Fan leaves question, pluck when stem is red?? your opinions please!

Hello RIO,


I was recently told by someone that I could remove fan leaves once the stem turns red. They say that the plant has stopped using that leaf and its ok to pluck it, but don't pluck the ones with white stems because they are actively being used for growth.

Is this true? It doesn't sound completely right to me, but.. I'm not very "knowd-up" on the subject like you guys are!

any input will be appreciated! thanks!

red stems = deficiancy, if they are naturally dying the stem should be white or green still with a yellowing leaf that eventually dies but fold dont pick off

thanks for the quick reply. i already pulled the red ones off prior to actually coming here and doing my homework. yes i know, bad mr krondizzel. Rookie mistake trust me. Although what I find is some people are for and some against removing fan leaves. Can you clue me in on what deficiency I might be having? (red stem specific)

Also: I am about 10 days into veg and am using a general hydroponics water farm kit. I had to modify it to circulate the water because my PH had gotten severely out of whack for a few days and I suffered big time from it. I was also over watering from the looks of it. I was seeing poor performance until I decided to try to run my drip rings 30 mins on, 30 mins off to see if I might have been drowning them. Reducing the amount of water seems to have helped. So, yes, I could have had several deficiencies. I was blessed with the pleasure of learning PH 101 on a rough learning curve. Once I got my PH under control, I saw a lot of improvement.

The new growth is the healthy green/white combo with the older stuff being red stemmed.

Sorry for the long post, just trying to be specific to help you help me

cold temps will turn stems a reddish purple colour mate.

im just going to quote the master sensei cervantes. Keep your leafs on! let em be until they are yellow, you are only going to retard and stunt the plant by removing leafs until they are yellow they are a like a storage unit and powerplant at the same time for making buds, the plant has grown them for fotosynthesis and stored nutrients in them and it eventually uses it to create buds for you so no picking.

and btw this is science not some old hippies belife system ;P i highly recommend you to study these things yourself because you will hear so much crap about the plants from old hippies you couldnt belive it go science

trimming the lower growth or inside big bushy indica is fine, you put more energy on top growth/colas of the plant and not the fluffy popcorn buds but do it well before going 12/12 so the plant has time to recover from possible retardation, 1-2weeks before setting lights 12/12

good luck http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYq7CuVpAeo

welshsmoker said:

cold temps will turn stems a reddish purple colour mate.

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Oh really? That is rather odd of you to say. I am displacing heat from 2 1000w lights in a 4x8x7 tent with outside 20F air. Nothing directly on the plants of course. Avg air temp is about 80-82.

Krondizzel said:

Oh really? That is rather odd of you to say. I am displacing heat from 2 1000w lights in a 4x8x7 tent with outside 20F air. Nothing directly on the plants of course. Avg air temp is about 80-82.

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well you can count that out.

Jalamar said:

im just going to quote the master sensei cervantes. Keep your leafs on! let em be until they are yellow, you are only going to retard and stunt the plant by removing leafs until they are yellow they are a like a storage unit and powerplant at the same time for making buds, the plant has grown them for fotosynthesis and stored nutrients in them and it eventually uses it to create buds for you so no picking.

and btw this is science not some old hippies belife system ;P i highly recommend you to study these things yourself because you will hear so much crap about the plants from old hippies you couldnt belive it go science

trimming the lower growth or inside big bushy indica is fine, you put more energy on top growth/colas of the plant and not the fluffy popcorn buds but do it well before going 12/12 so the plant has time to recover from possible retardation, 1-2weeks before setting lights 12/12

good luck http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYq7CuVpAeo

Click to expand...

Thank you kindly. I am doing my best to do all the research I can. Being my first time at this, I am dealing with a learning curve as expected. So I have had to do some quick on the fly thinking. Which brings me to another question!

I am using a 3 part flora series by general hydroponics and I am also using a nitrogen additive 4-0-0. I am also using it as a foliage spray as well. Can an excess of Nitrogen cause toxicity and if so, what can be some of the effects? I am under the impression that Nitrogen while in veg stage is a good thing. With the instructions on the bottle, it says I can use it for dirt, hydroponics, or foliage. Am I causing Nitrogen toxicity by having it in my tea and also using it as a foliage spray?

Thanks again in advance

nitrogen toxicity: very dark green leaves that eventually get brown and die, very weak steams and slow root growth

personaly i never ever foliar feed other than clones or if there is some deficiency that needs attention immidietly reason being that i wanto avoid any kind of molds and fungi in plants or the room i grow and wanto keep the hole enviroment very clean

tho it can boost the plant growth quite alot when done properly at mornings but im not sure if its that beneficial for hydro plants as they are pretty much in overdrive allready, i have nothing on that and would like to hear also if someone has experience on foliar feeding hydro plants

purple stems can be quite a mystery and in it self wont tell anything sometimes it can be just genetic feature, you haveto combine it with many other symptoms from the plant to get a conclusion

any twisted growth? does the top growth look light colored against the rest of plant? leaf vein and intervein discoloring? which one is discolored vein or between veins? old leaves, middle, new growth


all the different symptoms you see will have to be combined to get the real answer one symptom will never tell anything 3 or more symptoms will isolate the real answer from rest

View attachment 2401591edit: the tablet i uploaded is far from complete it doesnt have all the symptoms but its a good example to give you idea

Hey thanks for the table that was actually what I was just looking for lol!! sweet!!

np but like i said its far from complete and might mislead tho good example. i think riu has deficiency&toxicities sticky thread somewhere that has all the pics and explanations for specific nutrient but i cant find it! damn

http://www.cannabis.com/growing/plant_trouble-nutrient-profiles-and-deficiencies.html something like this

A colored petiole is not really indicative of anything other then the presence of secondary pigment in the plant. Leave your fan leaves on do not touch them til they shrivel and die then remove them when they fall off themselves.

awesome! thank you very much guys! a problem i discovered seems to have been over-watering also. i had set my drip rings to cycle 30 mins on, 30 mins off instead of 24/7. Today is the first day I woke up with no black tips on the new growth!!

Thanks for the advice guys!