Cutting fan leaves

bauty67

Well-Known Member
I have a plant that has 3 huge fan leaves down on the bottom 1/3 of the plant they are some of the oldest growth on the plant and are darker in color than the rest of the leaves. The leaves are blocking almost all the light to the newer growth below them can these 2 or 3 fan leaves be cut off or not and if so do i just clip them close to the main stem or not? Thanks.
 

stoned cockatoo

New Member
you will probably get every answer possible as everyone seems to have a different opinion about this.

personally id leave them because i belie they are there for a reason. if they weren't needed they wouldn't be there

how far along is your grow? they will yellow up and drop off in flower anyway
 

bauty67

Well-Known Member
I will be going to flowering on thursday of next week the plants are about 7 weeks now i had some problems with really slow growth this is my first grow and i did several things wrong but i think i have them on track now both plants are around 20" high and 14" or so round and looking pretty good now thanks to lots of help from people on here that know what they are doing. I will try and just tuck them out of the way the best i can then and go from there. Thanks again to everyone for your help.
 

stoned cockatoo

New Member
nice man yeah tucking them in will be the way to go. when you switch to flower the lower growth will stretch up past the fan leaves that will then yellow and die off :)

best of luck
 

melungeonman

Active Member
don't cut the fans you will be better off cutting the branches that are not exposed,. In fact this is called trimming for yeild, Fan leaves create the building blocks ( sugars and starches) for large health buds . Definate loss of productivity after removing them ...Pixy duster is absolutly correct, in fact this topic should not even be debated. What those fan leaves do for the plant is not debateable..... So its sort of a no brainer that they should remain I leave them when i cut a clone from the stock . The leaf remains the same, I hired a helper last summer that thought you should remove any yellowing leaf as well, so he went to tearing all the partialy yellow, and bottom fan leaves off, boy what a waste of time that crop was!!!!! lost many ounces because this yahooo.
 

Grampa

Active Member
Ill keep it simple. Dont cut fan leaves. If you are scrogging keep everything but the bud sites under the screen when flowering starts.
 

melungeonman

Active Member
I just responded to a kid, saying he recomends starting at the top working your way down, you take all the fan leaves off in week 2???????? and thats the way he gets 18% more crop???? This was a post he left in advanced growing and was pretty rediculous,.....
 

bauty67

Well-Known Member
Thanks to you all for the help i am going with the leaves staying on and tucking them in as best as i can. I should have been in flowering already but live and learn my next grow will go better i have learned a lot on here and will not be making the same mistakes again on the next grow.
 

yesum

Well-Known Member
I take them if they are blocking budsites and there are plenty of leaves anyways. I have to take a few leaves off cause my tent is crowded also.

You will stunt the plant by taking leaves but if just a few and not all at once the benefit can outweigh that. It is when you take a bunch of leaves off and all at once is worse, then the stunting will a factor. If you can, tuck them but do not be afraid to cut any at all.
 

Badmf

Well-Known Member
You're getting solid advice on not cutting em they are growth factories for the plant! Only just before final cut down day should you remove these. OD growers do this to speed up trim time in the outbaaaaack to make a lighter load goin out.
 

bauty67

Well-Known Member
I have them tucked away right now the best i can and if that does not work i will be forced to cut a few. Just gonna wait and see now. Thanks for the advice.
 
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