Indoor Should i trim the leaves?

[hejdaman]

Hi everyone! This is my first post on AF.net, but i´ve been here a long time reading all your posts, and it been really educational i think. I wonder myself why i never joined until now, but here i am.

I have recently started my first real grow indoors. I have never grown indoors before, and when i started out this grow i thought i knew everything there is to know about growing. That was not the case.
I have been in and out on different growforums reading (including this one), and i´ve googled for hours it seems on different things.
All my problems and questions has worked themseves out, its amazing really how useful google is.
But there is one question i never reallt got an answer to. I read about trimming and topping the plants, but i don´t know if i should do this when there blooming? I have 4 Lowryder F1 plants thats 5 weeks old under a 250w CFL-light, and a 80w CFL light-fixture.
I want to make the most out of the plants and i don´t know if i should cut the bottom-fanleaves so the light can get down to the buds at the bottom of the plant.

Could this stress them and make them stop focusing on the blooming and start focusing on the recovery from cut fanleaves?

I hope you could understand my question. English is not my native language.

Have a good day, everybody. /H.

 

[Muddy]

Welcome to AFN! Whether you choose to clip those fan leaves is entirely up to you. Some people do, others don't. I only remove a few of the bottom ones to open up the bottom the plant for better air circulation and easy of watering. Some just tuck they out of the way so they don't shade the buds. I shouldn't stress the plants as long as you don't remove too many at one time. Maybe take 3-4 one day, wait a few days, then take a couple more. Just remember the plant uses those fan leaves to store up energy. As harvest time grows near the plant will start to draw off that stored energy to fatten up the buds. Eventually they will yellow and die off as their stored energy is depleted.

P.S. Your English if fine.

 

[hejdaman]

Thanks for your reply.

So maybe i should just try to trim one plant at first and see how it works out. When i have been growing outdoors i didn´t trim them or do anything to them. Just maybe watering them, and feed them nutrition.

I have been growing for some time now and i have growing as a hobby, but the last couple of years i have other things going on in my life so it feels like i´m a virgin all over again.
But i know that the information is there, but sometimes i need to here it from someone else to be sure that it is correct.

Thanks for your help, and that you took your time to post me.

 

[Sauce Boss]

I'm no pro around here yet, but take this advice, hold off on trimming them. I have 30 cream caramel going right now and I trimmed up 5 of them and once I did so, they stopped vegging and started flowering vigorously, producing triches on fan leaves within days. That is good and all, but in actually, my plants still had another 3 weeks of vegging to do in which they lost about 8 inches of development, which could of been for even more bud sites. Lesson learned to myself.

If you're worried about airflow or lighting to lower bud sites, invest in a fan or maybe even clf tubes to run below the plants. I will be experimenting with this method in my next aeroponic grow with high power Veg tubes (blue) then switch off to the flowering tubes (red) after the first few weeks of flowering.

 

[Muddy]

Good point SB, any removal of leaves shouldn't be done till after week 6.

 

[micro.grower]

Personally, I feel I have had success in my grows by removing some leaves. Not all, but a couple here and there. Not really as much during flowering. But also, I grow in very small spots. If I had the room to not have to trim em, I probably wouldn't. I guess it really depends on how and where you grow in regards to removing fan leaves.

 

[Sauce Boss]

Here is some good information I found over at 420Mag Forum. All credit goes to Tulip, none to myself.

"I am often asked about removing Fan Leaves to allow more light to penetrate in the Blooming cycle.

DO NOT CUT THEM.
IF you think they are blocking some lights, then get some paperclips and hold them back, if you insist on doing anything, but DO NOT CUT THE FAN LEAVES O.

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, When a large FAN leaf starts yellowing, say it is half yellow, that means in the photosynthesis process, that leaf has ate nutrients, absorbed some LIGHT and made food for the plant and buds and NOW, half of that is gone, or used or consumed. Well, what about the other half? Can not it's energy still be used or consumed?
AND when it is ALL consumed or used, that leaf will naturally just fall off.

