Fan Leafs. Blockers of Light Or Energy Producers???

cerberus said:

really? what do you think photosyntheses is for? what does the chlorophyl do with the sunlight? it converts the suns ENERGY to ENERGY the plant can use. when plants consume organic food (lets keep it natural), its through micro's that converted mineral elements (a raw form of energy) into a form the plants can digest...

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Plants don't consume food/fertiliser (organic or otherwise). They make their own. with the energy of light in the presence of the right catalysts they will absorb the needed nutrients to make the food they want from the air and their roots. You can feed that plant till you are blue, if it aint photosynthesising, it ain't useing none of it.

I would have no problem with loosing a leaf with an insect problem etc...

so let me ask.... if the leafs, bottom leafs ONLY!!! get no light and turn yellow i should leave them on til they fall off on there own? does lack of air circulation cause bottom leafs to welt? i think everyone is having their own discussions now and everyone has their own rebuttals to the debate. i for one will just do a trial and error grow here and there and learn for myself. plus i dont many are taking in the facts that outside growing and indoor growing have many factors that differentiate the 2. its apples and oranges to me. artificial man made light will never surpass what Mother Nature can procure. and that said i do not see inside growing anything the same as outdoor growing. especially where i live. 120 degrees mid summer, no thanks. ill pass on that one. i guess if it didn't get so hot the lack of frost and below freezing temps make it an okay place to grow possibly an Autoflowering strain in the spring or fall. but i wont be taking my chances with this miserable weather outside anytime soon. its so hot here in the summer if practically fucks up indoor growing. off topic a little, but hey lets all agree to disagree. and UB, you never answered my question!!!! see what i mean as this hole thread seems like 6 people having 3 different conversations. anyways. energy production, light-solar or artificial can not have any benefits it it isn't even hitting the plant. am i right? whats the point of arguing over something when there is sooooooooo many factors involved. obviously 1 method works for 1 grower, may not have the same effect for another grower. based off strain, room conditions, inside or outside regional concerns. lets just argue on strain specific debates. 2 growers work the same strain, same grow conditions and methods. then if you 2 have different outcomes squash it out and find out why. instead of wasting energy debating stupid shit. i doubt we will ever all be able to try each others harvests to make actual consumption tests. agreed? i dont even think people are reading my posts so fuck it!

Bottom leaves tend to be older leaves. Some nutrients are mobile, i.e. the plant can extract them from parts that are old and supply them to new growth as needed. Picking the leaves off, denies the plant the chance to use its own reserves to make up for nutrient deficiancy.

We have similar summer temps and I would also not think of indoor growing then, our weed is reasonably low cost, and electricity pretty high. Hooking up an ac just pushes all sums straight into the red.

oh dont get me wrong i DO grow in the summer. the patients i know would hate me if i didn't since not many can produce on the same level as me (not around here...or so my company/friends think). i think i have lots to learn still. a portable a/c is used and we actually live in a neighborhood where they base your electrical usage off what others in the neighborhood use. before they started this program i still used a lot of electricity. and there has not been any fluctuations because of the progression i have taken with upgrading. but with adding 2x1000w lights (and still need a portable a/c in the veg room to replace my a/c in the flower room), my electrical bill was double last summer with only 1x1000w light. the new program is def working to my advantage!! and just to let you know where im at roughly, last summer my electric was a tad under $400/month. im just at half that now!! so, no concern for me. i just lucked out. and even if my bill was $500 in the middle of the summer, i could still justify it off oil production alone could keep my electrical concerns at bay. i bet there is a way you could rock a grow in the summer, however you may have to dial back some watts or simply adding the portable a/c. but i have no info on your set up or region. however, you seem educated enough to be able to figure something out. is it a matter of not wanting to? or not wanting to use the extra electric? is the heat that big of a factor in your situation? i know in the fall thru spring i can run 2x1000 lights pretty efficiently. up til it starts breaking 100 degrees. this isnt my first summer grow, however it is my first summer grow in the new room., new tent and added watts. and ah man do i have to do some dialing in. it hasnt cracked 81 inside the tent, but im only running 2x600w atm. im seriously debating getting a light mover and doing a smaller yielding grow in the summer. i suppose it will take me years to get adjusted to the conditions here and with my luck as soon as dial everything in, my ass will pick up and move back up north (up north in my state, not the pacific northwest).

Doing my first indoors now, have only done summer grows up till now, and outdoors.
Only have 400W, Well actualy I have 3 of those ballasts that I got for free as well as a bunch of bulbs.
Appart from one piece of ducting and a blower fan, I have everything needed to get to linghts on some time morrow.
Only have to instal timer and complete the faux wall/door. Then I can start putting plants under the big light.

