trimming during lst

id still never cut em untill their half or more dead. indoors, the light is less than the sun.

more leaves, you obsorb allllll that light. cut leaves off, less obsorbtion.

cobra28widow said:

and Ive been growing marijuana for over 13 years... Have you ever tried it mushhead??? I bet you never did.. so how would you know if it works or not? Ive done it and seen the results first hand.. I dont need to ask for advice when it comes to that and I couldnt care less if anybody believes it or not. But dont try to tell me Im wrong when I know for a fact it does.. We dont agree, its that simple. You keep trying to tell me im wrong lol give it a rest.

Click to expand...

have i ever tried it? are you serious or are you fucking with me? if your serious, then yes ive tried it, in the 9th grade to pass biology, and maybe in the first year or two of growing like every other newb out there at some point. you try to make me look stupid by talking down to me, calling me a special needs child, and then precede with some half cocked explanation of why the you think its beneficial, and still not be able to explain why it causes promoted branching. is it hormones? is it stress induced? is it transferring energy like someone else said? no metion of any of these topics. like i stated earlier, theres already alot of talk on this subject, and i im just fine agreeing to disagree. or maybe instead of cutting off leaves to let "light shine on the grow tip of the branch" as you so eloquently stated and to promote branching(which is not proven yet), try adding more light to your grow. if you had a basic understanding of how photons worked you would know that there is no need to 'unhide' branches to get more light if theres enough light to begin with. thats why people top, fim and lst there plants, to get even canopys, and i know you know this. the lil sucker shoots and underneath growth is a different story. have you ever stop and wondered what that does for the plants gas exchange? at a few leaves maybe nothin, but who knows what someone else might think a few is. who goes around outside for tens of thousands of years trimming fans of the tops of pot plants so they branch better?. i never claimed to have all the answers and yes sometimes scientist, even Jorge Cervantes, get things wrong. until then, im sorry but im going teach people the same things i paid way to much money to learn until its proven scientifically to be false. at the end of the day im baked, your baked.. tell me who lost? i still like the cobra tho, but maybe if we take the mirrors of it'll do 10's?? peace brother

Sir.Ganga said:

Its called energy transfer. This is such a touchy subject here on riu. Removing leaves and sucker shoots will force your girls to put all its energy to the remaining growing shoots. You loose nothing with the right strains and even can get better results by this technique.

Click to expand...

well thanks for not calling me special needs. do you know of any strains off the top of your head that you know this works for? if not its all good. theres just very little evidence that this helps imo. but im always open to learn something new, nothing is the same for everything. touchy indeed haha

budolskie said:

lst'd my 4 big bud and cut off a few fan leaves during flower that were covering branches day 39 of 12/12 these pics were taken

Click to expand...

while i dont agree with leaf snatchin, look at them sexy ladies!!!! great grow budolskie. what kind of wattage you running for those?

mushead said:

while i dont agree with leaf snatchin, look at them sexy ladies!!!! great grow budolskie. what kind of wattage you running for those?

Click to expand...

i veg'd them under a 400mh and left in the first 10 days of 12/12 then put my dual spec 600hps in as i have a dimmable ballast tomorow i might try 660w super lumens but havnt tryed it yet only my 2nd grow with this digi ballast this strain is estimated 50-65 days flower its day 42 for me tomorow

i.am.what.i.am said:

for those of you who LST, do you trim big fan leaves when the plants start to get bushy? or just try and tape them down? or....? maybe i'm training the tops down too frequently, or maybe i need to pull the lights up to make the shoots stretch more, but it just seems like all the leaves are getting all bunched up......?
View attachment 2509873View attachment 2509874

Click to expand...

I LST'd on the grow I just finished (I also topped for four main colas as per Uncle Ben). I did not remove any fan leaves in veg -- you can just leave them alone. The plant will get very bushy and you'll think there's no way any bud sites below the cola will get any light -- until you flip and get the stretch. At that point it becomes clear what the stretch is for -- to get light to mid-level bud sites!

At that point, you can bend/tuck large fan leaves that are blocking light to lower bud sites. Some growers also trim the lower third growth, which won't get much light in flowering. My guess has been that that growth is the plant's backup system should the upper growth fail somehow (hurricane winds that knock it down, for example). However, in a grow there is no need for a backup system. You'll see scroggers/mainliners clips all that lower third growth to divert energy to the upper bud sites. I'm going to be doing that myself on the next grow as an experiment.

At the end of the day, does it really matter if you clip a leaf or two? Probably not. But remember that in the last two weeks of flowering, the plant is going to be trying to draw energy from those leaves as it bulks up the colas. My plants actually stopped drinking nutes and pulled completely from the leaves in the last 3 weeks, just as the colas started swelling. So you do need to leave something for them to work off of!

kryptoniteglo said:

I LST'd on the grow I just finished (I also topped for four main colas as per Uncle Ben). I did not remove any fan leaves in veg -- you can just leave them alone. The plant will get very bushy and you'll think there's no way any bud sites below the cola will get any light -- until you flip and get the stretch. At that point it becomes clear what the stretch is for -- to get light to mid-level bud sites!

At that point, you can bend/tuck large fan leaves that are blocking light to lower bud sites. Some growers also trim the lower third growth, which won't get much light in flowering. My guess has been that that growth is the plant's backup system should the upper growth fail somehow (hurricane winds that knock it down, for example). However, in a grow there is no need for a backup system. You'll see scroggers/mainliners clips all that lower third growth to divert energy to the upper bud sites. I'm going to be doing that myself on the next grow as an experiment.

