Beginning trim while ripening?

Has anyone ever considered starting your trim process in the last two weeks of ripening before Harvest by that I mean just removing all large fan leaves and any large sugar leaves that will ultimately be trimmed anyway... Obviously if this affects the plant's ability to finish ripening and could affect trichome production then I wouldn't even think about it but it would allow the plant to get a lot more light to the buds to finish up... Just curious if anyone's experimented with this

My concern with doing it two weeks early would be that the plant may start reverting back to veg as it tries to heal - but I've never tried it. But that's a heck of a lot of stress to put on a plant and I'd be worried about stress-induced hermies popping up too.

However a lot of people do remove leaves that block light to buds. I think if more light is the goal, that properly training the plant and making the occasional snip would be more likely to work than massive leaf pruning late in flower. It did make me wonder though if it might help make a cleaner end product if you did this say 2 days before harvest. I guess all I'm saying is IDK, but it's an interesting idea.

About a year ago I read an interview with a breeder who removed the sugar and fan leaves but had a complex fertilizer mix that kept the plants from dying. So that may not be the case. If I can drag the breeder's name out of my brain I'll post it.

This is my first run and I am trying to nail down a good method...in hindsight I would have been more aggressive in my three week defoliation in flower...however it's sounds like the way to go would be maybe one week from.chop if done at all...which Maybe not be a great idea

So put 2 plants side by side do what you want to try on one and then let the other one go. See if it makes a difference in quality and or weight.

Fatleg77 said:

This is my first run and I am trying to...

Click to expand...

Stop right there. This is no time to be an inventor lol. If this is your first run, I'd suggest doing nothing that isn't proven to work by others. Because, if you do, and there's a problem, you won't be sure if it is the new method or if you're having problems with the basics.

A lot of people struggle to find the right feeding and watering schedules at first so I'd wait until you think like a plant before trying any new stuff.

Once you know how plants perform in your particular grow setting and with your variables (dirt, ferts, etc) then you can start to truly understand the effects of your new technique, but if this is your first grow please trust me on this - keep it basic and follow methods with a track record.

Srirachi said:

Stop right there. This is no time to be an inventor lol. If this is your first run, I'd suggest doing nothing that isn't proven to work by others. Because, if you do, and there's a problem, you won't be sure if it is the new method or if you're having problems with the basics.

A lot of people struggle to find the right feeding and watering schedules at first so I'd wait until you think like a plant before trying any new stuff.

Once you know how plants perform in your particular grow setting and with your variables (dirt, ferts, etc) then you can start to truly understand the effects of your new technique, but if this is your first grow please trust me on this - keep it basic and follow methods with a track record.

Click to expand...

I feel like this is solid advice....she is doing well for a first time grow so I will just run her out plus I only have one and it's looking like she will give atleast 2 oz of goodneas so I don't want to jeopardize that this late in flower

Its good to get a completed run done. It gives you a nice baseline to move forward from.

Removing a bunch of fan leaf early on is a awful idea. The last couple of days wont hurt. But honestly dont bother unless the leaf is needing plucked anyways (pure yellow/dead) more often then not it's going to hurt your yield but there's the rare exception or at least the odd duck that claims it helps his yield with everything.

I pluck yellow leaves, that's it. I'll start cutting most fan leaves a few days before the chop just to make trimming easier. Removing leaves at any point just stunts production. If you think defoliation helps your grow, your environment isn't correct. Usually it's people trying to run too many plants for thier given lights, so they defoliate, essentially increasing the light to foliage ratio. Grow to your environment, don't mutilate plants to accommodate the environment you're in.