pruning while flowering.........

littlepuppet2002

Active Member
I just want to make sure that it is ok to trim some of the useless fan leaves that are wilting right now. They have turned yellow and dried out. Everything else looks fine though. Can I clip these? I've read that you don't want to clip fan leaves just below a flowering bud.
 

mogie

Well-Known Member
Some people say yes and some say no. If they have turned yellow and are sickly looking I pluck them.

Why have something that is dying suck the life juice out of your plant? Let the good stuff go to your buds, etc.
 

ViRedd

New Member
Wait until you can just gently pull the yellow leaf off. Its OK to take cuttings from a flowering plant up to two weeks into 12/12. The best time is right before you turn the lights back to 12/12 though.

Vi
 

Garden Knowm

The Love Doctor
Hi Puppet... I pretty much agree with what is being said... I remove dead fan leave if they come off easy or/and I am especially vigilant about it when air flow has been constricted beause of massive growth in sall areas..

there is always the off chance that dead leaves can be a hot bed for mold and fungus.. yikes..

how many weeks are you into flowering?

cheers
 

Garden Knowm

The Love Doctor
4 day.. hmmm....You really should not have any leaves turning yellow.. unless they are on the bottom of your plant.. and they are getting minimal light..??

picture please : )
 

Garden Knowm

The Love Doctor
Mr. Puppet..

Yes, please remove the fan leaves... all of them.. start with the 2 in your AV... thank you

iloveyou
 

drumlord420

Active Member
yellowing leaves on the bottom can go. DON'T remove large fan leaves at this stage in flowering. Wait until you're starting to get a large cola bud, then remove as many fan leaves as you want. After the buds get so big, they can do without the fan leaves. When the plants are pre-flowering, they need the photosynthesis from fan leaves, but when the plants begin to flower aggressively, those large fan leaves start to take light and nutes away from the precious buds. Happy harvests!
 

Consciousness420

Well-Known Member
ditto .. exactly. Its fine to remove yellowing leaves that are dead or dying.. Im 4 weeks into flowering and snipped a few dead leaves off in the first week and snipped another large yellow fan leaf at the bottom of the plant today .. its fine, go ahead and do it - you are doing the plant a favor. cheers
 

Astralsearcher

Well-Known Member
yellowing leaves on the bottom can go. DON'T remove large fan leaves at this stage in flowering. Wait until you're starting to get a large cola bud, then remove as many fan leaves as you want. After the buds get so big, they can do without the fan leaves. When the plants are pre-flowering, they need the photosynthesis from fan leaves, but when the plants begin to flower aggressively, those large fan leaves start to take light and nutes away from the precious buds. Happy harvests!
i thought leaves took in light, not buds. is this not true?
 

SlikWiLL13

Well-Known Member
Wait until you're starting to get a large cola bud, then remove as many fan leaves as you want. After the buds get so big, they can do without the fan leaves. When the plants are pre-flowering, they need the photosynthesis from fan leaves, but when the plants begin to flower aggressively, those large fan leaves start to take light and nutes away from the precious buds. Happy harvests!
this is terrible advise! the fan leaves are the solar power plants for your girls. what would make you want to remove them when your flowering aggressivly. the flowers dont have much photsysthesis take place in them anyway, they are more of a nute sink than a powerhouse. and dont clip your yellow leaves, give them a gentle tug and if they dont come off the plant isnt done with it. if its still firmly attached its because the plant is still pulling valuable nutes and fluids from it(the reason its yellowing in the first place).
 

Consciousness420

Well-Known Member
this is terrible advise! the fan leaves are the solar power plants for your girls. what would make you want to remove them when your flowering aggressivly. the flowers dont have much photsysthesis take place in them anyway, they are more of a nute sink than a powerhouse. and dont clip your yellow leaves, give them a gentle tug and if they dont come off the plant isnt done with it. if its still firmly attached its because the plant is still pulling valuable nutes and fluids from it(the reason its yellowing in the first place).
Its true that there is such thing as N migration during flowering (plant migrates as much N and other trace elements from the fan leaves to the bud as possible) but it is a neglible effect when growing in a controlled environment (human giving plenty of nutes/water) as opposed to nature where any drought or other disfavorable environment for the plant can occur (so plants adapted this 'N migration' effect to ensure reproduction success).. also once the fan leaves turn yellow, photosynthesis is at a stand still and all those leaves do is suck important elements away from the rest of the plant in order to grasp on trying to survive.. they are no longer 'power houses' and the stored starches in the roots should go a long way to give the plant what it needs for budding.. the buds have leaves of their own for photosynthesis.. fan leaves are crucial in veg for growing, but for flowering the plant uses a completely different sugar production and allocation strategy... clipping them off is better as it puts an immediate end to the redirection of important elements for the plant.. they only linger in nature before falling off because plants have not adapted a more efficient way to get rid of these once they have zapped them of all their energy/resources.. (we're strictly talking about the lower yellowing fan leaves well into flowering now..) :)
 

SlikWiLL13

Well-Known Member
and i stand by what i said. no resouces are going to these leaves, thats why they are deteriorating, resources are leaving them. did you know that something around 50%(not exact figure but close) of light passes through leaves? so really theyre not blocking as much as you would think. they might no longer be powerhouses, but the are still sinks for valuable resouces. thats why they drop when gently tugged, the plant has finished pulling availible resouces from the leaf and it had started to dry out.

and as for the plant not having adapted a better way in nature:wall:...c'mon, its had millions of years, i think its got it down.
 

Consciousness420

Well-Known Member
and i stand by what i said. no resouces are going to these leaves, thats why they are deteriorating, resources are leaving them. did you know that something around 50%(not exact figure but close) of light passes through leaves? so really theyre not blocking as much as you would think. they might no longer be powerhouses, but the are still sinks for valuable resouces. thats why they drop when gently tugged, the plant has finished pulling availible resouces from the leaf and it had started to dry out.

and as for the plant not having adapted a better way in nature:wall:...c'mon, its had millions of years, i think its got it down.

hehe, a laboratory environment can always be made to better suite any living entity - no wild disfavorable environmental fluctuations as found in nature which is what the plants have adapted to - hence n mig (which should not be needed at all in a controlled setting).. any living material still on the plant is using up resources sustaining itself, which is why it takes much much longer for it to finally die and fall off than the time it takes a leaf in the trash to die... in the end though, it scarcely matters.. the affect on the bud we are talking about is pretty neglible.. you wait to let your fan leaves fall off and Ill cut mine off any time I see any bit of yellowing .. good luck
 

smurk760

Member
Pull them off! I was skeptic about doing this too for many of my previous harvies until I took advice from a more seasone'd vet in the game. Sure enough, after the buds starting flowering aggressively I started pulling off the large fan leaves allowing more light to penetrate the bud sites - and BOOM! Bigger, fatter, denser buds. Bigger yeild - no doubt about it. Consious420 hit the nail on the head. Great explanation!
 
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