Trimming fan leaves....will it help my buds plump??

Hi growers,

just a quick question, my girls are coming up to there last 14days, would it help plump my buds if i was to trim off the big fan leaves??? or would it do more harm than good??.....a little help please, cheers for your time.
sealegs

Unless your leaves are yellow and necrotic, and thus a risk for mold, leave them on. Fan leaves store energy and help the plant breathe and stay cool. If you want to take them off a few days before harvest as a sort of pre-trim it's okay, but it wont help the buds get bigger.

IMO this is a matter of personal preferance. Some say trim and others are totally against it. When using the SOG method, the lower 1/3 or the plant is trimmed to improve air flow and eliminate small buds. The best way to answer this would be to use clones and assign one as a control(not trimmed) and the other as the test(trimmed).

i just tug lightly and if they fall off then a really hard wind out door would prob knock them off anyway, so it isnt really supposed to be there in nature, but if the plant is holding on to it.....

I agree there are certainly times when trimming fan leaves is warranted. Improving light penetration or airflow, or directing energy to the upper part of the plant all have the goal of efficient photosynthesis. One should be aware that trimming off a fan leaf generally hinders photosynthesis, so unless it is done to overcome an even bigger hinderence, it's not the best idea.

It's just a general concept to keep in mind.

Heisenberg said:

Unless your leaves are yellow and necrotic, and thus a risk for mold, leave them on. Fan leaves store energy and help the plant breath and stay cool. If you want to take them off a few days before harvest as a sort of pre-trim it's okay, but it wont help the buds get bigger.

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agree..............

pretty much all summed up for you in here. agreed. Leave on unless absolutely needed off. GL my friend

hmmm interesting i do a lite trim 2 weeks before flower..i guess on the intenion of getting better light penetration though

Heisenberg said:

Unless your leaves are yellow and necrotic, and thus a risk for mold, leave them on. Fan leaves store energy and help the plant breathe and stay cool. If you want to take them off a few days before harvest as a sort of pre-trim it's okay, but it wont help the buds get bigger.

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agree! dont trim a thing unless its dead and gone. i dont know where this idea came from but im seeing it a lot lately.

My rule in flowering is to create the minimum amount of stress possible, so IMO only trim what's dying off or starting to mildew/rot things of that nature. I always trim up the bottom 8-10 inches completely off just because it focuses more energy toward the higher yielding nugs rather then producing a lot of pop corn nugs. I think it's called lollipopping.

touchy subject. everyone does there own thing. i pluck anything that will benefit me with light on lower shoots week 2... then when they are done.. by done i mean they arent swelling anymore and you have started flush or are about to start. i pluck some of the large fan leaves at this point to help the bottom nugs finish as fast as the top ones.. sometimes if your chopping a few days sooner than you should i find this helps cut down on some LARF. goodluck

I buck the trend here as an older grower told me, I defoliate at 23 days and usually near 43. Always removing fan leaves that are attached to main branch or blocking bud sites, not a fan that is directly attach to a bud site. I do this in veg too, as I train my plants to deal with this and they never have an issue either.

I am no botanic expert but I know plants can transfer food energy throughout the plant, except for a few nutrients. I grow in DWC so the nutes are ALWAYS available to the plant, and I am sure my buds are equal or better then anyone's for size/girth, smell/aroma or just flower time for doing it this way (granted same conditions light, strain, medium). Hell I did it myself, non-defoliating and defoliating, the plants always finished the same time but the defoliated plants had the bigger, better looking buds by far. It facilitates more air flow, light penetration and room for the plants I have never seen a down side or side effect from doing this.

I mean sometimes I think I over do it, and the plants love it. It is sad that people want to believe half-truths, mis-information without even trying it for themselves. I sacrificed my first plant after talking to this gentleman over 3 years ago, and it is the ONLY way I would ever grow. Not knocking the people who don't touch their plants, it's just like the argument flush or don't flush everyone has their opinion, sad thing is that most people just believe someone else because of ignorance and not seeing the effects for themselves.

Steps off soapbox...

I trim all dead & small growth from under the conopy.i like to grow bush style so that really helps air move & the soil dry out.i do some times clip a fan leaf if it's a giant shadowing buds but not often.thats how I do it.good luck

Thanks allot for all your help, and after reading all the replies my girls will be keeping there fan leaves, but this morning i have tied them down allowing the lower buds a little bit more light.
Another question if you could be of more help please. When it comes to flushing my girls how much water isit i use?? my friend said flush with 3 times the amount of water, of the size of pots there in. example im using 5 gallon pots do i flush with 15 gallons?? that seems like allot of water to me!?....and what water is best to flush with??.
thanks again.
sealegs

When flushing you can use straight water for about a week sometimes 2 until you see deficiencies on the leaves, they'll turn yellow, purple, red, it just depends on the strain your runnin. You can also use a sweetener during the flush if you choose and molasses, that's what I do. As far as dumping 15 gallons threw it, it will wash away alot of built up salts. But that doesn't mean your plant is flushed, that just means you flushed your medium. I mean it's alittle bit of common sense, it's like feeding a fatass kid for weeks on end then suddenly you take the food away from the little fuck, he's not gonna be hungry right away because he's got food stored in his system, allowing him to go a few days before starting to become hungry again. (mind you I'd never really starve a fat kid). Hahaha