Indoor When To Trim Fan Leafs?

[Gage]

So I was wondering when you guys trim the large fan leafs?

I'm at day 30 so was thinking of triming the fan leafs...what do you think.

 

[Jackal]

Tuck don't pluck I only take off fans when there half dead or ready to fall off.

 

[Nelson]

This is one of those growing things that about half do it one way and half do it another.

Please don't quote me the Medical Marihuana Bible I am familier with it.

I'm a fan leaf plucker and a bottom branch trimmer. I really don't think there is a right way or a wrong way and it depemds on what plant you are growing and how it does with more light into the centre of the plant. I like em gone and you like to keep em. Maybe we are both right.

Tuck don't pluck I only take off fans when there half dead or ready to fall off.

 

[L]

Think of your large fan leaves as solar panels the more you have the more light your girls can take in. I agree with jackal "Tuck dont pluck" your girls will love you for it.

 

[Jackal]

Yeah, it's one of those most debated things. I have plucked fans on some photo's, but with auto's I will clear out the bottom for watering easier and better circulation. Auto's are easily stunted from my experience so I just leave them.

 

[Nelson]

It is so hard unless you have a large sample size to actually compare one way to another. I just made another outside raised bed to grow some extra SCH next year. The box faces south so It should hold 8 so maybe I will leaf 4 and let the other 4 be. It is too small a sample to be scientifically viable but at least it will form such comparison.

I know Muddy and Jackal is a non leafer and I guess Andy is also. That is why they are handing out likes left and right but I am unconvinced.

My breeders group has a lot of good growers and I would say about half the group are leafers and the other half don't. It is also interesting that about half believe a seed doesn't make up its mind about which sex it is going to be untill it ihas the second set of leaves on it. Wierdly the same bunch that believe in no leafing tend to believe that the plant is not set for sex by the seed. I can only say they are the Cervantes followers. Many of the more modern cources of articles do believe in leafing and many of those seem to believe in sex set in seeds. I guess that is why that fem seeds don't produce any males. I have read the Cerventes book cover to cover and it is a great book but not the absolute truth on everything and I like to follow my own thoughts on both of these. Probably no one here is going to give me a like on this.

Anyway I will follow along this grow next year and see if the two sets of plants show any difference in yield.

 

[Muddy]

I've never read Cervantes book, so I'm not a follower of his methods. I've come to my conclusion mainly based on what I see happen with autos in their last 3 weeks. I always seem to worry that the buds aren't getting fat enough and then the fan leaves start to turn and I see that explosion of growth where the buds get so fat. While removing those leaves earlier will provide more light to those inner buds, I think those leaves are equally, if not more important to the final growth stage of the buds. I do pinch off the most inner buds to force more growth to the upper buds on the side branches. I sometimes will also remove those small inner fan leaves if they are in close to the main stalk. So far it's worked well and I've gotten good results from my plants.

From what I've seen and know of defoliation techniques I think they are more suited for photo strains where the plants have more time to adapt. Autos just don't have enough time to recover and end up stunted to one degree or another.

 

[Nelson]

I know you have his book Muddy cause you quoted it to me once back on the forum. Am I mistaking? I know you are a great grower and tyotally capable of forming your own opinion.

Oh well my test next year will be with SCH. I will report on the grow. If there is anything you might suggest for the grow then I am all ears until then we will just let it slide.

I've never read Cervantes book, so I'm not a follower of his methods. I've come to my conclusion mainly based on what I see happen with autos in their last 3 weeks. I always seem to worry that the buds aren't getting fat enough and then the fan leaves start to turn and I see that explosion of growth where the buds get so fat. While removing those leaves earlier will provide more light to those inner buds, I think those leaves are equally, if not more important to the final growth stage of the buds. I do pinch off the most inner buds to force more growth to the upper buds on the side branches. I sometimes will also remove those small inner fan leaves if they are in close to the main stalk. So far it's worked well and I've gotten good results from my plants.

From what I've seen and know of defoliation techniques I think they are more suited for photo strains where the plants have more time to adapt. Autos just don't have enough time to recover and end up stunted to one degree or another.

 

[Muddy]

The only grow book I have is Ed Rosenthals original Marijuana Growing Guide that I purchased back around 1974 or 75. I've read Greg Greens Grow Bible on line but have not read any of Cervantes books.

In my experience with growing SCH this year, it's quite different from dwarfs, more like a photo strain in it's growth patterns. A dwarf stain might make for a more valid experiment in the context of this discussion.

I know you have his book Muddy cause you quoted it to me once back on the forum. Am I mistaking? I know you are a great grower and tyotally capable of forming your own opinion.

Oh well my test next year will be with SCH. I will report on the grow. If there is anything you might suggest for the grow then I am all ears until then we will just let it slide.

 

[arcticsun]

my approach to this is simple.. i want as much bud as possible subjected to direct light.. and a want an efficient leaf surface that is as big as possible. But everything that is not getting enough light must go.

leaves are good, but when you have leaves ontop of leaves ontop of leaves...

so.. its a matter of making every single leaf as efficient as can possibly be..

to use a metafor.. looking at the leaves as solar panels in a system, one solar panel positioned in the shade behind another is not efficient, it can be removed to maximize the efficiency of the system in total because it takes energy to run the solar panel aswell.


so in short, my philosophy is to remove whatever is not efficient while keeping an efficient leaf surface that is as big as possible. I must stress that it is no goal in itself to remove a fanleaf, but if that fanleaf is covering over new growth and possibly budgrowth then i personally often choose to remove it.

I usually remove the big fanleaves on the main stalk first, this is usually done along with debranching and leecher removal. I try to pick at my plants as little as possible so i do a couple of good rounds of removing leaves and leechers and leave them alone as much as i can.

After my trimming rounds i usually bring the temp and humidity up, kind of to simulate that they have been through a storm... it seems to me that my plants do not appear stunted from this treatment but rather taht the new growth that was previously covered by fanleaves immediately starts to grow faster. I think the end result is higher quality bud, not sure whether or not it affects the yield negatively.


just my completely subjective 2c on this subject, im one who thinks that the correct trimming of plants is a growers skill that when used right can give good results.