Trim fan-leaves to speed up short flush?

Smokez420 · #1 06-07-2008, 05:58 AM

I am growing northernlights x bigbud, at least thats what I ordered. The seeds are from nirvana but in the last 2 weeks all new bud growth has been straight purple. Rare Pheno maybe. Good thing I got some clones. It is on week 8. The trichs are all cloudy and and are in the process of starting to turn amber. Hairs are about 70% red.

The thing is like an idiot I only started flushing 3 days ago. She's matured alot faster than I've ever seen before. They hairs went from 10% red to 70% and the trich from straight clear to cloudy within 3 nights. The thing is I have smoked non-flushed bud before and it gives me a headache like a mo-fo.

There is no yellowing of any leaves due to the flush yet. I heard I can trim off the fan leaves to speed up the flush so the plant is forced to use the stored energy in the bud-leaves. I plan to harvest in the next 3-4 days. I'd rather skimp a few grams due to lack of fanleaves then smoke headache bud. Anyone ever heard of someone doing this before? Any advice would be appreciated.

South Texas · #2 06-07-2008, 06:23 AM

A couple of thoughts. Once the trichs START turning amber, they must be harvested immediately. Any longer, you start losing the max THC. If you are not planning on trying to rejuvenate (which I'm a big fan of), flushing with semi-hot water may help flush out build-up of salts, etc. I didn't flush in time either, but I used organic ferts with molasses to give the weed a sweet taste. I don't smoke, but friends said they really liked the flavor. Also, try super cropping, just clip off the mature buds, let other little ones mature to increase yield. I used "Earth Juice-Bloom" up until a week before final harvest, no problem. But flushing needs to be done anyway. Hope this helped.

South Texas · #3 06-07-2008, 06:30 AM

Indoor, fan leaves should be taken off anyway to give light to smaller buds below. Outdoors, I would think about taking them off. If the sunlight is really bright & hot, I think the fan leaves need to stay to help protect the new growth. But if possible, cut them off, new ones replace the old ones very fast.

fdd2blk · #4 06-07-2008, 07:00 AM

never remove healthy leaves.