Should I lose the fan leaves??

I'm six and a half weeks into flowering with 2 X K-Train (to the front) and 2 X Trainwreck under a 400W HID with extractor and fan. I've lollipopped them and removed some of the mid to upper larger fan leaves. I reckon ive about 2 and a half weeks to harvest and I'm wondering if, when and how many fan leaves I should remove??? This is only my second grow but things seem to be going well. Some of the lower buds are being shaded by upper fan leaves which is why I want to remove them. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

personally i don't touch any leaves unless they're starting to die. you're pretty late in the game and I don't think the lower buds getting any more light would make much of a difference. you can always try bending the more troublesome fan leaves to allow more light down there, but i wouldn't hack anything down

the fan leaves you talk about are water leaves, and the only use for them is to hold water in nature. indoor growing u water ur seif . dont think its a big deal to remove them to get more light where you need it.

undue stress to a plant isn't worth it. i wouldn't hack em if i were you - but then again i'm not. all i can do is give you my advice

thanks for replying although i'm none the wiser!! (no offence fellas....) the other reson for asking is ive seen some indoor grow videos on that urban growers website and some of those plants are stripped right up to the top colas!! Looks pretty extreme but i figure it must serve a purpose.... any other ideas???

budrie, the leaves give the plant energy to grow bud. without them, there is no plant. this late in the game it probably doesn't need much more energy. however, being late in the game, there probably won't be any explosive bud growth because some popcorn at the bottom got a little more light.

really you can cut em or leave em, it won't make a difference