should you prune your plants in flower or not??

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ianlfc1

Well-Known Member
this is something ive been doing for years but just woundering if im doing more harm than good???
my thinking behind it is if you constantly keep ontop of the big fan leafs and remove them by doing this you enable more light to penetrate deeper into the plants to help the smaller buds beneath the top canopy? now im aware the plant needs its leafs to turn the light into food but if you only remove the massive fan leafs with a red steam? is my logic correct here or can i be doin more harm than good??

also one last point!

am i right by doing this, when it comes to harvesting your plants i cut all the top big main collones off and manicure them first but i leave the bottom half of the plants a further week so the buds get more solid rather than little wispy things is this a good thing or am i doing more harm than good???

id be very gratefull for your advice on both these matters.
 
playermic

playermic

Well-Known Member
prune off the big fan leaves if they're not getting any light. if they are getting light I recommend leaving them on as they are part of the production. to answer your 2nd question I think you are doing right by first clipping the top colas as this gives the bottom section time to mature
 
Mr.Goodtimes

Mr.Goodtimes

Well-Known Member
Ill take a big fan leaf only if it is directly blocking a bud site and cant be bent out of the way. If you just take a few it wont hurt it at all, taking too many i can see stressing it out though.

Taking the top buds and letting the lower ones thickin up is common practice in a lot of grows i think. The lower buds usually take longer to mature than the ones in full sun/light, so why not? Too late in flower for it to hermi and cause problems right?
 
707humboldt

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
To me its not worth the extra time to finish out the lowers. I try to avoid having lowers at all by lolipopping but the ones that are there I just harvest with the tops and run them through the extractor untrimmed. Imo its better to just get the next run going than wait for lower buds to finish off.
 
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ianlfc1

Well-Known Member
playermic said:
prune off the big fan leaves if they're not getting any light. if they are getting light I recommend leaving them on as they are part of the production. to answer your 2nd question I think you are doing right by first clipping the top colas as this gives the bottom section time to mature
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thanks for your reply.. im not pruning them coz there not getting any light quite the opposite wat im doing is removing them them so the light can penetrate deeper into the plant to get the lower bud sites,, as the big fan leafs just act as a big umbrella and creates a shadow for anything below it.

by doing the top ones first and leaving the bottom half of my plants you can deffenitly tell the difference there far more solid rather than being light and wispy, id strongly recommend it!! only if by doing it this way doesnt shock the plant so much where for the final days it goes into shut down mode and effects the harvest?? wat do u think??
 
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ianlfc1

Well-Known Member
Mr.Goodtimes said:
Ill take a big fan leaf only if it is directly blocking a bud site and cant be bent out of the way. If you just take a few it wont hurt it at all, taking too many i can see stressing it out though.

Taking the top buds and letting the lower ones thickin up is common practice in a lot of grows i think. The lower buds usually take longer to mature than the ones in full sun/light, so why not? Too late in flower for it to hermi and cause problems right?
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well thats the exact reason for my question coz there blocking light from penetrating to the lower bud sites, and the last thing i want to be doing is stressing the plant out so much it has a effect on the harvest.

and im not sure if it can?? its in week 6/7 itll be ready in 2 weeks
 
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ianlfc1

Well-Known Member
707humboldt said:
To me its not worth the extra time to finish out the lowers. I try to avoid having lowers at all by lolipopping but the ones that are there I just harvest with the tops and run them through the extractor untrimmed. Imo its better to just get the next run going than wait for lower buds to finish off.
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i see were ur coming from but to only have to wait for a few extra days maybe 1 week max to start ur next one the amount of weight ur going to gain is worth it i think! its not worth it if ur only doin 20/30/40/50 plants but otherwise it is
 
707humboldt

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
ianlfc1 said:
i see were ur coming from but to only have to wait for a few extra days maybe 1 week max to start ur next one the amount of weight ur going to gain is worth it i think! its not worth it if ur only doin 20/30/40/50 plants but otherwise it is
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Imo you have to wait at least a week to make enough of a difference to make it worth letting them finish up, we do it with our full term outdoors because we don't have another run going in until spring. Indoors an extra week per run is 5-6 weeks a year which is almost a whole other run. When you factor in the shatter that gets made from the lowers if you just chop everything at once and the extra 5-6 weeks of grow time towards an extra run, imo it definitely out ways the little bit of extra weight you get from letting the lowers finish for an extra week. Especially if you lollipop and don't have that many lowers to begin with. Not to mention the extra overhead on cost per # with a week longer electric bill per run.

