When do I Trim Fan Leaves?

just as the title states i would like to know when to trim my big fan leaves. I am in week 3 of veg and have bushy 12 to 18 inch high beauties. it seems like i could pull the bottom leaves that arent getting much light. or should i wait til i flower so removing them will open up light to budding sites. am i on the right track here? i attached a pic of my babies what does everyone think?

do a thread search there is some really good right ups on this subject here.

Man those r some beautiful plants

dude, why on earth would you want to go and remove the solar panels from your factory?? they are what are hanging out there and collecting the sun< light) and turning the light energy into food and sugars via photosynthesis, so by removing them, you would in turn be taking away the very things that are making food for your plants.. not a very good idea imho..

racerboy71 said:

dude, why on earth would you want to go and remove the solar panels from your factory?? they are what are hanging out there and collecting the sun< light) and turning the light energy into food and sugars via photosynthesis, so by removing them, you would in turn be taking away the very things that are making food for your plants.. not a very good idea imho..

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I dont want to get rid of them i just figured that there is a time when it is better to take a few off and let light to more parts of the plant and whatnot so i was wondering if anyone could tell me when that might be after looking at my pic.
and thanks for the compliment Hydrogrowe

With bushy indicas it is sometime necessary to trim. I was skeptical at first but trimmed alot of the big fan leaves off of my l st'd indica and it boundced back and allowed alot more light in. As long as you have time to veg and recover then you will be fine.

I do agree not to do it unless necessary but sometimes it is necassary. I noticed my lower shoots weren't growing after a week or two of being covered by large fan leaves and once trimmed, they shot out nicely.

DankBudzzz said:

With bushy indicas it is sometime necessary to trim. I was skeptical at first but trimmed alot of the big fan leaves off of my l st'd indica and it boundced back and allowed alot more light in. As long as you have time to veg and recover then you will be fine.

I do agree not to do it unless necessary but sometimes it is necassary. I noticed my lower shoots weren't growing after a week or two of being covered by large fan leaves and once trimmed, they shot out nicely.

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The plant will be fine. You have to remember the plant is going at the MOST it can do, not the min. So you can trim it down a bit and wont affect grow process at all unless you put too much stress on them.

Exactly, I only took four leaves total from my plant and two from another but I inspected the plant for a while before choosing which too eliminate to give lower shoots more of a chance to catch up.

Don't trim a leaf unless it is dead... so long as the leaf is green it is helping your plant.

i only defoliate around the 2-3 week of flower ...
but
i think that doing it once during veg and once during early flower should be fine ...

just remember that ur plant will need a short amount of time to recover ...

heres my take, Never remove leaves that are green and soft. There are at time leaves that will be green and crispy. Those are the only leaves you should remove, also only remove them after they are more then half dead/ dried already, only remove them if they are crispy in the green area, that is to say that the clorofill is present but the leave is brittle and ( most likely nutrient locked/ plant dumping zone) , if they are simply turning yellow (but are soft to the touch) then the plant is using the energy, only remove when totaly white/dead.

good advice DARKSIDE..Becuase i have a diemos from buddah seeds and the lower leaves r all yellow but not toally dead gonna remove when they r...

You don't have to trim. You can bend, and tie instead. Even pinching the stem of a fan leaf so it droops out of the way.

wow thanks for all the help. i ended up removing about 1-3 fan leaves from each plant and only if they were in sad shape and blocking light

i feel like if a fan leaf is blocking or obstructing a bud site then it is necessary that you trim it. one of mine were putting stress on the bud site below it and fucking up the leaves. trimming, like with all plants, is needed at some point for some reason.

These people telling you not to trim the leaves don't have a clue what they are talking about. You can trim all the leaves you want to allow more light for budsite growth, just know that it will increase your veg time as the plant recovers a bit.

I consistently defoliate my plants once every 7-10 days as needed, and they bounce back quickly each time.

I also defoliate, if you got to any fruit tree orchard they consistently prune back limbs and branches to keep the trees to whatever size they want for the best production. As with my plants I take some of the larger fans to allow light all the way to the bottom. Sometimes i even cut bud sights down low so that the energy used to create popcorn buds is sent on to other sites. But thats just me and how "I" do it good luck!!!