trimming during flower and general help

[GanjaDudeLV]

First grow.

2 weeks since flip and my plants are super bushy. Should I be removing all of the lower leaves and branches?

Any other general advice or tips based on the pictures? Growing in coco using LEDs with fox farm nutes.

Right now grow light is 24 inches away and not sure if it should be closer, running 2x 240 watt Quantum boards.

Thanks!!

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

that's kind of a loaded question, a lot of people "defoliate", and a lot of people don't do shit. i fall in the middle. i like to remove just enough leaves to open the lower bud sites up to the light, and make sure they have good ventilation. if a leaf is shading a bigger area than itself, i take it, if two or more are laying on top of each other, i take the weaker looking one...i might take up to 1/3 of the sun leaves off of a plant when it gets into the third or fourth week of flower, and starts to get ridiculously bushy.
as far as lollipopping, you should really do that before flower, it's pretty stressful on a plant, and has caused herming for me a couple of times. it's ok to remove a few small stems just as the stretch stops, when they start to actually develop buds, but most of that should be done before you flip them

nice looking plants, by the way

 

[GanjaDudeLV]

that's kind of a loaded question, a lot of people "defoliate", and a lot of people don't do shit. i fall in the middle. i like to remove just enough leaves to open the lower bud sites up to the light, and make sure they have good ventilation. if a leaf is shading a bigger area than itself, i take it, if two or more are laying on top of each other, i take the weaker looking one...i might take up to 1/3 of the sun leaves off of a plant when it gets into the third or fourth week of flower, and starts to get ridiculously bushy.
as far as lollipopping, you should really do that before flower, it's pretty stressful on a plant, and has caused herming for me a couple of times. it's ok to remove a few small stems just as the stretch stops, when they start to actually develop buds, but most of that should be done before you flip them

nice looking plants, by the way

Awesome, thanks for the advice

 

[bigsteve]

To tell if the plant is too close to the bulb do the "hand test". Plants are about as sensitive to heat as human hands. So place your hand, palm down, over the top closest to the bulb. If you can feel the heat you are too close. With a 1000W bulb in my flower room I can let plants get within 10-12 inches of the bulb with no probs. Closer the better.

Good luck, BigSteve.