant, preventing air flow, and blocking lower bud sites.

I’m fairly new to Autos... I’m trying to follow the rules... but the experienced cultivator in me is screaming that something must be done. Assuming my entire crop isn’t consumed by PM or mold, I’m gonna have so much larf and low grade bud to deal with.

there has to be a happy medium here. I understand not wanting to do a typical Day 21 or Day 42 de-fan... but can I safely be taking a few of these monsters from each plant each day?

ALSO... the consequences of stress using flower.... some say that every hiccup during flower will directly and negatively impact yield/quality. Others say it’ll just extend your flowering time due to recovery time.

which is it? Potentially both? I can deal with a longer flowering time if it means having properly pruned and shaped plants with adequate airflow and light penetration in the canopy.

Can anybody speak on these topics with any certainty? Please advise... thanks!

 

[DogterB]

Very interested to see what others have to say on this as well. I've got a similar situation and am worrying about moisture and airflow on a big thick lady I've got going

 

[blue]

Sounds like old news - I think the general consensus these days is that defoliating is sometimes (often) necessary.

I will usually need to thin out the lower leaves in an autopot grow to allow airflow and decrease the chances of mold.
People are even doing something called "schwazzing" ... which is total leaf strip during flowering (twice) - I'd read up on that before trying it lol .

5 to ten years ago, when the belief was that Auflowers could be delicate and any repairing time from defoliating would have a negative impact on flowering .. people would be Adamant that you simply CANNOT defoliate an autoflower.

I think it's been proved a few thousand times here alone that defoliating is not a bad thing

Always good to see a defoliation thread ... reminds me of the old days!


Edit: Also it was noted very early on (even when Autos were considered to be more sensetive), that defoliating in a dwc setup was a "safer" bet due to the speed and density of growth over other methods.

 

[Simplicio]

I never cut off fan leaves in DWC, and have never had any problems, mold or otherwise.
I also use ultrasonic humidifiers to keep humidity around 65% seed to harvest, and have never had bud rot.
My tents are usually dense jungles, with not much light hitting the reservoirs.

I'm not recommending this as a general method, just as evidence that bud rot and mold might be less common than expected.

 

[2budz]

Once they start stretching i strip all inside fans. Once they’re flowering I’ll continue stripping the top/inner leaves. Once they’re in full flower I take most fans just to let light hit those bud sites. Haven’t had any issues.

 

[2budz]

Before

After

You can see how I leave lots of fans on the bottom/outside. I’ll take those later in flower. Here is the same plant a few days later.

She’s gonna need another defoliation soon. But she’s growing like crazy.

 

[2budz]

Those plants have been topped and defoliated. Two things you’re never supposed to do. You’re just gonna have to try things for yourself to see what’s fact and what’s bro science.

 

[ricklep1ck]

I was looking into this earlier and came across this thread: https://www.autoflower.org/threads/the-science-of-leaf-pruning-defoliation.69227/

There's arguements for and against, the view I found most interesting was referenced in this post:

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/the-science-of-leaf-pruning-defoliation.69227/post-2049034

If you read some of comments by Dr Photon they state the difference between pruning and defoliating.

I think it makes sense to prune some of the fan leaves to improve airflow and reduce the risk of mould as opposed to defoliating indiscriminately in order to increase yield.

 

[2budz]

I was looking into this earlier and came across this thread: https://www.autoflower.org/threads/the-science-of-leaf-pruning-defoliation.69227/

There's arguements for and against, the view I found most interesting was referenced in this post:

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/the-science-of-leaf-pruning-defoliation.69227/post-2049034

If you read some of comments by Dr Photon they state the difference between pruning and defoliating.

I think it makes sense to prune some of the fan leaves to improve airflow and reduce the risk of mould as opposed to defoliating indiscriminately in order to increase yield.

Isn’t most of what we do with these plants in an effort to increase yield?

 

[olbobcat]

The auto of today is supercharged. So if the plant is growing strong, whatever it takes.