trimming during lst

i.am.what.i.am

Well-Known Member
for those of you who LST, do you trim big fan leaves when the plants start to get bushy? or just try and tape them down? or....? maybe i'm training the tops down too frequently, or maybe i need to pull the lights up to make the shoots stretch more, but it just seems like all the leaves are getting all bunched up......?
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bigbull52

Active Member
never trim healthy leaves, bend them tie them twist em. never clip them..the more leaves, the more total energy it can obsorb
 

mushead

Active Member
never trim healthy leaves, bend them tie them twist em. never clip them..the more leaves, the more total energy it can obsorb
agreed, even when they get older and start to yellow i wouldnt cut them off. think of your leafs as solar panels
 

majek

Well-Known Member
I suggest topping the plants, it will help the light penetrate the lower branches and they will grow stronger and spread apart from each other.
 

cobra28widow

New Member
you can trim fan leaves if they are blocking branches or grow tips.... here is mine after trimming off alot of fan leaves... when you cut a fan leaf off its gonna send that engery to the brances and grow tips.. its not like its gonna stall or die if you cut them lol... and this is just one of my widow mothers.. took about 50 clones off her in the last few weeks.
 

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majek

Well-Known Member
Well yes there are exceptions where trimming fan leaves won't hurt, but the op's plants are much younger than the plant in the pic above. Younger plants will take longer to recover and it will stress them more.
 

mushead

Active Member
you can trim fan leaves if they are blocking branches or grow tips.... here is mine after trimming off alot of fan leaves... when you cut a fan leaf off its gonna send that engery to the brances and grow tips.. its not like its gonna stall or die if you cut them lol... and this is just one of my widow mothers.. took about 50 clones off her in the last few weeks.
if your trim your fans how do you expect to grow anything from that spot? above it will still grow yes but where you took the leaves from, that no longer has a food bank. those leaves store energy. if you take all the fans off in flower your buds wont do much. your leaves are like little solar panels, and outside they dont get full sun all day, or very rarely, so them blocking them selves is not a huge deal. grow low and wide if that bugs you, but pulling leafs off is counter productive. however all that little underbrush crap should go, helps with air flow too
 

cobra28widow

New Member
umm read my post mushhead, I said "you can trim fan leaves if they are blocking branches or grow tips"... cut off a fan leaf that is blocking a grow tips and watch the grow tip develop into a much bigger branch pretty fast... there is no way that can be considered counter productive.. saying that you should never ever trim fan leaves is just wrong IMO.. I also never said anything about cutting off fan leaves during flowering so Im not sure why you mentioned that.
 

cobra28widow

New Member
and to the OP...do this to just one of your plants.. try cutting off two of the fan leaves that are toward the top of the plant... then you will find out first hand how much faster it will branch out compared to the ones you left alone..
 

majek

Well-Known Member
I agree with you both, if the plant is in veg it will constantly grow new leaves so trimming a fan leaf or two won't hurt. If the plant is flowering it is a completely different story, the fans store sugars that feed the flowers and they also absorb sunlight that helps the flowers grow. From my experience when it comes to young plants, you can just fold the larger leaves under the branches you don't have to remove them.
 

mushead

Active Member
umm read my post mushhead, I said "you can trim fan leaves if they are blocking branches or grow tips"... cut off a fan leaf that is blocking a grow tips and watch the grow tip develop into a much bigger branch pretty fast... there is no way that can be considered counter productive.. saying that you should never ever trim fan leaves is just wrong IMO.. I also never said anything about cutting off fan leaves during flowering so Im not sure why you mentioned that.
i didnt mention the flowering thing in response to you, i was jsut talkin in general terms.
 

mushead

Active Member
and to the OP...do this to just one of your plants.. try cutting off two of the fan leaves that are toward the top of the plant... then you will find out first hand how much faster it will branch out compared to the ones you left alone..
how does cutting the fan leaves make it branch out again? sounds like fimming to me, and thats not the fans leaves you would pinch off, its the reproductive part. cutting off fans will not make anything branch
 

cobra28widow

New Member
how does cutting the fan leaves make it branch out again? sounds like fimming to me, and thats not the fans leaves you would pinch off, its the reproductive part. cutting off fans will not make anything branch
well its quite obvious to me you have absolutely no experience with cutting off fans leaves so how can you have a real opinion about it??? and jorge cervantes is wrong about a few other things just so you know.. he also states the nutrient levels and light schedule are what makes a plant male or female lol we all know hes wrong about that too...

