Question about pruning and fan leaves

[psychadelibud]

Was wondering when trimming and pruning outdoor plants in a guerilla
that can't be tended to often, when removing a few fan leaves if I should cut
the leaf at the base at stalk or cut it halfway and leave some stem.

I read somewhere that if you cut it off at the base that it could cause mold
and other disease issues. And by cutting it halfway off it wouldnt rot into the
bud and should just naturally fall off on its own, is this info correct?

 

[be ez]

What I always do is just pull them off right from the main stalk, if they don't come off fairly easy I let them stay.

 

[BigNBushy]

Leaves are the powerhouse of your plant... For me the only valid reason for their removal are disease or disease prevention, by improving the air flow in the plant.

 

[papa smoke]

I would leave them, I made the mistake of removing my fan leaves now my plant doesn't have enough leaves to suck energy out of for her stages of budding, I hope she makes it

 

[BluJayz]

I would leave them, I made the mistake of removing my fan leaves now my plant doesn't have enough leaves to suck energy out of for her stages of budding, I hope she makes it

She will recover, if this is the first time you did it and she is budding she will be slow recovering. As i'm learning in defoliation or trimming its best to do it young and often to get the plant used to it. That is if you're going to go that way. Natural growing is great too, I don't disagree with letting it tend to itself. (Read the defoliation thread in my sig for sigh of relief)

OP,
Yeah that's generally the idea around the buds; it will probably just stay the lengthen you cut off. The stems leaves can be cut rather close. If you sterilize your tool first you shouldn't have issues with illness.

 

[danK4200]

only time i cut anything off my plants is to make clones. you need the leaves for energy production as stated before. only exception being that if a fan leaf is covering a bud and i cant get it tucked under

 

[team420]

I dont take leaves off mine either, unless they are very yellow, and pull off very easily. Its like cutting fuel flow to an engine, and expecting it to keep accelerating

I tie my shit down and stake it to get airflow and sunlight to where it needs to be.

ETA: Before flowering starts, I do cut all the smaller lower branches off the main branches to focus on the tops, and get bigger buds. The cuttings are usually my clones for next season

 

[hoonry]

you want to cut the stem off at the base, not halfway if you can help it. yes, the cut stem could rot and fall off on its own, but it could also just rot and not fall off either which ain't good. instead of cutting the leaf off with scissors, try pinching it off with your thumb and forefinger. this way, when you remove the leaf, you can kind of squeeze the "wound" shut which discourages infection.

 

[biscuitkid]

I always snap the leaf off, leaving the stem on the plant and eventually it dies, I do this so the plant doesn't have a rip or a small hole for insects to get into, people have told me yr n yrs and im pretty sure a lot of people will disagree with what I have to say but to each his or her own this only my opinion, I was just like everybody on here, leave the leaves alone there energy for the plant! so last yr I grew some large bushes which got so large that every plant started to come together to the next plant, there was a sea of just lushes green thruout the whole garden hard to tell where the start of the next plant was, my buddy comes over hes like man, your gonna wanna prune some of those leaves on the top make sure that light gets thru, I explained no the leaves are energy cant do that, so in the end I did what I always thought was leaving the leaves =more energy for the plant! well heres what really happened, the plant made some beautiful tops, but as flowering continued whatever didn't get light on the inside, died, and what did get what light in the inside of the plant was NOTHING, so when harvested sure I had some nice colas on the top but could have been better if light got into the plant, this yr is what im doing, on my plants I get rid of any fan leave, small leaves and making sure sun is evenly getting into the inside of the plant and any bud sites covered with a leave I cut off exposing the bud site to light, I been pruning in veg also to promote the smaller growth in the inside to grow outside of the plant which ive had great results

 

[danK4200]

I always snap the leaf off, leaving the stem on the plant and eventually it dies, I do this so the plant doesn't have a rip or a small hole for insects to get into, people have told me yr n yrs and im pretty sure a lot of people will disagree with what I have to say but to each his or her own this only my opinion, I was just like everybody on here, leave the leaves alone there energy for the plant! so last yr I grew some large bushes which got so large that every plant started to come together to the next plant, there was a sea of just lushes green thruout the whole garden hard to tell where the start of the next plant was, my buddy comes over hes like man, your gonna wanna prune some of those leaves on the top make sure that light gets thru, I explained no the leaves are energy cant do that, so in the end I did what I always thought was leaving the leaves =more energy for the plant! well heres what really happened, the plant made some beautiful tops, but as flowering continued whatever didn't get light on the inside, died, and what did get what light in the inside of the plant was NOTHING, so when harvested sure I had some nice colas on the top but could have been better if light got into the plant, this yr is what im doing, on my plants I get rid of any fan leave, small leaves and making sure sun is evenly getting into the inside of the plant and any bud sites covered with a leave I cut off exposing the bud site to light, I been pruning in veg also to promote the smaller growth in the inside to grow outside of the plant which ive had great results

got any pics?

 

[biscuitkid]

ill try to get some pics tmw for ya kinda too dark now to take a pic, but its pretty simple ill show u a pic of awhile ago I took to prove that pulling leaves doesn't stunt growth, I just don't go overboard a plant needs to many leaves to keep producing but thinning it out is good for the plant air circulation, light into the inside,etc heres a pic this is from aug 10th I been out pulling leaves so ill try to get some pics showing what I did!

 

[BeastGrow]

leave the top 18-24" of each branch, more if you aren't going to be able to fertilize or don't have fertile soil.. prune at the first week of flowering... I pruned mainly to improve air flow and also to send energy spent on little buds gets sent to the big colas.