Removing Fan Leaves During Flower? Are you serious?

[FatMarty]

Well my friend is a breeder and he says not to take them after two-three weeks into bloom cycle if you want them to grow back.
After a couple weeks they quit regenerating and that's that.
Fan leaves feed the branch they shoot off of.
IMO - a healthy branch supports a healthy bud - so...

Fan leaves also serve a very important function besides immediate nutrition for the stem:
they also hold reserve nutrients for when the plant experiences stress or a lack of feeding.
This is why they turn color after a flush - the flush strips the nutes out of medium - then plants suck the last drops of goodness from the fan leaves to finish.

Whatever you do - don't take them from tight kolas as they often 'bleed' at the cut and this can easily cause Bud Rot.
Hopes this helps.

 

[markoo]

at last.. a Full overstanding!!

 

[gladstoned]

I have packs of no name of smile just waiting to kick some ass!

 

[bertiswho]

cutting a ton of fan leaves off during flowering makes your plant slow its growth....its best to do all your trimming in the veg stage. If you do it right you dont have a forest to worry about when its flowering.

 

[chb444220]

yes. trimming to much during flowering will slow your growth. and possibly turn ur plant hermie. any stress in mid-late flowering can cause this. even small things such as light leaks.. plants falling over.. etc. if you are worried about bigger fan leaves blocking budsites from recieving light.. instead of choppin them off... get a twisty tie/break tie or sum string.. and pull them back and tie them to the branch.. problem solved. trimming lower branches off is deff a plus in my opinion.. lollipopping will increase yields and budsize overall.. and save you time from trimming tiny airy buds that once dry, will yield 0.nothing... lol. i usually trim the lower 1/3 or lower 1/4 of my plant.. you should do most of this during veg... IF you do plan on doing this during flowering.. be very careful.. and do 1 small branch every few days.. DO NOT do it all at once.. it will become such a shock to the plant to lose all the lower branches.. it will think its under attack.. and make a last attempt at re-producing.. in turn.... producing nanners/pollen sacks to produce seeds as quickly as possible.. good luck everyone.

Sammy - plants did NOT take well to it. fan leaves were burnt to shit.. one tip when spraying anhy kind of spray... always test it on a couple leaves of 1 plant.. see how it reacts.. and make sure you spray right before the lights go off... or as soon as the lights do go off... i think wat happened with mine... the spray had neem oil in it.. and the light reflected off the oil... almost magnifying the light.. which caused the burn... if you found what works for you, then go right ahead.. and dont change ur method because I or sum1 else told you to.. but u may want to do a side by side grow.. and try growing 2 plants.. one with and one without fanleaves.. 2 of the same clones if possible to be accurate. and see the difference.. fan leaves store alot of nutrients and also absorb alot of light - in turn - giving more energy to the plant to make buds.. grow taller... etc.. good luck man!!

**Also... @FatMarty.. FAN leaves will not regenerate. even during the veg cycle... once theyre gone theyre gone. =-/ thats why i say to tie them down if ur worried about light not getting to budsites. everything else you sais seems right on point... im not tryna shut down ur statement.. or ur breeder friends knowledge... but they deff do not regenerate. you can cut the tops/tips off of branches during veg. (Topping / Fimming) and after a fwe days - 1 week. they will heal and create 2-3+ tops.. soo they kind of regenerate. maybe thtas what he was talking about...

well hope sum of this info helps sum1 out. later guys

 

[FatMarty]

Yeah chb they sometimes regrow Above the shoot, or the next set of fans on the shoot will enlarge, if not too late in bloom.
That's what I think he meant.

Not hurting my feelings man.

At any rate - I think it's a bad idea to keep cutting them off if they aren't infested or something.
Out in Cali the commercial growers all seem to trim the fans about halfway instead of pinching them completly off.
At least that's what I was noticing on all those early videos with the revolving lights and stuff.
What I heard on that is the plant often does not need the entire fan leaf and you can open up bud sites with the trim.
There must be something to it; whenever I get a clone from my friend it is trimmed that way.

 

[gladstoned]

Not sure if I am talking about something completely different, but I was told that many clones have trimmed leaves so that they fit better in trays when you have several all together.
Like loading a cloner, or putting 50 cuttings in a tray.

 

[chb444220]

when you take clones.. you want to cut the fan leaves about 1/2way.. 2 reasons why.. 1st. the clone is small. and doesnt need such big fan leaves to grow. and 2nd.. since the leaves are cut.. the clone focuses more on NEW growth.. and not older growth. as for them being cut JUST so they can fit better.. i doubt it.. but it sure does help. lol. it would be very crowded if they all had full fan leaves everywhere. and @Fatmarty. ive never heard of that before? fan leaves re-growing. ill have to look into that tho. ive never had any of mine do that.. but that doesnt mean it cant happen ya know. it would make sense that the fan newer fan leaves would be slightly bigger.. just like when you trim off lower branches.. the other branches get bigger. and grow bigger buds.