How much extra in lowers do you get per 1000w light? With that number we could figure out exactly which way is more profitable. By my calculations you would have to get at least an extra 4.5oz per light to make it worth it. 1 week of extra growth is equal to 4oz (8 weeks flower time, 2lb per light), $150 per light in electric for an extra week (my electric cost per 1000w).

For every 8 runs you would gain an extra run and get an extra 2# per light. So you would have to get 2#s extra over 8 runs from letting the lowers go an extra week plus enough to cover 8 weeks extra electric (1200) per light. So around 2.5#s aprox over 8 runs in extra weight from letting lowers finish an extra week. I just don't see an extra 4oz+ per light by letting lowers finish up.


This is just my opinion and personal experience. Let me know if your calculations say other wise
 
green217

green217

Well-Known Member
707humboldt said:
Imo you have to wait at least a week to make enough of a difference to make it worth letting them finish up, we do it with our full term outdoors because we don't have another run going in until spring. Indoors an extra week per run is 5-6 weeks a year which is almost a whole other run. When you factor in the shatter that gets made from the lowers if you just chop everything at once and the extra 5-6 weeks of grow time towards an extra run, imo it definitely out ways the little bit of extra weight you get from letting the lowers finish for an extra week. Especially if you lollipop and don't have that many lowers to begin with. Not to mention the extra overhead on cost per # with a week longer electric bill per run.

How much extra in lowers do you get per 1000w light? With that number we could figure out exactly which way is more profitable. By my calculations you would have to get at least an extra 4.5oz per light to make it worth it. 1 week of extra growth is equal to 4oz (8 weeks flower time, 2lb per light), $150 per light in electric for an extra week (my electric cost per 1000w).

For every 8 runs you would gain an extra run and get an extra 2# per light. So you would have to get 2#s extra over 8 runs from letting the lowers go an extra week plus enough to cover 8 weeks extra electric (1200) per light. So around 2.5#s aprox over 8 runs in extra weight from letting lowers finish an extra week. I just don't see an extra 4oz+ per light by letting lowers finish up.


This is just my opinion and personal experience. Let me know if your calculations say other wise
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Damn $150 a month is a lot higher than what I have to deal with that what it cost me to run 1-1000w with fan, ac, dehumidifier, and another room with a 600w light and a 8000btu ac, and 440 inline also. Guess I'm fortunate on the electric bill side.
 
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ianlfc1

Well-Known Member
707humboldt said:
Imo you have to wait at least a week to make enough of a difference to make it worth letting them finish up, we do it with our full term outdoors because we don't have another run going in until spring. Indoors an extra week per run is 5-6 weeks a year which is almost a whole other run. When you factor in the shatter that gets made from the lowers if you just chop everything at once and the extra 5-6 weeks of grow time towards an extra run, imo it definitely out ways the little bit of extra weight you get from letting the lowers finish for an extra week. Especially if you lollipop and don't have that many lowers to begin with. Not to mention the extra overhead on cost per # with a week longer electric bill per run.

How much extra in lowers do you get per 1000w light? With that number we could figure out exactly which way is more profitable. By my calculations you would have to get at least an extra 4.5oz per light to make it worth it. 1 week of extra growth is equal to 4oz (8 weeks flower time, 2lb per light), $150 per light in electric for an extra week (my electric cost per 1000w).

For every 8 runs you would gain an extra run and get an extra 2# per light. So you would have to get 2#s extra over 8 runs from letting the lowers go an extra week plus enough to cover 8 weeks extra electric (1200) per light. So around 2.5#s aprox over 8 runs in extra weight from letting lowers finish an extra week. I just don't see an extra 4oz+ per light by letting lowers finish up.


This is just my opinion and personal experience. Let me know if your calculations say other wise
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i like your response very informative and factual! if your calculations are right then on paper its not worth while coz id guess by saying im gaining roughly 2oz per light, but as im not in a rush to flip the next one id rather wait a week a get the full potential out of ur grow! my question was regarding if it would course any harm to final product?
 