So far the hydro thing is less effort than outdoors, in sumer I need to water 3 times a day at the peak of the season.

They are sugar factories bro! How the hell is your plant going to Photosynthesize and convert your nutrients into usable energy if you remove them?

^your a day late and a dollar short.

[video=youtube;xYq7CuVpAeo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYq7CuVpAeo[/video]

squarefodder said:

[video=youtube;xYq7CuVpAeo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYq7CuVpAeo[/video]

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Jorge's the man.

That;s a know brainer leave your leafs on trim lower popcorn buds thus helping plant put its energy to the top buds add more light if you think you need but don't start clipping fan leafs lol

as much as it goes against everything I know, I tried this.
My victim is bullrider, I've included pics of a bullrider I just finished, trimmed and hung to dry. I will get total weight when fully dried.
also included is pics of the victim, pre trim and post trim, she went into the flower room tonight for the first time. stay tuned for updates

This has probably already been stated 100 times, but I only remove damaged or dead leaves completely. As far as anything else, I trim the tips off some of my leaves if I feel they are blocking buds or way over crowded. I remove damaged leaves because I would rather have the plant spend its energy on flower and new growth, rather than repairing damaged leaves. With that said, if your removing to many leaves, especially in flower, that too will stress your plant, and take away energy from your buds. I dunno, I'm no expert, but that makes sense to me.

BUdbuddysmile said:

This has probably already been stated 100 times, but I only remove damaged or dead leaves completely. As far as anything else, I trim the tips off some of my leaves if I feel they are blocking buds or way over crowded. I remove damaged leaves because I would rather have the plant spend its energy on flower and new growth, rather than repairing damaged leaves. With that said, if your removing to many leaves, especially in flower, that too will stress your plant, and take away energy from your buds. I dunno, I'm no expert, but that makes sense to me.

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How does anyone really know where the plant diverts its energy. I try to look at a plant like me. If I get a headache cuz im dehydrated i cant perform,and grow right? Same goes for a plant.If I injure myself my body goes into repair mode resulting a stressful state in turn producing negative side effects in my behavior right?. Same as a plant or any living thing.With a healthy plant No leaves should fall off even if recieving no light. The Leaves are guides in determining plant health, they recieve light resulting in photosynthesis, they provide stored food and energy for the plant,and the list goes on, SO LEAVE LEAVES ALONE! I NEVER take leaves off especially if they are in the way of o budsite, just supercrop the leafstem(knuckle or bend leaf. will rise back up in a day) use a twistie, cut a portion off (at last resort )but dont take the plants solar panels away! What do solar panels do?PRODUCE ENERGY!

A leaf going yellow or spotty due to nutrient problems is not a damaged leaf, and the plant is not spening energy trying to heal it.... if anything is actualy happening, the plant is busy transporting all the mobile nutrients from older growth to where it is more needed... I wouldn't realy pulll a leaf off unless it virtualy comes off by itself when I touch it.

I never pull my fans... if they have an issue and fall off so be it. The plant needs all the energy it can get .

alp

im over it...

swishsweet said:

some of the light actually passes through the leaf, save the leaves!

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Yep, Red and Far Red.

You can tell who are the seasoned horticulturists that understand what makes a plant tick, and those who aren't/don't.

Like he said in that video, "growing is based on science, not hearsay."

I have to agree with ub that the fan leaves are important to keep on your plant. I used to take off the fanleaves, thinking that the bud sites need light to grow. They really don't. In fact I found that leaving them on actually created fuller buds.

Now having said that, I grow LA confidential, and the breeders at DNA Genetics actually advise you to remove fan leaves later on in flower to allow light to reach the lower buds. It's hard to argue with these guys about their own strain.

I did a side by side experiment on two plants that were lst'd and kept quite low profile. I left all the fan leaves on during the entire grow. I had bud growing right down literally into the perlite. Now,I removed the fan leaves on one LAC one week before harvest, and left the other one alone. I found that the control plant ended up with great dense purple buds on top and light green nugs below the canopy. the other plant ended up with the same size nugs, but these buds were denser and more finished than the control plant.

The conclusion I reached is that, the fan leaves are necessary for your plants overall health and serve a very important function in bud development as energy source.

Once the buds have fully developed,ie to the point that no more pistols are produced and have mostly died back, the resin glands are mature, then I feel the fanleaves have served their purpose and can be removed to allow the lower buds a chance to finish, without the need to multi harvest the same plant, when I could be revolving another plant into the flower room.

In the end, the plant with the fanleaves removed, resulted in higher yield because the lower buds were able to finish, thus being denser.

My two cents....

Your thoughts?

^that is what i am doing.

im so glad ppl keep saying the same shit over and over and over and over again. you can clearly see who never finished high school and who has poor reading skills.