The Art of Tipping

I like nutty skunks' clone idea and I'd do it myself if I had the grow space but it'll have to be an experiment for another time.

I think if your forced to then clip off some off a few I had a seedling that was jus covered in the top leaves and didn't let light to the rest I clipped 2 of the 4 top leafs and bam that shit went off. You only really have to worry about it in the first few months then it should open up more if your in the ground

Dr.Pot said:

All very good points, I'm not saying cut the leaf in half though that would be ridiculous, I'm talking about a quarter of an inch, that little tip . According to him that part of the leaf does nothing so the plant not only doesn't miss it but actually is happy that It's gone. No facts to back it up but its something he picked up and "saw a results" with so he does this routinely. I do always sterilize the scissors first and for some reason feel very comfortable doing it and I don't touch a plant unless I have to like bending leaves so light can get to bud sites or taking dead yellow leaves off the bottom that's it, I'm not one of those people that's handsy with them now I'm stoned babbling lol

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The main issue I would have with cutting the tips is that is how I can judge what the plant needs. I watch the tip. If the tip is showing burning I know the plant is taking as much nutrients as I can give without burning. If the burning goes past the tip, you are feeding too much. I prefer to keep my tips for just that reason.

I wouldn't worry about infection... these are young healthy plants and if you plant gets an infection from clipping the leaves and isn't healthy enough to fight it off then it's probably not because of the tipping IMO. It's just not a good specimen. I used to clip leaves and I never saw any negative effects outside of it slowing vegetation down... in other words it stunts them a little. Presumably so that the plant will grow more roots.

Editted out... long and off topic. Trade secrets!

I think the tipping might work, might b less stress than removing, and will allow light to penetrate deeper. Lots of opinions,

Photosynthesis is what the plants do to produce food and they use the leafs to do so you never wanna remove leafs unless ablosultly need be otherwise more leafs more ways to feed more growth more more more.

Well in terms of maturing buds that do not receive light underneth sometimes removing helps yield like la confidential. Removing as in selective defoliation. So it might actually work positively, by reducing the stress of losing a fan leaf, by just cutting half its fingers.

Urhighness88 said:

Photosynthesis is what the plants do to produce food and they use the leafs to do so you never wanna remove leafs unless ablosultly need be otherwise more leafs more ways to feed more growth more more more.

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If I were to 'tip' I would do it in veg, as I'm sure most of us would. By the time flowering comes it's got a larger root ball, so theoretically there should be more growth in flower. But as I said, 4 clones of a mother plant 2 tipped 2 left alone on the same 'diet' and that's how you'll know.

I very occasionally do it. For two reasons.

The first is I believe similar to you. I hang 125W CFL's in the flower tent. When stretching has finished it is sometimes necessary to snip the ends off leaves to get the CFL to hang low in the right place and give light to the lower sites (which is why I use it). I feel it is worth the sacrifice of some leaf for the benefit of the light. Don't always do it, but will if I think it's worth it. Plus a small bit of controlled stress never hurt.

The second reason I do it is if there is necrosis on the tips of the leaves, but the rest is unaffected (I remove necrotic material as soon as I see it). In this instance I will use a fresh razor blade to surgically remove the affected section.

Not noticed any adverse effects from doing it.

I been tipping the shit outta my clones and they're still alive. 1 week in water on a window sill then put right into a soil/perlite 50/50 med 3 days-ish ago and still sitting on a window sill with some supplemental CFLs till midnight. Not the prettiest girls ya ever seen but they're hangin in there.