should i cut some leaves off?

Some may disagree with me but when we grow indoors, we are trying to duplicate mother nature and make it better by providing PERFECT growing conditions. One thing we have in our favor is that we can actually control our enviorment. So the question is: to cut fan leaves or not....or to cut the lower 1/3rd of the plant to allow more light too the main cola(s) and also allow the plant to focus its energy instead of spreading it out.

Cutting/leaving fan leaves, LST, FIM etc... are all techniques we use and under perfect or near perfect conditions and it all works pretty well.....So what the f*^k is the DRAMA about? If trimming works for you...go for it. If LST'g is your cup of tea....go for it. If cutting fan leaves works for you....go for it.

We are providing perfect conditions and can pretty much do what we want, when we want and if it fails, we know next time. Fan leaves have more of a purpose in uncontrolled enviornments then they do in our indoor perfect grows.

Those lil popcorn nugs at the lower end of the plant are good for hash if you want to take the time to do that, otherwise they are too small to bother with. Trim during veg so you dont have to bother with them later on. 4 weeks into flower is a bit too late to start hacking your plant up.....but if you got the time, she will recover.

Ooh yeah...As for fan leaves storing nutes for later.....shoot bra!! We are providing nutes whenever she needs nutes. Who gives a shit if something is stored in a leaf or not.

out

Mother nature doesn't cut fan leaves off.

Food for thought.

Mother nature doesnt provide perfect conditions like we do....more food for thought.

I'm not saying they are not needed....people just freak out over a little trimming and personally I think they are talking out their ass in place of experience.

I dont trim all my fan leaves off, but I do manicure as needed to keep shape and even out distribution of light. Just look at my current grow, definately not mainstream but effective. I just got done trimming my AK47 in week 7 of flower and she continues to produce. Granted, I didnt hack her up but just a lil bit of maintenance is all. If I were to ask should I do it....I would get blasted with HELL NO!!! and all the other jibber jabber N00B hempoligy 101.

Boneman said:

Mother nature doesnt provide perfect conditions like we do....more food for thought.

I'm not saying they are not needed....people just freak out over a little trimming and personally I think they are talking out their ass in place of experience.

I dont trim all my fan leaves off, but I do manicure as needed to keep shape and even out distribution of light. Just look at my current grow, definately not mainstream but effective. I just got done trimming my AK47 in week 7 of flower and she continues to produce. Granted, I didnt hack her up but just a lil bit of maintenance is all. If I were to ask should I do it....I would get blasted with HELL NO!!! and all the other jibber jabber N00B hempoligy 101.

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You're wrong. You wouldn't be advised against it by just noobs. Experienced growers would as well. Why? Because we've tried it before. I've done it and what happened was the bud sites where the fan leaves were removed ended up being stunted.

I hear ya GS....No worries dude....its all good. This is the reason for these types of forum sites. We know what works for us and what doesnt and we try to pass it along. Alot of it is interpretation of what's typed and how it received. Ever try explaining computer maintenance over the phone to someone? Very seldom does it work the same on both ends of the line.

out

No fighting from me

I like pie.

I like hair pie

I like what bone man said... about what works for you. I experiment all the time like cutting a mainstem off and trying to clone it. haha doesnt work to well, in a shower turned into a vegroom hell I was going to throw them away....BUT...they snapped back,and were large producers. I like testing certain strains to see what they can do. setiva is harder than indica for my setup. but anyways this is your thread. get to people in your area that grow you would be suprised. like the local indoor gardening shop if you have one. try peppers now those hard.....

Lolipopping and cutting fan leaves are two different things. It sounds like Lollipopping is ok and cutting fan leaves isn't a good idea? This is what I get from this arguement. lol

Ha Ha Ha see I told you people would disagree. We just have to think outside of the box for a minute. If you let a plant go thru an entire lifestyle, what does it end up shedding? What turns yellow and falls off? If we make a mistake, what is the first part of the plant that shows us there is a problem?...then it shrivvles up an we cut it off.
Fan leaves are there for a reason and we need to leave them be as much as possible. Tuck them back etc... But sometimes, a little trimming is in order. Thats all I was saying. Lollipopping is a whole nuther thing. Some ppl cant handle a little trimming maintenance but can handle the ax murdering it takes to produce loppipopping. Go figure?

Maybe it's my fault for getting into the subject of lollipopping and confusing everyone. On the subject of trimming fan leaves because they are "blocking the light" from your lower buds - DON'T DO IT. Even leaves that are damaged will fall off on their own once they are not contributing to the plant.

