Do you really need the big fan leaves wifh an inside grow?

AliCakes

Well-Known Member
Leaves contain stored nutrients, and chlorophyll. More chlorophyll=more transpiration=more energy created to make big beautiful buds.

Moral of this very brief horticulture lesson is: don't remove the leaves unless you have a real reason to do so.
 

Dannysayo

Active Member
Yea I thought so n I appreciate your response. I have a fem, unkniwn strain. I veggd her about 3weeks at a 24hr cfl lighting schedule. I went 100% warm. 5 lights total at 26watts/1750 lumen per bulb. Shes been under those exact lights different pos dependin in growth 12/12 cycle for three weeks now. Total I have only lost three leaves. The very first two it grows and a random side leaf. I feel kinda proud. I have been feeding her a 11/35/15 nurt mix. Any suggestions or tips???
 

ArCaned

Active Member
Switch to a higher nPK for late flowering if possible, or get some bloom food like cana PK.

The only fan leaves i will remove are the ones that point inward to the center of my (mini) scrog, as these block light to the nodes that I need to develop.

In general, keep the leaves, they are your plants solar panels.
 

MI Dude

Member
Think of fan leaves as solar panels. How much power do you want your plant running on?
I only remove fans if they are almost falling off on their own. But to each their own. Happy Grows!
 

Dannysayo

Active Member
Yea, im not going to cut at all. It surrounded wiyh lights and mylar with an air purifier constantly running. Any advise on a bettter npk instead of 11/35/15, for later flowering?
 

MYOB

Well-Known Member
You can trim a few fan leaves. I trim some large ones that are blocking light from getting to bud sites. I also trim some of the lower, smaller flowers and leaves that are shaded by the canopy.
 

Fazer1rlg

Active Member
You can trim a few fan leaves. I trim some large ones that are blocking light from getting to bud sites. I also trim some of the lower, smaller flowers and leaves that are shaded by the canopy.
That is counter productive!
 

MYOB

Well-Known Member
something I have wondered...

Do the flowers use light to grow or do they use the fan leaf energy to grow?

Why do buds at the top that are exposed to more light get larger and denser than those at the bottom of the plant? Is this a matter of apical dominance more so than exposure to light?

If you covered buds with opaque material and left fan leaves exposed, would the buds grow the same?

My thinking is that in nature, the plants sole purpose is reproducing. It grows how it does in order to have the best chance at getting pollinated. Marijuana growers DO NOT want that. They want to keep the plant from doing what it is made to do. So while fan leaves may be there for a reason in nature, that reason isn't to get big, dense flowers with swollen trich covered false seed pods. It is trying to do one thing and we are trying to get it to do another.

This is why we train plants, top then, tie them down, cut their main growth shoots. We sex them, clone, give them all sorts of inorganic compounds, force flowering, grow them without soil etc...

The goal is not to grow the best plant. It is to produce unpollinated female flowers. So what might be best for a plant in nature is not necessarily the best for a plant grown for a specific purpose.

Thats just my thinking. I would like to know more about the plants processes in the development of flowers and how that differs from its process in vegetative growth. We know the plant uses different nutrients in different quantities depending on the phase, does it use light differently? Do the leaves serve the same exact function in all phases?
 

Fazer1rlg

Active Member
If it is, I would like to know why. Really why and not just the solar panel analogy. I am genuinely interested and not trying to argue for arguments sake.
Seach it up defoliation there are plenty of posts in the forum that I have participated in saying why.
 

topfuel29

Well-Known Member
something I have wondered...

Do the flowers use light to grow or do they use the fan leaf energy to grow?

Why do buds at the top that are exposed to more light get larger and denser than those at the bottom of the plant? Is this a matter of apical dominance more so than exposure to light?

If you covered buds with opaque material and left fan leaves exposed, would the buds grow the same?

My thinking is that in nature, the plants sole purpose is reproducing. It grows how it does in order to have the best chance at getting pollinated. Marijuana growers DO NOT want that. They want to keep the plant from doing what it is made to do. So while fan leaves may be there for a reason in nature, that reason isn't to get big, dense flowers with swollen trich covered false seed pods. It is trying to do one thing and we are trying to get it to do another.

This is why we train plants, top then, tie them down, cut their main growth shoots. We sex them, clone, give them all sorts of inorganic compounds, force flowering, grow them without soil etc...

The goal is not to grow the best plant. It is to produce unpollinated female flowers. So what might be best for a plant in nature is not necessarily the best for a plant grown for a specific purpose.

Thats just my thinking. I would like to know more about the plants processes in the development of flowers and how that differs from its process in vegetative growth. We know the plant uses different nutrients in different quantities depending on the phase, does it use light differently? Do the leaves serve the same exact function in all phases?
From what I've researched the top of the plant gets a lot of the plants resources. You can see a similar thing in nature the majority of growth is at the top of the plants and trees. It makes sense for pollination to have many pistils high up the plant to capture pollen.
the fan leafs are huge on most plants. The surface area of one fan leaf is probly 2x or 3x more than the tri-leaflets that surround the buds on most plants. They do serve there purpose for a majority of flowering until they become yellow and start falling off allowing more light to reach the buds.
when I first started growing I went trim happy on a plant it wasn't good. Ever since then I've never really messed with trimming in flower. I trim lower branches and sucker branches in veg, but I never really mess with trimming once she goes in flower.
 

charlestonchunk

Well-Known Member
Those leaves have midgets in them that cokllect all the good stuff from the sun and put it together to make a but. I learned ther hard way. dont cut too many leaves even if blocking light from cola
 
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