Let me explain this one more time for the special needs children... if you cut off a fucking fan leaf that is blocking light to lower branches ... once the big fan leaf is GONE and out of the way... light is going to shine on the grow tip of the branch... CAUSING the branch to grow much bigger and faster since its getting alot more light.... and yes cutting off upper fan leaves causes it to branch out.. im speaking from real experience... your just assuming things based on something you read in a book.


let me clear this up too... im not telling you to cut off ALL your fan leaves.. or even half of then.. just a few toward the top to help promote branching..
 

mushead

Active Member
I agree with you both, if the plant is in veg it will constantly grow new leaves so trimming a fan leaf or two won't hurt. If the plant is flowering it is a completely different story, the fans store sugars that feed the flowers and they also absorb sunlight that helps the flowers grow. From my experience when it comes to young plants, you can just fold the larger leaves under the branches you don't have to remove them.
true , i didnt mean it would kill the plant instantly, but vegging or not they need there shade leafs. they feed the plant in veg too, thats why you get new growth. theres lots of wasted arguements on this subject allready tho, and i never got why. light + leafs = growth. light + leafs - x(leafs) = less growth.. they block the plant at times cuz thats what it likes, hence shade leafs, fans whatever. to each their own tho
 

mushead

Active Member
well its quite obvious to me you have absolutely no experience with cutting off fans leaves so how can you have a real opinion about it??? and jorge cervantes is wrong about a few other things just so you know.. he also states the nutrient levels and light schedule are what makes a plant male or female lol we all know hes wrong about that too...

Let me explain this one more time for the special needs children... if you cut off a fucking fan leaf that is blocking light to lower branches ... once the big fan leaf is GONE and out of the way... light is going to shine on the grow tip of the branch... CAUSING the branch to grow much bigger and faster since its getting alot more light.... and yes cutting off upper fan leaves causes it to branch out.. im speaking from real experience... your just assuming things based on something you read in a book.


let me clear this up too... im not telling you to cut off ALL your fan leaves.. or even half of then.. just a few toward the top to help promote branching..
yes i read books, i also read and write research papers, thesis's, and have been growing for almost 15yrs. but hey whats a horticulture degree but toliet paper any way right? so lets get this clear for me and all the special needs kids out there. cutting off upper FAN leaves causes it to branch out,take that bs to the advanced growing section and let them troll your ass then. but hey trim all the fan leaves you need if that what makes you feel better.
 

cobra28widow

New Member
and Ive been growing marijuana for over 13 years... Have you ever tried it mushhead??? I bet you never did.. so how would you know if it works or not? Ive done it and seen the results first hand.. I dont need to ask for advice when it comes to that and I couldnt care less if anybody believes it or not. But dont try to tell me Im wrong when I know for a fact it does.. We dont agree, its that simple. You keep trying to tell me im wrong lol give it a rest.
 

cobra28widow

New Member
I suggest topping the plants, it will help the light penetrate the lower branches and they will grow stronger and spread apart from each other.
Well yes there are exceptions where trimming fan leaves won't hurt, but the op's plants are much younger than the plant in the pic above. Younger plants will take longer to recover and it will stress them more.
lmao you just told this kid to cut off the main grow tip and then you make it sound like cutting of a few fans leaves is worse... Topping the plant causes alot more stress than just a few fan leaves. The earlier you do it the more branches its gonna have. His plants are def old enough to cut a few leaves or even top it like you suggested.. they will bounce back pretty fast. Good luck to the OP
 

Sir.Ganga

New Member
if your trim your fans how do you expect to grow anything from that spot? above it will still grow yes but where you took the leaves from, that no longer has a food bank. those leaves store energy. if you take all the fans off in flower your buds wont do much. your leaves are like little solar panels, and outside they dont get full sun all day, or very rarely, so them blocking them selves is not a huge deal. grow low and wide if that bugs you, but pulling leafs off is counter productive. however all that little underbrush crap should go, helps with air flow too
Its called energy transfer. This is such a touchy subject here on riu. Removing leaves and sucker shoots will force your girls to put all its energy to the remaining growing shoots. You loose nothing with the right strains and even can get better results by this technique.
 

budolskie

Well-Known Member
lst'd my 4 big bud and cut off a few fan leaves during flower that were covering branches day 39 of 12/12 these pics were taken
 
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