Lollipopping is just a strategy to get the plant to use its energy where it counts - closer to the top. Removing lower BUDSITES helps achieve this, removing lower FAN LEAVES does not. Budsites are takers of energy from the plant. Leaves are producers of energy. It is OK to remove the lower fan leaves WHEN you are lollipopping because you are removing all the budsites that those fan leaves provide energy for. Otherwise, leave em be.

Lollipopping, when done correctly (bottom 1/3 of plant) will give you bigger yields. I swear I'm not making it up. I'm not someone that goes around giving advice that I've heard somewhere else and not confirmed for myself. I'm not saying that's what others are doing, only that my main motivation is to help rizzo and other new growers, not to sound like I really know a lot about growing. There's a whole lot I have yet to learn but this is one fact I can tell you for sure. I haven't even mentioned the advantages that it makes the plant a whole lot easier to water if you do so by hand and your harvest is primarily fat colas. Fatter buds are more flavorful and potent than popcorn buds- another fact I can tell you that you will find out for yourself.

i have cut a ton of leaves off from begining to now 3 weeks into flowering and they look bushy and bud from top to bottom aswell. I was told cutting them promots growth. Im not sure what im going to do now, because veryone seems to say not to cut them. or am i just reading this wrong. I have 2 plants started from seeds. with a 1000watt hps. I couldnt ask for a better 1srt crop and ive cut a ton off, really

randy0025 said:

i have cut a ton of leaves off from begining to now 3 weeks into flowering and they look bushy and bud from top to bottom aswell. I was told cutting them promots growth. Im not sure what im going to do now, because veryone seems to say not to cut them. or am i just reading this wrong. I have 2 plants started from seeds. with a 1000watt hps. I couldnt ask for a better 1srt crop and ive cut a ton off, really

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you will be ok i normally dont cut anything that doesnt need it during flowering but you should have totally stufed another 10 plants at least under that 1000w but its your first i guess bit of a waste

lollipopping is used to let you cram up to 4 plants per sq foot by removing all branches in the bottom 1/3 at the end of flower week 1 and flower week 3 you can pack the plants in tight while still allowing good airflow and light concentration at the top where you want it for this technique.
it produces 1 main top cola and not a whole lot else. which is great for production growing.
if however like me you have plant number restrictions due to medical laws i need to get as much off 1 plant as i can
so i space them out more. trim nothing off (especially not fan leaves) and veg them a bit longer than i would a lollipopped SOG which i wouldnt veg at all.
so as its been stated it all depends on what works for you.
a lollipop SOG grow can be very productive and so can veg'ing giants.
find what works for you ... may take 3 or so grows but you will develop your own technique. my technique is bits i've borrowed from several growers and combined to make my own
best of luck to all growers ..... keep the peace and vote for legalization

tusseltussel said:

you will be ok i normally dont cut anything that doesnt need it during flowering but you should have totally stufed another 10 plants at least under that 1000w but its your first i guess bit of a waste

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i going to the next time, im going to use female seeds this time, had to cut out 2 males and a hermie. i cant believe how great my first grow came out. everyone is saying there is no buds at the bottom and mine have tons already and it hasnt even started really pack it on yet. i wanna have 7-8 under this 1000 watt. that would be perfect for me

randy0025 said:

i going to the next time, im going to use female seeds this time, had to cut out 2 males and a hermie. i cant believe how great my first grow came out. everyone is saying there is no buds at the bottom and mine have tons already and it hasnt even started really pack it on yet. i wanna have 7-8 under this 1000 watt. that would be perfect for me

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Yes, you will have tons of buds on the bottom. But they will never "pack it on" and get big like the top ones will. That's the point. If there weren't tons of budsites at the bottom of the plant, there would be nothing to remove. They steal energy from your top buds and don't use it as effectively. Am I beating a dead horse?

so you say its a good idea for me just to cut those nice prefect little buds off so everything goes up to the top.

randy0025 said:

so you say its a good idea for me just to cut those nice prefect little buds off so everything goes up to the top.

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thats gonna be your choice, dont think n e 1 will tell u to do that. they will throw it out there

yeah. i know. imnot going to star testing on my only two plants, lol.. i think some strains or diff/ because my bubs are almost as nice as some on the top as of now.

randy0025 said:

so you say its a good idea for me just to cut those nice prefect little buds off so everything goes up to the top.

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i would leave em and make hash out of em woohoo! you may end up flowering longer if you cut em. prolly add like 2 weeks to your flowering time.. at least in my experience...