Removing lower growth

odessa

Well-Known Member
I don't mind larf, so I trim the lower 1/4 conservatively. If it's early in flower and a branch is clearly not going to make it at least half-way up the canopy, I will cut it. I like to give myself enough room to hand water easily. Some people get very aggressive and still have great results.
 

LewberDewber852

Well-Known Member
I don't mind larf, so I trim the lower 1/4 conservatively. If it's early in flower and a branch is clearly not going to make it at least half-way up the canopy, I will cut it. I like to give myself enough room to hand water easily. Some people get very aggressive and still have great results.
Yea me too, but my question is will it benefit the plant more and or myself to leave the leaf and just remove the shoot?
High humidity is a common problem in my area so I would rather not risk any larf getting in the way..
Since leafs are the plants “solar panels” figured it may be best to leave them and just remove offshoots.. I have gotten aggressive a few times and still end up with stuff I am happy with. Looking fer some science behind the methodology.
1657136313724.png
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
If the leaves are shaded take them off too. I tend to leave too much larf and popcorn crap on my plants and am getting a lot more aggressive about stripping lower growth. I don't defoliate upper stuff as long as it gets some light exposure tho.

Trimming is enough of a PITA doing decent buds with arthritic hands that go into spasms sometimes and hurts like hell so the less of it to do the better. One decent cola takes 5min to trim up and the same amount of larf takes all f'n day it seems. Colas get bigger when the plant isn't having to waste energy trying to grow popcorn.

6 and a half plants waiting to be chopped so best get at it. :(

:peace:
 

go go kid

Well-Known Member
If the leaves are shaded take them off too. I tend to leave too much larf and popcorn crap on my plants and am getting a lot more aggressive about stripping lower growth. I don't defoliate upper stuff as long as it gets some light exposure tho.

Trimming is enough of a PITA doing decent buds with arthritic hands that go into spasms sometimes and hurts like hell so the less of it to do the better. One decent cola takes 5min to trim up and the same amount of larf takes all f'n day it seems. Colas get bigger when the plant isn't having to waste energy trying to grow popcorn.

6 and a half plants waiting to be chopped so best get at it. :(

:peace:
how much return to un defoliayed growth do you get please? thanx go go
 

twentyeight.threefive

Well-Known Member
I don't mind larf, so I trim the lower 1/4 conservatively. If it's early in flower and a branch is clearly not going to make it at least half-way up the canopy, I will cut it. I like to give myself enough room to hand water easily. Some people get very aggressive and still have great results.
How do you know you don’t like larf? You haven’t even finished your first grow.
 

LewberDewber852

Well-Known Member
If the leaves are shaded take them off too. I tend to leave too much larf and popcorn crap on my plants and am getting a lot more aggressive about stripping lower growth. I don't defoliate upper stuff as long as it gets some light exposure tho.

Trimming is enough of a PITA doing decent buds with arthritic hands that go into spasms sometimes and hurts like hell so the less of it to do the better. One decent cola takes 5min to trim up and the same amount of larf takes all f'n day it seems. Colas get bigger when the plant isn't having to waste energy trying to grow popcorn.

6 and a half plants waiting to be chopped so best get at it. :(

:peace:
Trimming really is a PITA and have a group of buddies that are gonna help me this year but it still sucks. I used one of the leaf bowl trimmers last year and it work good for anything golf ball sized. Not sure if u tried one but it may help ya. The colas are where I spend most of my time. Most of them end up getting nipped apart anyway bc I look to go through them with a comb to make sure there isn’t any mold or creepy crawlers inside the thickness. Last year I found a massive spider exoskeleton in one of my gelato colas. Bout shit myself when I opened that one up. It was all covered in resin lol
Regardless tho I was thinking of leaving some of the lower leafs because in my mind I was thinking the plants end up using them for food anyway so what does it hurt just to leave some of them and just remove the offshoot. They still get quite a bit of sun underneath on the westward facing side. I got my scrog setup and my plants look like upside pyramids at the moment :eyesmoke:
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odessa

Well-Known Member
How do you know you don’t like larf? You haven’t even finished your first grow.
I don't mind it. True, I'm in the middle of MY first grow, but it's not the first one I've been around ;) I had a buddy that grew and would show me things. He had some very peculiar and hard opinions lol
 
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King Dude

Active Member
So do y’all think it’s best to remove leaf and offshoot or just off shoots while removing lower growth for airflow and manicure?
I just kind of fly by the seat of my pants when I trim. Sometimes I let leaves ripen to a golden yellow before I pull them. Other times I'll yank whatever doesn't look like it will reach the canopy. I always pull leaves that look infected, though.
 

Synchronicity

Well-Known Member
I remove about everything that does not make it half way to the canopy top by late veg. And the foliage still seems too lush - I worry about bud rot now in late flower and trim even more because of it in the largest buds.

:blsmoke:
 

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RonnieB2

Well-Known Member
Your lights can only reach down so far. Everything below that line is wasted energy the plant could be using up higher.
 
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