When do leaves become useful?

[Rollitupwarrior]

Hi, currently approaching week 3 of flower and finishing my stretch. Just wondering when the leaves and stems start to become useful for making teas or oils? Should I start collecting my fallen/defoliated now or wait a couple more weeks? Cheers

 

[Fonzyyy21]

Hi, currently approaching week 3 of flower and finishing my stretch. Just wondering when the leaves and stems start to become useful for making teas or oils? Should I start collecting my fallen/defoliated now or wait a couple more weeks? Cheers

Probably a couple more weeks! I doubt any of the leaves that you wanna pull have any worth while trichomes! I'd wait a couple more weeks! You'll know when you see the sugar on those babies!

 

[jondamon]

Hi, currently approaching week 3 of flower and finishing my stretch. Just wondering when the leaves and stems start to become useful for making teas or oils? Should I start collecting my fallen/defoliated now or wait a couple more weeks? Cheers

Leaves are useful from the beginning to collect light energy and The plants use it to grow.

if you want to collect leaves to make concentrates etc then they need to have Trichomes in them otherwise if you start plucking leaves off your plants you are removing the plants light absorbers.

I only collect sugar leaves that I cut off during harvest and manicure.

 

[Rollitupwarrior]

Leaves are useful from the beginning to collect light energy and The plants use it to grow.

if you want to collect leaves to make concentrates etc then they need to have Trichomes in them otherwise if you start plucking leaves off your plants you are removing the plants light absorbers.

I only collect sugar leaves that I cut off during harvest and manicure.

Yeah I’ll be leaving most leaves on the plants during the grow, just wondering when to start saving the odd ones I take off for light penetration.

 

[Rollitupwarrior]

Probably a couple more weeks! I doubt any of the leaves that you wanna pull have any worth while trichomes! I'd wait a couple more weeks! You'll know when you see the sugar on those babies!

Awesome, thanks for the reply!

 

[jondamon]

Yeah I’ll be leaving most leaves on the plants during the grow, just wondering when to start saving the odd ones I take off for light penetration.

Take them off for light penetration?

you do understand the purpose of leaves right?

 

[jondamon]

Leaves should not be removed for penetration.

the plant can be trimmed and trained to spread out and make the most usage of the lights power and footprint.

 

[EvilScotsm@n]

Take them off for light penetration?

you do understand the purpose of leaves right?

Trimming leaves during veg allows more light to the lower nodes. Thusly they grow much faster and you get more buds. Shouldn't be "neccesary " for a plant that's growing naturally but if you're doing that then your wasting your light anyway.
That was only vegged for 7 weeks and I was taking a shopping bag full of leaves off per week.
Can even get autos that size using the same treatment.
Yes they need the leaves to absorb light but for every one you cut off, you expose a bunch more so they grow back exponentially with a lot more bud sites if you do it right.

 

[jondamon]

Trimming leaves during veg allows more light to the lower nodes. Thusly they grow much faster and you get more buds. Shouldn't be "neccesary " for a plant that's growing naturally but if you're doing that then your wasting your light anyway.
That was only vegged for 7 weeks and I was taking a shopping bag full of leaves off per week.
Can even get autos that size using the same treatment.
Yes they need the leaves to absorb light but for every one you cut off, you expose a bunch more so they grow back exponentially if you do it right.

I know what you’re talking about.

Hence my follow up post about training and trimming for your lights power and footprint.

These were given 28days of veg and trimmed and trained during this time.

during flowering removing leaves to allow light to hit bud sites is counter productive.

maybe I didn’t explain it well enough.

 

[Fonzyyy21]

Trimming leaves during veg allows more light to the lower nodes. Thusly they grow much faster and you get more buds. Shouldn't be "neccesary " for a plant that's growing naturally but if you're doing that then your wasting your light anyway.
That was only vegged for 7 weeks and I was taking a shopping bag full of leaves off per week.
Can even get autos that size using the same treatment.
Yes they need the leaves to absorb light but for every one you cut off, you expose a bunch more so they grow back exponentially with a lot more bud sites if you do it right.

I was gonna say the same thing sometimes some defoliation is necessary I had a forest growing in my tent and trimmed some leaves off for better airflow and more light penetration to my lower branches and nodes!
Schwazzing is also a tek used in the 3rd week of flower, and the only goal is to expose all the bud sites!

 

[Wattzzup]

Lots of people defoliate with success. Autos and phenos. Don’t let anyone talk you into anything. It’s your grow do as you wish.

 

[jondamon]

During veg

I top
Train
Prune
Defoliate (to an extent)

During the first 2 weeks of flowering (the stretch) I trim and shape and remove as required to keep growth where I want it to be.

My response to the OP was making them realise that leaves are the solar panels.

it’s clear from his post this is his first grow and training and pruning etc should be done with caution.

 

[Fonzyyy21]

During veg

I top
Train
Prune
Defoliate (to an extent)

During the first 2 weeks of flowering (the stretch) I trim and shape and remove as required to keep growth where I want it to be.

My response to the OP was making them realise that leaves are the solar panels.

it’s clear from his post this is his first grow and training and pruning etc should be done with caution.

Fair enough!
Definitely should be careful and cautious first time training! But if done right, your yields will show!

 

[Rollitupwarrior]

Leaves should not be removed for penetration.

the plant can be trimmed and trained to spread out and make the most usage of the lights power and footprint.

Don’t stress dude haha. Just the odd leave here and there, nothing major and the plant is quiet bushy too. I’ve been on this forum a ridiculous amount asking questions and reading other posts and have read a tooooon about leaves and how they work as the solar panels of the plant. I know that taking the odd one off wont hurt me if done right. Thanks for making sure I knew though!

 

[Rollitupwarrior]

I know what you’re talking about.

Hence my follow up post about training and trimming for your lights power and footprint.

These were given 28days of veg and trimmed and trained during this time.

during flowering removing leaves to allow light to hit bud sites is counter productive.

maybe I didn’t explain it well enough.

View attachment 4620840View attachment 4620841View attachment 4620842View attachment 4620843View attachment 4620844

These look great

 

[Rollitupwarrior]

these are my girls. To explain my situation a bit more the plant in the back is a pure cbd strain which really stretched coming into flower, a bit too much for my liking. That plant now towers over the other and every now and then a large fan leave will begin to cover a nice bud site on my smaller plant, which is a critical orange punch. At the end of the day I care more about my yield on the critical than than the cbd plant so I take the leaves off here and there. They’re stuck in place with a net so I can’t move them around much.