Indiegurl

I have heard mixed opinions about removing fan leaves vs not removing them. Is removing the larger fan leaves during flowering beneficial to bud development by getting more light, or is it detrimental due to stressing the plant out and limiting photosynthesis?

bluecheese

Tuck, don't pluck!

The fans leaves provide the energy needed to fill out the buds.

I did a side-by-side test once & although the trimmed plant had bigger buds at first, the untrimmed one filled out more!

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Indiegurl

Thank yee thank yee

ZoomBoom

The only thing I've been trimming this round have been the shoots underneath the canopy that will likely not amount to anything worth smoking...I've been leaving all the leaves and tucking the ones blocking viable shoots.

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Sso

who the heck started this rumour that plucking fan leafs is good?


and why?

Sso

and btw, if you look at an mj buds.


you can see, that there are leaves there. cut the fan leaves and those leaves get more light. its not about the buds, its about the leaves.

so you want to cut the big fan leaves? so light can get to the smaller leaves inside?

think of leaves as suncatchers...now think again about that.

Futuregrower

I leave em be, unless they are obviously dying and/or blocking another plant. If they are blocking I just move em. Dying, like big fan leaves that are old and the plant is yellowing them, I just pluck 'em.

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GanjaGardener

I had to do some behavior modification to block my compulsion to tidy up, clear paths for better light penetration as well as, work on my propensity to fondle bud. (among other things.) That being said, there are a couple of situations where (ouch!) plucking some of a plants fan leaves has proven to be the lesser of two evils.

As an LST grower, I begin training early on to reduce the hormonal stress that bending and stretching can cause in older plants. I strip the leaves and shoots from the underside (the side that faces the ground when the plant is pulled down), when the plant is about 8" tall and continue "sculpting" away the fan leaves and lateral shoots that spring out from the "bottom" until the plant reaches approx.18" in length. By then, the plant's basic growth shape has been set and fan leaves are no longer an issue, until...

... 7-10 days before harvest after the (indica dominant x sativa) buds have "exploded" into their final expansive phase and before bud rot has reared it's ugly head. I happen to have a late outdoor crop exactly at this point now, and trimmed away half of my crop's fan leaves last night. I targeted all leaves that showed N deficient yellow as well other common incubation sites- weak fan leaves (leaf stems that easily separate from the branch w/ a quick downward pull), lush, underdeveloped lateral shoots from the interior that I'd previously missed, as well as leaves (and in some cases small buds) that were pressing into neighboring colas and couldn't be tied away to achieve separation. This is my 3rd OD crop of the season w/ this cultivar, (we typically have a late "summer"), and botrytis was a problem w/ the first 2. It's uncanny how it shows up at my dinner table about 3-4 days, sometimes a week, before the optimum harvest days.

As much as I hate pulling fan leaves, I feel it's better to lose a week's worth of maximum energy efficiency than to make botrytis's job easier by offering it expansive breeding grounds to do it's nasty work in.

Maybe more than you needed or wanted to hear about my take on fan leaves, but that's my3c.

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nigel

another lesser of 2 evils is bugs; if i see a caterpillar hatching or mite infestation on a leaf, i will remove thier home.

Leaves going the wrong way, touching soil surfaces or are 'spent'. ie dry, parchment like and yellowing or badly damaged.

Removing a few fingers and not whole leaf, is a good strategy sometimes.. best wishes nigel

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mr. hyde

what is the point of tucking leaves? why not just let them be? i don't tuck or pluck and only remove leaves if they are dead.

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