AND you say it is blocking LIGHT?
GREAT and GOOD, that means it is getting the LIGHT it needs and deserves more than the other leaves do, to do it's job, to make food and grow.


Years ago I tried removing lower fan leaves to allow more Light to penetrate in. When I did remove more than a couple, the plant went into shock for a day or two, and quit eating or only ate half as much, and just went on "stand by" mode. Then, after a day or two, suddenly I saw that big fan leaf replaced by a new leaf, and I saw my plant use the energy to replace that leaf and grow it back FAST to the size it was, more than it used that energy to grow the plant bigger and make more buds or bigger buds.

I now believe that removing fan leaves is pointless, and that a leaf has a purpose and will serve that purpose until it is dead. Then it will naturally fall off. You will have small and large lower leaves just naturally wilt and fall off daily.


Don't ever remove fan leaves before harvest for several reasons.

1. The fan leaves MAKE AND STORE energy for the plant. The fan leaves are doing a process called photosynthsis, and it is the most important part or task or job the plant does, to make it grow. They make the FOOD, the sugars and carbs needed to grow.

If you remove a FAN leaf, the plant will stop growing taller until it can replace that removed fan leaf.

Removing a healthy fan leaf is a big waste of time..they are rapided replaced, unless you are in the last 2 or 3 weeks of flowering.


2. Even if the fan leaves are yellowing in late bloom I do not remove them until they are almost ready to fall off. The yellowing in the fan leaves at late harvest is the plants metabolism at work. She is transferring all stored energy in the fan leaf to bud production. It is the easiest source of energy she has late in life. Let that leaf do its job.

The Wrong reasoning is like "I could run faster if I was lighter and weighted less, so I am going to cut my legs off".



From the Growers Bible by Jorge Cervantes:
Leave leaves alone! Removal of healthy leave hacks up a healthy plant. Removing large or shade leaves DOES NOT make plants more productive. This practice DOES NOT supply more light to smaller leaves and growing tips. Plants need all their leaves to produce the maximum amount of chlorophyll and food. Removing leaves slows chlorophyll production, stresses the plant, and stunts its growth. Stress is a growth inhibitor. Remove only dead leaves or leaves that are more than 50 percent damaged."

Source - http://www.420magazine.com/forums/budding-cycle/109105-do-i-remove-fan-leaves.html

 

[micro.grower]

I still feel the same way as before about it. It all depends on how you are growing. As mentioned in the above post, they will not get as tall when the leaves are removed. For me, that is not neccasarily a bad thing. I suggest everyone who is unsure about removing some, ho ahead and see how it works for YOU, then make your decision if that method is right for you. Thanks for reading...

 

[hejdaman]

I took two leaves on one of the plants, and it didn´t do anything really i think. We´ll see i time. Maybe it will be good in the end. I don´t think it did anything. Good or bad.

But i´ll don´t think i will continue trimming the leaves in the future. But maybe it´s good for the plant, and then i will try it again in my next grow.

But thanks for taking your time writing me and sharing your experiences.

/H.

 

[Trifid]

Shade leaves are indeed energy factories essential to all plant processes. Interestingly studies have shown, that under conditions of high UV-B exposure (280-315 nm), cannabis produces significantly greater quantities of THC resin (Lydon, Teramura,Coffman 1987). If this holds true, then the shade leaves may be considered more or less essential to the production of fine cannabis since shade leaves absorb light almost exclusively above 400nm having the effect of intensifying the UV-B radiation that reaches the flowers below. Removing the shade leaves (apart from depriving the plant of an essential energy source tailored to it's means) has the effect of subtracting or diluting the UV-B intensity. After-all the plant itself has put them there as directed by millions of years of evolution so it doesn't make much sense to deprive the plants of them.

[Lydon, J., A. H. Teramura and C. B. Coffman (1987) UV-B radiation effects on photosynthesis, growth and cannabinoid production of two Cannabis sativa chemotypes. Photochem. Photobiol. 46, 201-206.]