I have grown for many years. Indoor, I remove a lot of leaves. It causes the plant to porduce smaller, bud leaves. As my buds swell, the flowerrs grow into the single bladed leaves produced by cutting the leaves.

Does cutting leaves slow growth? 100% yes. But it causes closer internodals and in the end more yield.

Dying leaves....dead leaves? yes cut them. Sickly or partially sad looking leaves, leave them! (no pun intended) Here is why:

A plants job is to reproduce. It will sacrifice parts of itself in this order

1) shade leaves
2) secondary leaves
3) buds

This is why the plant consumes its shade leaves at the end. Leave kind of sick leaves as the plant will use this to help itself. Let's say u r watering with tap water and it has some bad cheimcals in it. The plant will suck up the water, keep the good and move the bad stuff to the dying leaf. In this way it uses the leaf like a garbage can. Throw away the bad stuff in here, then throw away (drop the leaf) when the can is full.

I tend to overfeed my plants in all stages except last 3 weeks of flowering. On certain crops, shade leaves turned like an oyster shell (pearl almost metallic looking colors) as they transferred the excess nutes to the leaves it could not use or store. The BUDS ALWAYS REMAINED HEALTHY as long as there were enough leaves to sacrifice. People have often commented this is bad. But you would have to see my yields. I know the plant is at 100% capacity when I see the tips of leaves start to burn.

Removing leaves will slow growth, but the overall yield will be tter. One might argue 4 crops a year with all leaves is a better overall yearly yield than 3 crops with trimmed leaves (being 3 instead of 4 due to extra time for cutting off leaves). I have never tested this.

One other point to consider. My buds traditionaly have many small leaves due to trimming main leaves. When the buds crytal up, these leaves also crystal. There is far more surface area on a leaf than a flower. The end result is more surface area=more smoke.

simple the leaves are what make the buds grow in the first place. dont touch the leaves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

__________________
where's the weed at?
in my lungs

it's like 3rd grade biology.

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Sorry. I just had to laugh at that.

my theory is the leaves are there for a reason. god didnt go and add things that aren't necessary so I leave every leaf on only trimming any that begin to tint yellow or wilt. I feel that the plant uses energy to remove these leaves and by trimming them lets the plant conserve its energy.

I have 3 feet by 3 feet by 7 feet in a grow tent.

The light fixture (400 watt HPS) is about 2.5 feet square.

Bag seed. 6 plants. Maybe 3 weeks from harvest.

I tortured those poor girls. They are trained to put as many buds possible in a direct path of light. Wired, tied, stretched, bent. Aluminum tape for when I snap a branch. I've snapped a lot.

When the buds are side by side, any shadow over another bud got clipped. Fan leaves, silverleaf, I didn't care. Clip.

I figure I'd rather lose a bit of yield in one bud and allow the direct light hit the one next to it.

It is a tradeoff. If I had more space and light, sure, don't touch them. But I am trying to pack as much possible of a particular type of growth in a small area.

While the plant may have evolved to keep the leaves, it is a single entity competing with other entities. It wants all the light. It is my job to make sure the limited resource is spent in a way that I want, not that a particular plant wants.

why not jsut leave it prune the big buds and let the lower ones mature for another week? or so

It takes about 10 days to go through a bud growth cycle. From the point of new growth to showing pistils to browning out and wilting a bit.

It takes 3 or 4 cycles before I consider a bud thick enough to be of value. That means showing growth potential. Before that, they are just a couple of hits apiece. After that, they can get huge as compound growth kicks in.

This is happening constantly, all over the buds. So a single bud has multiple flower clusters going through this process, on different schedules.

As this happens, exposure to the previously generated trichones with UVB is converting some of the precursors to THC. This takes some time. I want as much of the bud exposed to as much as the UVB as possible. I have 6 UVB lights. 2 long tubes, 4 CF, spread throughout the top.

Sooner or later, a bud (or groups of buds) are available for harvest, depending on trichone color. I'm snipping and water curing, so I don't worry about flushing or taste.

I had a very dense canopy, lots of large buds, maybe 50 or so. Within those 50, maybe 10 of them qualify as colas, 1/2 to 1 oz apiece, and the rest are serious buds, between an 1/8 and a 1/4 oz. That's not wet weight, that's dry.

So imagine that number of buds packed under a 400 watt light. I pull them through the top level like threading a needle and then pull them a bit to go as close to the light as possible. Sometimes I wire them in place.

All "top" buds (direct light exposure) get turned sideways to maximize the light. This triggers side growth that you don't normally get. But it means there is a "dark" side of the bud.

These buds drop fan leaves at the top, over the other buds.

They simply go. I have no wasted light, and no single bud is allowed to monopolize the light.

Thats the top level. The next level down are shit. So little light got through that they may be barely a gram. A week of maturing will simply harden them off before cutting, no real growth potential.

Unless I clear out some of the upper leaves, there is nothing on the bottom. I usually fold them 1st. I let the plant reuse the nutrients in them. Then I chop them. But if I can't bend, I still chop.

I also bend "open" any tight colas. Colas grow toward the light, so they will bend on themselves (based on how I arrange it). So I unbend and wire them "open" to get more light to the individual internal bud areas not normally exposed.

Also, I have a "tunnel" space in the middle. 3 plants on each side. I dropped in 2 x 65 watt CFL lights, slightly under the canopy, that shine on the underside of the buds that I turned, allowing light on both sides (not the norm). Plus they are good for the smaller side buds.

Also, I have 2 x 2' T5s that I just put in as side lighting as well to plump up the buds that are not getting enough top light. The problem with FL lights is you have to have the plant within an inch or 2 to have any noticeable effect.

This is my 2nd grow. I learned a lot. I was way too paranoid during the 1st grow to experiment. Was too scared about harming the plants.

This time around, I made the decision that no matter what I cut, I have SO may buds that even if I stunt an occasional bud, the key issue is gettin the UVB on top buds, so behave accordingly. No matter how much "damage" I may do, I still have enough and the knowledge gained will be worth it.

I was right. At this point I could not envision getting more (quantity) out of this space, and the quality is great.

Yay me (and all the people I've been reading this last year in these forums).

That was just flat out funny... Thanks once again FDD

hahahahahaha