Removing Top Leaves, Should I & How..?

[Tstone]

I'm 14 days into Flowering, The top Fan Leaves seem to be blocking light
Can I cut w/ no problems ? If so how do I remove, the whole stem or just the
leaf...?, Pinch it off or cut..? The 1 plant is 16" H, has like 20 or more levels
of branches( I call'em ), its covered the whole AeroGarden ( 44days old )
Here's some Pics,( I hope they show, my 1st time )

 

[cadeneli]

Don't do it. Stupid mother nature putting all these leaves that store important sugars and nutrients in my way, I think I'm gonna cut them all off. Tuck it, don't cut it.

 

[ultimatelysoothed]

trying tucking! if you really need to ....remove only what REALLY needs to be removed.....the huge ones, cut them clean and close to the main stem

 

[cadeneli]

Appears you're over watering. Looks droopy in all the pics. The leaves should look vibrant and dancing.

 

[Tstone]

I'm growing in a AG, 1st time ever, just 1 plant. Its sucking up almost 3/4 of water every 2 days...? I'm not really sure
I try & keep in filled w/ ph water & after I know its used up its nutes, I flush & refill w/ fresh nutes. It says to flush 1 time a wk , but I'm doing it every 3- 4 days . Is that ok ?
Thanks u'all

 

[smallclosetgrowr]

just pinch them off from where the leaves stem hits the branch. U can pinch off a few no worries it will not harm your yeild if your plants healthy just dont over do it.

 

[jawbrodt]

Don't worry about it until they've started flowering. The main reason people remove leaves, is to allow more light to hit budsites, which in your case, there aren't any yet.lol Some agree, and some disagree, with leaf cutting, and I'm somewhere in between. I try to tuck when I can, and sometimes cut one here and there. I rarely cut more than two from each plant,(total) and do really well. Honestly though, I don't recommend it. Once they start stretching, they'll open up alot more. If you must cut, remember to not remove more than a couple at a time, so the plant doesn't get stunted. I rarely remove more than one, within a week's time.

 

[McFonz]

I'd remove all the FAN leaves from the upper half of the plants after the plant finish to stretch.
remove them from where they meet the stem.

DO IT ONLY IF YOUR PLANTS ARE HEALTHY!

I do so myself and my plants are as happy as could be.

 

[cowboylogic]

trying tucking! if you really need to ....remove only what REALLY needs to be removed.....the huge ones, cut them clean and close to the main stem

You should never remove healthy fan leaves, especially the 'huge ones', they are the major energy makers for the plant. Depending on your type of lights dictates light penetration. Even though you may not see light within the canopy dosent mean the plant is not receiving light within the canopy.

 

[McFonz]

fan leaves generate less energy than the smaller leaves per surface area. If a fan leaf shades an equal emount of smaller leaves (or more) there is a lot of sense in removing it.

 

[cowboylogic]

fan leaves generate less energy than the smaller leaves per surface area. If a fan leaf shades an equal emount of smaller leaves (or more) there is a lot of sense in removing it.

Mcnot. More surface area means more light absorbtion. The big fans are the solar panels that energize a plant.

 

[McFonz]

nope. all leaves generate energy.

 

[riddleme]

This debate will always go on forever, but cowboy is right, the fan leaves are what fuel the plant. Plants will drop leaves they no longer need removing these as it happens is ok, but if you remove a leaf the plant needs it will focus energy on restoring it,,,,,foolish thing to do during flowering

 

[McFonz]

I have a jack the ripper flowering with barely 1 fan leaf, she is going strong.
How come?

 

[NLNo5]

I have a jack the ripper flowering with barely 1 fan leaf, she is going strong.
How come?

She will flower with little to no fan leaves, but it will be slower. Think of the plant as three components A, B, C. Each component is equally as important as the other and they all feed back on each other. Now you want to remove a whole bunch of B to favor A and C, but it wont work. Those juicy leaves come in real handy during the last stages of budding. Calyx's don't swell as easily with lots of chopped leaves on the plant.

Take off a few if you're itching. But I like to leave them on until they become all yellow.

 

[riddleme]

I have a jack the ripper flowering with barely 1 fan leaf, she is going strong.
How come?

I looked at your journal and did not see this plant you speak of, in fact what I saw was plants with leaves???

got a pic of this mystical 1 leaf plant?

 

[McFonz]

She will flower with little to no fan leaves, but it will be slower. Think of the plant as three components A, B, C. Each component is equally as important as the other and they all feed back on each other. Now you want to remove a whole bunch of B to favor A and C, but it wont work. Those juicy leaves come in real handy during the last stages of budding. Calyx's don't swell as easily with lots of chopped leaves on the plant.

Take off a few if you're itching. But I like to leave them on until they become all yellow.

I don't think it works that way.
my plant flowers normally, I got 4 other plants for comparision.

I looked at your journal and did not see this plant you speak of, in fact what I saw was plants with leaves???

got a pic of this mystical 1 leaf plant?

My current (and previous) grows aren't blogged in RIU. You could see that the grow in my sig is already finished.
here's a link.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=185590

since the last update I've removed all but 1 or 2 FAN leaves from the far right plant.
I have a lot of bud leaves and smaller leaves still on.

You can find information about removing ALL fan leaves and how it works in here:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=174163


I repeat - removing ALL leaves is stupid.

 

[Kaptain Kron]

I always heard it was wrong to chop em then my friend did it to my plant he was growing for me and it took off and started growing faster, so i've seen it happen with my own eyes, removing too many is probably not the best idea as you can stress the plant but i dont thnk removing a few is gonna hurt remember in nature leaves get pulled off of plants every day birds rip at em caterpillers eat em dogs come by and rip off branches. Still yeilds quality smoke. So just try it if you question it you wont kill your plant try it sometime.

 

[cadeneli]

cowboy is right. Its simple botany.

 

[cadeneli]

I'd remove all the FAN leaves from the upper half of the plants after the plant finish to stretch.
remove them from where they meet the stem.

DO IT ONLY IF YOUR PLANTS ARE HEALTHY!

I do so myself and my plants are as happy as could be.

Just because your plants appear to be healthy doesnt mean its not stressing the plant or slowing down growth. In fact i have found the Cannabis plant can take some pretty serious damage and continue to grow. Come on man!