707humboldt

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
green217 said:
Damn $150 a month is a lot higher than what I have to deal with that what it cost me to run 1-1000w with fan, ac, dehumidifier, and another room with a 600w light and a 8000btu ac, and 440 inline also. Guess I'm fortunate on the electric bill side.
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Residential tier 4 power with PGnE is .34 a kilowatt, crazy expensive. I think they do it purposely to tax the growers. If you were just powering your house it wouldn't be that high but when you have a decent sized grow going and use a certain amount of kilowatts per month you get put into the highest tier and its super expensive.
 
HappyMan420

HappyMan420

Well-Known Member
Clipping leaves in half hamburger style is my preferred choice if I have to remove them. Another solution: add a CFL bulb or two underneath. The leaves use the light throughout the whole plant, so to remove them to get more light would be self defeating.
 
707humboldt

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
ianlfc1 said:
i like your response very informative and factual! if your calculations are right then on paper its not worth while coz id guess by saying im gaining roughly 2oz per light, but as im not in a rush to flip the next one id rather wait a week a get the full potential out of ur grow! my question was regarding if it would course any harm to final product?
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So by only gaining 2oz your losing $3700 every 8 runs per light (@2500 per # + electric). On 10 lights thats a loss of $37,000 every 8 runs. It makes a big difference in the long run, especially on a larger scale.

I defoliate during flower, imo it doesnt affect anything. Plants continue to grow and fatten up and I always get 2#+ per light. Im a big believer in opening up the canopy a little. Buds that get direct light are always bigger and denser than shaded buds. If I remove a fan leaf covering a bud, that bud will grow bigger and denser than another one that is covered. I don't go crazy but I will remove large fan leaves that are directly covering buds.
 
I

ianlfc1

Well-Known Member
707humboldt said:
So by only gaining 2oz your losing $3700 every 8 runs per light (@2500 per # + electric). On 10 lights thats a loss of $37,000 every 8 runs. It makes a big difference in the long run, especially on a larger scale.

I defoliate during flower, imo it doesnt affect anything. Plants continue to grow and fatten up and I always get 2#+ per light. Im a big believer in opening up the canopy a little. Buds that get direct light are always bigger and denser than shaded buds. If I remove a fan leaf covering a bud, that bud will grow bigger and denser than another one that is covered. I don't go crazy but I will remove large fan leaves that are directly covering buds.
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thats what i wanted to hear! i was just a bit concerned that i might be doing more damage than good even tho the bottom buds would be more denser would it have an effect on the quality of the smoke etc...

thanks for your time?reply aswell you can tell your very knowledgeable and your advice is worth listening to!!
 
707humboldt

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
ianlfc1 said:
thats what i wanted to hear! i was just a bit concerned that i might be doing more damage than good even tho the bottom buds would be more denser would it have an effect on the quality of the smoke etc...

thanks for your time?reply aswell you can tell your very knowledgeable and your advice is worth listening to!!
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No problem dude and thank you for the good words.

Defoliation is a touchy subject on here but I do it and believe it helps. I don't think removing 75% is good but in moderation and right timing it can be beneficial IMO.
 
HappyMan420

HappyMan420

Well-Known Member
707humboldt said:
So by only gaining 2oz your losing $3700 every 8 runs per light (@2500 per # + electric). On 10 lights thats a loss of $37,000 every 8 runs. It makes a big difference in the long run, especially on a larger scale.

I defoliate during flower, imo it doesnt affect anything. Plants continue to grow and fatten up and I always get 2#+ per light. Im a big believer in opening up the canopy a little. Buds that get direct light are always bigger and denser than shaded buds. If I remove a fan leaf covering a bud, that bud will grow bigger and denser than another one that is covered. I don't go crazy but I will remove large fan leaves that are directly covering buds.
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but wouldn't you take away from another bud up top closer to the leaf?
 
707humboldt

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
HappyMan420 said:
but wouldn't you take away from another bud up top closer to the leaf?
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No those buds still do great, theres plenty of leaves on the plant that if you remove a few it doesn't affect the growth. Ive had great success with light defoliation, huge buds and great yields
 
Greenhouse;save

Greenhouse;save

Well-Known Member
So basically yes it's ok to defoliate in moderation but overdoing it will in turn harm the plant.....and yes Humboldt your info was very precise and interesting to read...:clap:......
 
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