"Fan leaves"

ManishWayz said:

Why is it that everyone keeps telling people to leave the leaves alone...I have cut my leaves on my plants on every grow and still get great turn-outs! And all my photos prove that nothing is wrong with taking them off, I do it to let more light into the plant, and it works.

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Generally such advice comes from those who have done it both ways more than once and have a clue as to final yield and quality. 50+ years growing and I kind of have some of those clues. But whatever works for you.

Well another thing to remember is that fan leaves feed the node they are attached to...so leaves can't take energy from buds either way...and a leaf sticking out will feed a bud that might be hidden...so it doesn't matter if some of the buds are not directly in the light

alley.walker said:

I found and this is simply an opinion, that the fan leaves after flowering starts, serve a lessor purpose. Fan leaves in my opinion are stalk orientated and turn yellow after flowering begins. Whilst, local vedge located near or adjacent to bud's is just for that - buds!!

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The Dutch, Ed Rosenthal and other volume growers with years of experience feel and act otherwise. In fact Rosenthal's book had side-by-side photos of large grows with leaves on and leaves off. The increase in height and overall yield was obvious. You can lead a horse to water . . . ..

Sugar leaves aren't large enough to feed the plant without fan leaves...if you pluck off your larger leaves before flowering starts then your plant will try to grow more leaves when it should just be able to grow buds...
One of my friends grows outdoors and he goes out a couple of weeks before flowering starts and takes off the larger fan leaves...I tell him not to...but he is going to do whatever he wants.

Nitrogen in small doses when needed during flowering is a norm if you react and respond to what the plant is doing or "saying" - leaf color and character/consistency/feel. Regular feedings of grow nutes during flower is not. Leaving the leaves on? Want more and better bud quicker?

FresnoFarmer said:

wait? are you saying that after flowering begins the fan leaves don't photosynthesize at the same rate as in veg? I don't get it.

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I have teeny tiny little plants. I grow a cross of Short stuff auto-Afghan Kush lowrider and Pine apple Chunk. I keep all the leaves I can. But when the fan leaves start to yellow several weeks into flowering.. SNIP!!! Also, I always snip the top most Fan leaves because in my belief these leaves add to the stalk-height of the plant more than they do in flower production.

Example of how I trim..
https://www.rollitup.org/attachments/auto-flowering-strains/2294062d1344917739-perfect-stealth-grow-auto-flower-img231.jpg