At the end of the day, does it really matter if you clip a leaf or two? Probably not. But remember that in the last two weeks of flowering, the plant is going to be trying to draw energy from those leaves as it bulks up the colas. My plants actually stopped drinking nutes and pulled completely from the leaves in the last 3 weeks, just as the colas started swelling. So you do need to leave something for them to work off of!

Click to expand...

i plan on just feeding mine water now till about the 12th then let dry out and go in the dark

kryptoniteglo said:

I LST'd on the grow I just finished (I also topped for four main colas as per Uncle Ben). I did not remove any fan leaves in veg -- you can just leave them alone. The plant will get very bushy and you'll think there's no way any bud sites below the cola will get any light -- until you flip and get the stretch. At that point it becomes clear what the stretch is for -- to get light to mid-level bud sites!

At that point, you can bend/tuck large fan leaves that are blocking light to lower bud sites. Some growers also trim the lower third growth, which won't get much light in flowering. My guess has been that that growth is the plant's backup system should the upper growth fail somehow (hurricane winds that knock it down, for example). However, in a grow there is no need for a backup system. You'll see scroggers/mainliners clips all that lower third growth to divert energy to the upper bud sites. I'm going to be doing that myself on the next grow as an experiment.

At the end of the day, does it really matter if you clip a leaf or two? Probably not. But remember that in the last two weeks of flowering, the plant is going to be trying to draw energy from those leaves as it bulks up the colas. My plants actually stopped drinking nutes and pulled completely from the leaves in the last 3 weeks, just as the colas started swelling. So you do need to leave something for them to work off of!

Click to expand...

cleaning out the bottom will help with your air flow too. i know on sensi star ive always had to keep it extra clean of crappy growth and suckers, damn thing gets mildew at 45% humidity for me if its to thick.

cobra28widow said:

you can trim fan leaves if they are blocking branches or grow tips....when you cut a fan leaf off its gonna send that engery to the brances and grow tips..

Click to expand...

This was in my very first post in this thread..

mushead said:

you try to make me look stupid by talking down to me, calling me a special needs child, and then precede with some half cocked explanation of why the you think its beneficial, and still not be able to explain why it causes promoted branching. is it transferring energy like someone else said? no metion of any of these topics.

Click to expand...

I do sound like a dickhead sometimes so dont take it personal. Im just saying I cut a few fans off all the time and Ive seen the results a 1000 times..

cobra28widow said:

This was in my very first post in this thread..



I do sound like a dickhead sometimes so dont take it personal. Im just saying I cut a few fans off all the time and Ive seen the results a 1000 times..

Click to expand...

\

now that is response i can live with, even tho we still disagree. any particular strains that enjoy it for you? i tried to stay cool, but my daughter is a special needs kid, so that hit pretty hard. after tokin up i had a laugh about it tho, i never argue about something i cant prove 100%, a lapse in my judgement im afraid, i simply cant say it will NEVER work for ANY plant. i just know there's alot of supporting data that says it shouldn't. i mentioned this to a buddy years and years ago, and he still rips off 50% of his leaves to get better light penetration. not to mention he's running a 400w in a 6x6 room still, getting maybe 30grams off each 2-3 foot plant lol. if he wasnt a great bass player id have to move on, cant tell some people nothing.

White widow loves it.. its pretty much the only strain I grow. They are short and bushy.. I just let my sister borrow my digital camera or I would take a picture of my 1" ft clone with 7 branches trying to grow past the main grow tip.. I will post some pics tomorrow.

cobra28widow said:

White widow loves it.. its pretty much the only strain I grow. They are short and bushy.. I just let my sister borrow my digital camera or I would take a picture of my 1" ft clone with 7 branches trying to grow past the main grow tip.. I will post some pics tomorrow.

Click to expand...

awesome. i deffinately wouldnt know shit about that strain, ive never grown a good one, it always attracted mites when i had it. then again almost ten years ago i wasnt all that great at keeping my plants healthy, great at growing them right, but when they would go a lil sour.. they were done for, glad i worked that out tho. i used to brew sugar water and yeast for some ghetto co2, one stoned day before the chop someone spilled that nasty shit in the pot, all of the bud tasted like fermented yeast sugar/vodka. tainted white widow for ever for me

thanks everyone for the input. damn! had no idea that question would get quite a stir, but it's all good while i don't think trimming a few leaves here and there really hurts all that much...i'm gonna let them be for the time being. these plants were very slow to get going and with the training i've already been doing, i don't want to risk stressing them anymore whatsoever

bigbull52 said:

id still never cut em untill their half or more dead. indoors, the light is less than the sun.

more leaves, you obsorb allllll that light. cut leaves off, less obsorbtion.

Click to expand...

Actually plants get bombarded with light in an indoor enviorment and recieve MORE light overall than outdoors. There are many outdoor factors that come into play like clouds and shade and even the movement of the sun that will determine the suns effectiveness.

Hey Mushead about the strains...most indica that are generally shorter in nature have a tendency to do better with this technique. Right now I have running Great white shark and a Blue Widow that both seem to thrive under this added stress. The key is not how much you take off but where on the plant and at what time in the cycle. Its like anything else practice makes perfect. If you know what your plants produce before you try any of these techniques allows you to do some testing against your orignal numbers. Start slow remove some lower branches that are going to be nothing but popcorn and test the weight at the end of the cycle, your result will show little to no difference to the overall yeild. The next step is to remove the inner shoots all the way up, this is where the magic happens because you can actually get the plants to concentrate on the mains and end up with oversized or I like to call them clubs. Your overall weight will not go down and if done correctly can actually overproduce.

Its kind of like tricking the plant, we are God's ya know! Well at least to the plants...that is.