Should you cut off fan leaves during flowering

if anything i would cut the bottom leaves and have a small smoke

yeaa this is a heated debate.. hahaha. i think its all a personal preference... if u want to... then go ahead.. if u dont. then dont.. dont worry about what other people are doing with THEIR OWN plants. and worry bout ur own... ive done both methods before... and i like to trim SOME of the fan leaves off... usually just any that are big... and blocking any light from getting to certain budsites.... but again... jsut a personal preference. =)

I found out the hard way. Had the most beautiful blueberry a week into flowering and a "experienced grower" told me to cut off the fan leaves so the buds would get more light. That put my plant into shock and i barely got a oz from a plant i was planning on getting atleast 6ozs from.

I find that extremely hard to believe. the only way you would have ruined such a plant is if you removed every leaf. And you aren't getting 6 ounces a plant without any training, pruning or defoliation. Most of us don't wait til flowering to remove leaves anyways. It is an ongoing process, like pruning a plant to achieve desired shape and results. If you got less than an ounce from your plant, that is a reflection of your own experience.

bigchiefa said:

I found out the hard way. Had the most beautiful blueberry a week into flowering and a "experienced grower" told me to cut off the fan leaves so the buds would get more light. That put my plant into shock and i barely got a oz from a plant i was planning on getting atleast 6ozs from.

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I can't help but notice most of the people who suggest you leave those leaves have high rep, and the people who cut them have no rep. I know which way i'd go!

The fan leaves are like the engine for your plant. If you started removing them two weeks in then you would shock the plant and your yield would be subsequently less. On an eight week grow i start removing fan leaves at about 6 weeks, but only if they are dying anyway or they are severly blocking light to another bud, but i would not remove any more than a few each time. You must give the plant time to adapt to the loss.

I'm a fan of trimming but only for the sake of lower buds.

I have seen first hand how a plant can go into repair/rooting stage again due to over trimming.
Rebuilding becomes the focus rather then bud production.

So like with anything in life, when done in moderation it can be bennificail.

thes thread id giving me a headache.. but I love this debate..

I share my growing methods rather then debate them.

dont stress plant during flower i did it to one that was a female one week in veg i toped lst and trimmed and she hermied

i allso have a sore head because of this debate but it's another coolshades one do ya suck air threw or blow it threw.
but what i have learnt is what i was thinking seems to be the wright thing to do and trim as you go, but what i have not seen and will stick my own 2 cents in is if ya have let them get a bit too bushie then trim them down abit (not so bushie looking) before you turn them and once turned tuck and only take what coming off anyway.
ps but i am sure someone will have something to say about that to lol
paece out

Im new but the way it was explained to me was its like solar power and the leaves are the panels. the more panels the more power. If you have a defected panel you get rid of it. Made alot of sense and seems to be working so far.

I am currently growing 7 clones of Mk-Ultra strain under scrog with a 600hps after reading up on this topic i decided to trim 3/7 plants, and gradually bonsai some of fan leaves on 2/7 while leaving 2 unaltered. They have been lst'd since they sprouted fourth leaf set so high control wont be an issue. I will post my conclusion on it shortly and will keep you updated
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I understand that the leaves are the energy source for buds. A lot of indica dominant varieties grow little sugar leaves all through the buds. Is it possible these sugar leaves are the main source of energy for the growth of the buds? Sativa dominant strains normally stretch a little with more space between leaves. Would it not be a good idea then to trim some of the larger fan leaves from the more indica dominant varieties and maybe leave the sativa dominant plants alone? Just my thoughts.

I like to clip any leaves over an ince when the node at the base has little leaves and have great resalts the bigger leave dont take in as much as the small leaves and the leave stems ted to turn red.

This is a much discussed topic, Im no expert but some of the comments amuse me like:

"I cut off fan leaves to give more light to bud leaves" - Scientifically speaking, do bud leafs produce more food for the bud or does the food from those leafs directly go to the bud? Of course it "seems" to make sense to people doing it, but is it "Scientifically" proven? What are the advantages of bud leafs over fan leafs? Does anyone know the facts that actually does cut off fan leafs?

"I suppose it comes down to what is best for each individual grower" - not really, there has to be either a right way or wrong way based on how the plant scientifically works. If you understand exactly how the plant works and what it needs then you will have the correct answer as to wether removing fan leafs or not is correct.

Dont get me wrong, I'm no expert, but logic has got to dictate this debate, there has to be a scientific answer, not just "it works for me" or " it doesnt work for me".

My thoughts on it are (only thoughts, not fact) - the plant is a whole connected system, why would you chop one type of leaf to get more light to another type of leaf if they both do the same job? You are effectivly reducing food production for the plant by a percentage and If the fan leafs do stop producing food in flower, then you are reducing a percentage of "stored" food for the plant. It really doesnt make sense to me to cut off leafs when they are part of the whole plant system that it has spent time and energy and food creating.

Of course it may be the fact that it has no negative impact, but we cant base this on just other peoples grows, what are the scientific facts?

Sorry if it seems like a bit of a rant, just seen a lot of threads/posts on this issue when there has to be a logical/scientific answer to this theory, instead of just "guessing".

Dont get me wrong, I havent done any proper research on it myself, I do plan on doing it at some stage, just working out other small kinks in my setup as I go along and will then concentrate on other methods, as its not a big issue at the moment.

Dont pick leaves at all, only remove dead or yellowing leaves..too much shock for the plant. takes days to come back.

I only remove leaves when they turn yellow during flowering. Leave all green leaves on the plant.

peace
doublejj
P.S. Here's a big yellow leaf off of my OG Kush

i cut off 4 fan leaves blocking my water site and i dont give a damn...lol nothing happens and its still growing like a damn fool hahaha dont listen to what people say do yo own thing and try it out duh