 

[HomeLessBeans]

when you take clones.. you want to cut the fan leaves about 1/2way.. 2 reasons why.. 1st. the clone is small. and doesnt need such big fan leaves to grow. and 2nd.. since the leaves are cut.. the clone focuses more on NEW growth.. and not older growth. as for them being cut JUST so they can fit better.. i doubt it.. but it sure does help. lol. it would be very crowded if they all had full fan leaves everywhere. and @Fatmarty. ive never heard of that before? fan leaves re-growing. ill have to look into that tho. ive never had any of mine do that.. but that doesnt mean it cant happen ya know. it would make sense that the fan newer fan leaves would be slightly bigger.. just like when you trim off lower branches.. the other branches get bigger. and grow bigger buds.

a third reason is that cutting stops moisture loss. don't snip and watch the tips curl.

i also like that it shows where the clone started growing from. new growth is easy to spot

 

[st0wandgrow]

a third reason is that cutting stops moisture loss. don't snip and watch the tips curl.

i also like that it shows where the clone started growing from. new growth is easy to spot

^THIS is the main reason why^. It prevents transpiration.

In layman's terms.... the surface of the leaf will discharge water vapor, and if this process exceeds the rate in which your stem uptakes water then the clone will fail. Less leaf surface area = less transpiration (similar to evaporation).

I've also heard people say that by cutting the leaves in half, it's less foliage that the clone has to support thus directing more energy to root production. Not sure if this is true, but it sounds good in theory.

 

[FatMarty]

Well that sure is cool - I learned something new today.

Anyone know why they trim the full grown fan leaves?
Is it to give more light?
Or just to give more direction to buds?

 

[stumpjumper]

I've never had any negative results from snipping some of them big light hogging bastards, and the shaded growth underneath them always seem to appreciate it. Moderation is the key I think.

I've also read arguments in other topics in here about this and some people claim trimming the leaves have increased their harvest. Who knows till you try I guess.

 

[HomeLessBeans]

Deferent strains can benefit from a radical defoliation. A shaggy indica? Yes.
A nicely streched Sativa? No I leave them mostly alone. When they show that they are in the way or dying? Gone

 

[Cory and trevor]

strangely enough my bubblelicious plant (indica) wasn't crap til I did remove alot of leaves then it frosted up. weird. only one that ever did that so far.

 

[chb444220]

stable strains that dont hermie often can frost up when stressed. but its a gamble. it'll either frost up. or throw nanners out. =/ this is why alot of people place their plants in complete darkness for 1-3 days right before harvest.. it stresses the plant out and it will produce more resin. and also.. light degrades THC.. which is why its always better to harvest right BEFORE the lights come on.. rather than at the END of the light cycle. if ur lights go on at 8am and off at 8pm... if u harvest at 7:59AM... your plant will have a higher THC % than if u were to harvest at 7:59PM.

 

[stumpjumper]

stable strains that dont hermie often can frost up when stressed. but its a gamble. it'll either frost up. or throw nanners out. =/ this is why alot of people place their plants in complete darkness for 1-3 days right before harvest.. it stresses the plant out and it will produce more resin. and also.. light degrades THC.. which is why its always better to harvest right BEFORE the lights come on.. rather than at the END of the light cycle. if ur lights go on at 8am and off at 8pm... if u harvest at 7:59AM... your plant will have a higher THC % than if u were to harvest at 7:59PM.

Thats a fairy tale, do you realize what small percentage of trichomes are even getting direct light? Thousands of more are buried inside the bud that aren't getting any light at all. I don't buy the harvest before light for that reason. I think it would make an insignificant difference. JMO...

 

[HomeLessBeans]

I sneak up on my gurls in the dark. After I get em drunk of course.

Not for trichs. When the lights come on the plant uptakes nutes from the roots to the bud. Kinda defeats flushing IME

 

[chb444220]

well you are entitled to youor opinion.... but it is proven that light degrades THC.. everyone knows that.. and if you harvest your plant after its been in direct light for 12 hours... why wouldnt that light degrade the THC? i know thousands more are buried in the bud.. but wat about the other thousands that arent? and are on the fan leaves.. and coat the outside of the bud? this is why they say to hang your buds in a cool dark room. to keep light from degrading THC.. and they say to store it in a cool dark place as well. even if it isnt that big of a difference... if you have a choice to have bud that has slightly more THC.. wouldnt you choose that? rather than bud with slightly less THC?

 

[stumpjumper]

Yeah I get that, but I don't think you're going to notice the difference.

 

[chrishydro]

I only trim them when they show some sign of dying. As I, and everyone else I am sure, get close to the end fan leaves start to die. I trim them right away being careful to cut them close to the leaf and leave the stem to die and fall off on its own.

I prune like this during the entire grow so it is just a normal thing for me.