Would you trim fan leaves in the vegging stage

Same question but in the vegging stage. From clone to 24" would you trim leaves at the nodes to promote new growth?

i would never trim anything, fan leaves are power to the plant. they will die when their use is over

the plant makes leaves for a reason. to photosynthesize. without the fan leaves you will have a very small/weak plant.

The only time I trim fan leaves is to remove infection or improve air circulation, which as we all know is VERY important depending on your grow environment and locale. Keep in mind, powdery mildew is a mother fucker and certain strains are more susceptible than others.

Once plants are over 16" I keep a slightly overpowered oscillating fan at the base of my plants and just remove the large fan leaves after they get 50% wind burnt. My canopy is full and healthy with tons of fresh air flowing up from a easy to inspect undergrowth. Is it the best system? Maybe not, but you eliminate a lot of popcorn buds from underneath and it works great for me.

If you do it, and I think it's fine to do it either way because the side branches will receive more light, then do it early. When the plant is forming it's 5th node it should have enough root energy for a few days of rebounding while still with a weak root system. Remove all the fan leaves except the first two sets of multi-bladed leaves (they're not blocking anything so you may as well keep them). So with 8 total fan leaves you're going to leave 4, remove 4, and the new leaf set should be preset very soon. The side branches should catch up a little bit, and their leaves will fill in where the old fan leaves would have been.

After a few more nodes you can defoliate again, this time including basically any leaf that is above "another" leaf. Leaving essentially only the fan leaves at the bottom of the plant, with a new leaf set just about to pop up. After defoliating twice the branches of the branches should be filling in as well, giving you a very thick and bushy plant. Give it another 3 or more weeks and this plant would make an excellent clone mother for a SOG. If not, you can top or fimm the tops of the plant after it has rebounded completely from the second defoliation for a very even canopy.

Once flowering begins the plant will be very good at replacing foliage. You can feel free to remove anything that blocks a bud site because the plant has been conditioned to replace these leaves. Trying to defoliate while in flower is a bad idea.

If you are concerned why not just try it out on a practice plant. Grow one extra plant, and do it on the side or something, you might be very happy with the results. I got this info from an old dude in Santa Cruz when I started growing, and recently it has become popular among advanced growers in other forums. Most of the people who speak out against this speak only from theory, and not experience. If you'd like to see some evidence I can steal some pictures from this other forum.

Thanks snow crash I am going to give it a try

Depends.
If I'm growing plants very close together I might remove sickly fan leaves to allow more light penetration.
Usually I let my plants get crazy in veg.

In flowering I pluck a LOT of leaves. Anything above my SCROG goes down for the first month of flowering. Then just the random plucking.

My plants are pretty healthy even with just a few fan leaves, if any.

I don't think the need them fan leaves in flowering. The bud leaves are enough for my plants.


From my research, its pretty strain dependent.

Fan leaves are producers, only trim them if they are hindering the plant. If you want more nodes I would suggest FIMMING or Topping.

People have different opinions on your question. IF you are going to trim fan leaves I would recomend removing them either a week before or a week after you flip to flower.

Don't trim anything until it is yellow and spent. These leaves do not have to be removed, they are on the plant for a reason.

People top and fimm in veg stages to encourage branching and to control height. Some growers in humid areas have to thin the canopy of some small branches to aid in airflow to prevent powdery mildew, but de-leafing the plant thinking it will grow better is total nonsense.

I agree with McFonz, plants have plenty of bud leaves for photosynthesis to take place . You don't have to strip the whole plant of its big leaves ,but it doesn't hurt to start taking some that are blocking lower sites.

slk said:

Thanks snow crash I am going to give it a try

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Finally got an answer you liked, huh?

Cutting fan leaves isn't going to give you anywhere as much new growth as topping or snipping off the growing tips. For every tip you cut, two grow back.

Wet

dont trim fan leaves, do what u gotta do- bend em, hide em, twist em, anything is better than cutting them off, the plants needs them to breathe

i LST and i bend fan leaves all over the fuckin place, it works for me..

cut all the leaves off and then cut the stem off at ground level and it will grow big and strong.

del66666 said:

cut all the leaves off and then cut the stem off at ground level and it will grow big and strong.

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ahhhahahhahahahaha

del66666 said:

cut all the leaves off and then cut the stem off at ground level and it will grow big and strong.

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I have heard that this will cause multiple branching and colas as big as baseball bats and increase harvests by double . Where are my pruners now? Ha Ha

it depends on the grow.... im not a fan of trimming at all, but during a micro grow with cfls i found pruning on top of my lst was practical, and worked well.

Really depends on the grow.

im going to cut my legs off so i can run faster...........

slk said:

Thanks snow crash I am going to give it a try

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Sounds like this is the answer you wanted to hear. NO IMO you never trim fan leaves in veg unless its a couple days out from flower. Then I lollipop my plants hence removing fan leaves amongst other things. If you want to slow the plant growth by all means.. To each they're own though..

slk said:

Same question but in the vegging stage. From clone to 24" would you trim leaves at the nodes to promote new growth?

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nope, only when they are yellowish and dying. each leaf is like a giant solar panel. remove it and your plant is getting less energy and slightly stressed.