About trimming fan leaves

[mriko]

Greetings & Love everyone!


Since it's my first post of the year, Happy New Year 2020!!

I'm entering this new decade working on my largest indoor set up ever, with 16 flowering females in a single square meter. Things are getting a bit tight might I say, with quite a canopy covering many budding sites. I'm seriously thinking about trimming some fan leaves for better light penetration.
I've never done that, so I'm wondering about possible consequences since those are like energy factories for the plant.
I'm thinking about trimming a couple of leaves, 3 at most, per plant, should I fear negative impact on the production with just 2 or 3 fan leaves missing?

Irie!

 

[mean mr.mustard]

Do it.

 

[troutman]

Check these videos of the same garden.

Defoliating Week 3 Flower | Photo Boost LED Grow

Same garden 3 weeks later.

LED Side by Side Grow Week 6 | Pacific Light Concepts

Harvest time:

LED Grow Week 8 Harvest | Early Harvest

 

[Rico Swazi]

yield will go up if done properly which means using scissors to cut the leaf stem
ripping the leaf off by the petiole may introduce pathogens
dude in the videos above used scissors

 

[Jim Rockford]

I recommend it. At somewhere around day 21 to 25 I cut 90% of the leaves off my plants. Doing it wisely with proper nutes and sugars is important. But usually in 7 to 10 days there are plenty of leaves again. Over years and years I agree with a lot of people that it increases yield. It allows light to get to all the nodes and all the energy to be focused on bud growth. It also makes it a lot easier to spot things like bugs or disease and prevents lower buds in the dark from stressing out and popping male flowers. Troutman has a good video above.

 

[mriko]

Thanks everyone for the insights, I shall proceed with the trimming then!

Irie!

 

[THC123]

They also do it with tomatoes. You should test the impact. I have noticed when I remove a fanleaf at a node that the branch on that side of the node will grow faster. Try it, the left side you leave the fan and on the right side you remove it.

 

[troutman]

I did it with the Afropips Malawi Gold I'm growing now. The way I did it was remove only one of two fan leaves per day at
most per plant vs taking them all off at the same time. Outdoors animals sometime take a leaf here and there and it's less
stressful on the plant than taking them all at once. Emulating nature is good.

 

[Zeez]

Snip, snip, snip.

 

[Rico Swazi]

Thanks everyone for the insights, I shall proceed with the trimming then!

Irie!

pics before and after would be great


pic snip and Irie!