i thought leaves took in light, not buds. is this not true?
this is terrible advise! the fan leaves are the solar power plants for your girls. what would make you want to remove them when your flowering aggressivly. the flowers dont have much photsysthesis take place in them anyway, they are more of a nute sink than a powerhouse. and dont clip your yellow leaves, give them a gentle tug and if they dont come off the plant isnt done with it. if its still firmly attached its because the plant is still pulling valuable nutes and fluids from it(the reason its yellowing in the first place).
Its true that there is such thing as N migration during flowering (plant migrates as much N and other trace elements from the fan leaves to the bud as possible) but it is a neglible effect when growing in a controlled environment (human giving plenty of nutes/water) as opposed to nature where any drought or other disfavorable environment for the plant can occur (so plants adapted this 'N migration' effect to ensure reproduction success).. also once the fan leaves turn yellow, photosynthesis is at a stand still and all those leaves do is suck important elements away from the rest of the plant in order to grasp on trying to survive.. they are no longer 'power houses' and the stored starches in the roots should go a long way to give the plant what it needs for budding.. the buds have leaves of their own for photosynthesis.. fan leaves are crucial in veg for growing, but for flowering the plant uses a completely different sugar production and allocation strategy... clipping them off is better as it puts an immediate end to the redirection of important elements for the plant.. they only linger in nature before falling off because plants have not adapted a more efficient way to get rid of these once they have zapped them of all their energy/resources.. (we're strictly talking about the lower yellowing fan leaves well into flowering now..)
...c'mon, its had millions of years, i think its got it down.
and i stand by what i said. no resouces are going to these leaves, thats why they are deteriorating, resources are leaving them. did you know that something around 50%(not exact figure but close) of light passes through leaves? so really theyre not blocking as much as you would think. they might no longer be powerhouses, but the are still sinks for valuable resouces. thats why they drop when gently tugged, the plant has finished pulling availible resouces from the leaf and it had started to dry out.
and as for the plant not having adapted a better way in nature
read mad...there saying dont pull the fan leaves
