Assistant got scissor happy when pruning... how bad is it?

So my friend came over yesterday to help me prune the little ladies. He has been my so called guide I guess helping me along the way. I have been double checking his info and I am slowly gathering he does not know as much as he thinks he knows. Well yesterday he really put my mind in doubt. In Short, I think he fawked em all up. Here are some pics of what he pruned and some damaged leaves he also took off. Said it was better to get rid of them then to let the plant try and fix its self, but could not give me any idea of what was causing the damage.

What do you guys think... how bad is it?

Do any of the damaged leaves appear to be something to be concerned with?
What sort of insect could be causing the hole and nibbled edges? I cant find any caterpillars, crickets, or grasshoppers.
The only identifiable insects are some gnats that are flying around and these little white beetle looking things in the soil. I first noticed the little white bugs today right after I watered. I believe them to be the predatory insect commonly found in soil, though they are found relatively close to the plant and increase in numbers as well. They do not appear in any of the dry soil.

If the prune job is that bad how can I fix it?

info on plants
White widow x unknown
soil (personal mix of MG organic, river pebbles, coco, MG potting soil)
Lighting (4 bulb 48" FLOR daylight 65K)
light cycle 18:6
started from seeds on 9/14/11
broke soil on 9/18/11
fed MG quick start on 9/19, 9/22 with watering
PH is 7 in all four pots appx. 4 inches down and decreasing the deeper you go

Please help. Thanks for any input or suggestions you may have for me.

the browning on the leaves looks like nute burn. but just a little.

EDIT: and i would just let leaves die if theyre gonna die..i wouldnt prune the shit out of them.

no harm done, they will be fine.

Hard to tell what was pruned off as we dont have before pics....

Its ok to prune off the leaves that are more than 70% discolored... It promotes new growth instead of trying to use its energy to fix burned leaves....

As far as your Insect problem.... Sounds like "Thrips" to me... Ive had them little fuckers.... You need to buy Azamax... Mix up enough with water to completely saturate your soil in your plants (like a watering).... Go back to your normal schedule.... Then repeat that about a week later... They will be gone... Eggs and all... Thrips will eat your roots, and instead of concentrating its energy on budding, and new growth, it will be comcentrating on fixing its roots....

First off don't let that dude near your plants with scissors again. Damn !
Second, that is not thrips, they don't cause damage that looks like that.
"The damage they make to your medical marijuana plants looks similar to spider mite damage and is often mistaken for mites but the silvery colored blotches with little black spots in them is the tell tale sign of a Thrip infestation"

It looks more like caterpillar or leaf hopper damage to me - something is actually eating the leaf edge, not just sucking juice & causing discolored spots.

Here they are all today...

dont let your "friend" hack at them. I do not really see an issue cept the one pic that looks like some ph/nutrient issue go lite with the nutrients or maybe it is just hot soil. as long as you leave the leaf and go mild on the nutrients you will have some nice buds in two months or so. good luck!

do not worry he is not helping me again. Glad to hear they will be ok. Would it be a good idea to flush my soil to try and restart on a clean slate with nuts and PH? I had already planted them before I knew about PH monitoring and fear I may have added way to many nuts too soon. Also they have all slowed in growth dramatically over the last few days (maybe 3-4 days).

I also recently replaced the two warm color tubes for 2 more daylight tubes. So all 4 bulbs are 6500K daylight tubes.

I am confident that the little bugs in the soil are not harmful and have placed an air purifier and sticky traps in the grow room to combat the gnats. Still no idea on what is eating my plants leaves. I atempted to spray the gnats with a flower insecticed (all I had on short notice) Bayer flower guard.

How do you know in two months time? I have no clue how long to run these ladies. the only definite number i have read for starting flowering is 12 inches +

SterlingCannabis said:

do not worry he is not helping me again. Glad to hear they will be ok. Would it be a good idea to flush my soil to try and restart on a clean slate with nuts and PH? I had already planted them before I knew about PH monitoring and fear I may have added way to many nuts too soon.

I am confident that the little bugs in the soil are not harmful and have placed an air purifier and sticky traps in the grow room to combat the gnats. Still no idea on what is eating my plants leaves.

How do you know in two months time? I have no clue how long to run these ladies. the only definite number i have read for starting flowering is 12 inches +

Click to expand...

I personally don't see enough evidence of nute burning to do anything about it - but keep an eye on them in that respect.
Bugs, good idea with the sticky traps - I suspect you have a leaf hopper or a couple caterpillars hanging around. Hope you catch the hungry little bastard(s).
You do not need to begin flower @ 12", or any other arbitrary number. As long as they are not auto's, you get to pick when you would like for them to begin (by manipulating their photo period). Heck, you could wait until they were 12 Feet tall if you wanted, but that might be a bit unmanageable.
I wish you the best of luck.

Shouldn't be pruning anything. Smack your "so-called friend" on the hand next time his scissors come near your plant! Your plant looks healthy though.
As for the spider mite problem, spray your plants a few times daily with fresh or carbonated water and see if you cant flush those little buggers out before you go buying things. Your infestation doesn't seem awful..probably something you could manage with a small spray bottle.

What evidence do see that would lead you to believe I have Spider mites? I was sure to spray the underside of the leaves as well as the tops with the Bayer Advanced flower guard. Spider mites, caterpillars and gnats were all listed but nothing seemed phased by the spray.

I would agree though that overall the plants do not seem to be stressed over any problems just a nervous gut I guess...

GreatwhiteNorth could you point me towards some info regarding deciding when to flower? What aspects must I consider (lighting, grow space, plant strain, etc) before choosing to go into flowering? Mainly what kind of growth can one expect from the transition from veg into flowering through harvest? Do the above mentioned aspects play key roles in the growth rate?

To everyone else how do you decide to transition into flowering?

SterlingCannabis said:

GreatwhiteNorth could you point me towards some info regarding deciding when to flower? What aspects must I consider (lighting, grow space, plant strain, etc) before choosing to go into flowering? Mainly what kind of growth can one expect from the transition from veg into flowering through harvest? Do the above mentioned aspects play key roles in the growth rate?

Click to expand...

I'm a SCROG guy, so height is my tripwire for when to transition to 12/12. When they reach the screen (@ 29") I give them a week to 10 days to get comfortable & then change the photo period to flowering.

Oh, and your leaf damage is definitely not spider mites or thrips, they don't actually take a bite out of the leaf you can see - they drill holes into the leaf surface & leave yellowish blotches that typically have a minute black dot near the center.