Removing Leaves in Flower

[Bgreenheadband]

I have some very large, very bushy plants. I am in my first few days of stretch, and am bending them out to make sure I have enough ceiling height. I am also removing a good amount of fan leaves to allow for light penetration. For those that remove fan leaves, do you usually wait until stretch is complete? Or do you remove them throughout?
I don't want to start a debate on whether or not removing fan leaves is beneficial or harmful....I used thi technique while using a scrog set up, and was happy with the results. I am just asking those who do, what kind of time frame they remove them.

Thanks.

 

[Grass Lands]

I usually pluck the large leaves right before flower and then every two weeks while in flower I look at the plants to see if there are any leaves covering nugs that could use the light, if nugs are being completely shaded the fan leave gets the axe.

 

[CannabisDog]

I never remove them. If anything I think removing them slows plant growth and slows flowering time.

 

[HempAlchemist]

i think removing leaves actually does increase bud size and flower time. but the added weight imo makes up for the extra time. of course every system is different and we as growers need to dial in defoliation (sp?) as that the pros out way the con. so how much i take off may not be enough or too much for you.

 

[Phaeton]

I wait until stretch is done.

Why will remain my secret, otherwise somebody who does it for different reasons will insist on enlightening me as to the correct thinking, even if I say please don't.

 

[budman678]

what about not touching them at all cept for a tuck or removing dead leaves?

 

[grassott]

I have some very large, very bushy plants. I am in my first few days of stretch, and am bending them out to make sure I have enough ceiling height. I am also removing a good amount of fan leaves to allow for light penetration. For those that remove fan leaves, do you usually wait until stretch is complete? Or do you remove them throughout?...

I'd never remove them nasty fat chunky leaves during stretch.

approx 21 days of 12/12, remove the fat bastards that are blocking the light to your sexy budsites, then just a few "sunlight blocking leaves" every now and again as you scrog.

 

[Wick420]

I remove fan leaves throughout flower and see no issues. I also use scrog, and with that technique I think its almost a must. I pull leaves during my stretch as I am trying to get light to the lower/smaller nodes that havent yet reached the screen. I dont remove really any nodes or potential bud sites below the screen until stretch is over. If it makes it to the screen it stays if not it gets pulled. The decisionis yours but I dont think it will cause any problems. Good luck.

 

[iBlaze]

Pretty much remove leaves blocking light to your bud sites, but keep maximum amount of leaves that you can. The more leaves = more light your plant can absorb and more fat ass buds she can produce.

 

[delta9nxs]

I have some very large, very bushy plants. I am in my first few days of stretch, and am bending them out to make sure I have enough ceiling height. I am also removing a good amount of fan leaves to allow for light penetration. For those that remove fan leaves, do you usually wait until stretch is complete? Or do you remove them throughout?
I don't want to start a debate on whether or not removing fan leaves is beneficial or harmful....I used thi technique while using a scrog set up, and was happy with the results. I am just asking those who do, what kind of time frame they remove them.

Thanks.

i grow large plants with vertical lighting. i wait until stretch is over to do a one time complete defoliation of all fan leaves. this is with indica dominant plants.

i wait until stretch is done because that is when most root growth is done also. bud set is complete.

by this time i have developed a very large root system that is capable of supplying a large plant if it had all it's leaves. so now it is disproportionally huge compared to the remaining plant mass.

if you study leaf senescence you will find that the older, fully expanded leaves are producing less photosynthate per unit area than newly formed or forming leaves. these leaves very quickly offset any potential loss of photosynthate production.

it should be noted that all the new fan leaf growth is localized in the flowers and is near the branch ends. this makes them more efficient at capturing light than large fully expanded interior leaves.

by defoliating i open the interior of the plant up to more light. i strip out any growth that has not produced a significant bud site at the same time.

i believe there is also a hormonal response that is triggered by total defoliation. the plant has one mission in life and that is to reproduce. it has evolved strategies that allow it to compensate for herbivory and survive to reproduce.

this is just one way to do it and it works well with large, thick, bushy plants.

i'm starting to grow some plants with more of a sativa influence and these plants naturally want to grow tall and lanky with long spaces between nodes.

one of the effects of defoliating during the vegetative cycle is that it produces more bud sites closer together, greatly increasing branching. an undesirable thing for a large bushy plant but just right for a tall sativa that you are trying to keep in the sweet spot.

this, coupled with a topping, produces a much shorter, heavier, sativa dominant plant that reaches about the same stature as an indica dominant plant.

so whether or not you defoliate and when and how you defoliate is dependent on your plants and your space.

 

[delta9nxs]

editing to remove duplicate post.

 

[grassott]

Hmmm. A bit of a long post but very interesting

 

[qupee]

i grow large plants with vertical lighting. i wait until stretch is over to do a one time complete defoliation of all fan leaves. this is with indica dominate plants.

i wait until stretch is done because that is when most root growth is done also. bud set is complete.

by this time i have developed a very large root system that is capable of supplying a large plant if it had all it's leaves. so now it is disproportionally huge compared to the remaining plant mass.

if you study leaf senescence you will find that the older, fully expanded leaves are producing less photosynthate per unit area than newly formed or forming leaves. these leaves very quickly offset any potential loss of photosynthate production.

it should be noted that all the new fan leaf growth is localized in the flowers and is near the branch ends. this makes them more efficient at capturing light than large fully expanded interior leaves.

by defoliating i open the interior of the plant up to more light. i strip out any growth that has not produced a significant bud site at the same time.

i believe there is also a hormonal response that is triggered by total defoliation. the plant has one mission in life and that is to reproduce. it has evolved strategies that allow it to compensate for herbivory and survive to reproduce.

this is just one way to do it and it works well with large, thick, bushy plants.

i'm starting to grow some plants with more of a sativa influence and these plants naturally want to grow tall and lanky with long spaces between nodes.

one of the effects of defoliating during the vegetative cycle is that it produces more bud sites closer together, greatly increasing branching. an undesirable thing for a large bushy plant but just right for a tall sativa that you are trying to keep in the sweet spot.

this, coupled with a topping, produces a much shorter, heavier, sativa dominate plant that reaches about the same stature as an indica dominate plant.

so whether or not you defoliate and when and how you defoliate is dependent on your plants and your space.

Best sounding explanation for defoliating (and when/why) I've read that I can recall.

Sums up my much less concrete notions about it.

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

@ delta9nxs

Very informative presentation with solid reasons to back up your actions. Love your use of this technique on vegging sativas. Thanks for sharing this with us.