fan leaves

Ok so I had one person (who I really trust) tell me that I should cut the fanleaves on my plants.
I did it on twoplants last grow and they slowed down in groth considerbly.
I noticed nothing else.
now I have two people telling me this.

My plant is about two weeks into flowering,stems and buds seem to be forming well.
also one of these people told me that it makes your plant grow more buds and less homegrowinish look.

I want to know if this is a good idea or bad also if this I'd not a good idea how can I make my buds fill in better and dincer.

the fan leaves serve a purpose. I don't recommend cutting some off just for the sake of it. I only cut off fan leaves that are severely damaged or are impeding on bud sites receiving light. if you remove healthy fan leaves your plant will have to recover from the wound and some growth retardation can be expected. If you use any side lighting this shouldn't be too much of a concern... at least that's my 2 cents on the subject

It's a terrible idea...you NEVER cut fan leaves! Fan leaves store the nutrients your plant needs, cutting them off will do the same thing as last time...slow them down. To make your buds bigger/denser you have to find out what the weakest part of yur grow is....is it your lights? ferts? soil/water? ventilation? Alot of things play a big role in getting the best bud possible, but cutting off leaves isn't one of them.

I am no expert on growing but have done a few, however I have a fair bit of knowledge about agricultural plants. My friends and I have been debating this issue for a while. This is my argument. Plants are able to to produce a fixed amount of energy per photoperiod, depending on your available nutes in the soil or solution. Every part of the plant requires this energy for growth or sustaining that growth that is already there. So the greater amount of fan leaves that you have a greater amount of energy has to go to them to keep them functional, and less goes to the forming buds. At the same time the fan leaves are the solar panels that absorb the sunlight to produce the energy required for growth. IMO if you are growing a strain that has a lot of leaves it would not hurt to trim SOME fanleaves, but only up to the first couple weeks of flower, and with no disease present and sterile cutting utensils. You need to find the balance where there is enough leaves to absorb the light, but not too much to where they take away the availble nutes for your buds. The other side of the argument is that a plant isnt naturally supposed to loose all it leaves, and the cut site is an injury that can induce infection, as well as others, but its is up to you. I have done both and i personally like to trim a little, makes a very nice looking bud and easier to harvest, dry and manicure. Try it see what works for you, key is to keep things clean, with plenty of air flow and only trim a little, and dont go edward sissor hands on it!

LOL Edward sissor hands is great!
to losthere this is the Same debate me and some fellow growers are having also.
but they are more expierenced than me so I give all their ideas a try

you can cut off fan leafs but if you cut too many off bud growth will stop untill the plants grown more leafs and made its remaining fan leafs bigger,,,,,,,,,

I will only remove fan leaves if the plant is through with them. Exceptions to this rule are removal due to insect infestation and disease damage.

Mother Nature knows what she's doing. The plant would not waste the energy to place those fan leaves where they are if said leaves were useless.

I'm not trying to say that they are useliss I believe that if you do this you may be able to trick the plant into growing bigger buds.
I'm sure mothernature dosen't care howmuch her babbies yeald only that they survive I want more than surviving I want thriving fat juicy buds yummmmm! (; makes me want to burn LOL.

I woudln't recommend cutting the fan leaves, apparently they give sugars to your plant. You could still cut them and not hurt your plant but it COULD stunt bud growth.

losthere said:

Every part of the plant requires this energy for growth or sustaining that growth that is already there. So the greater amount of fan leaves that you have a greater amount of energy has to go to them to keep them functional, and less goes to the forming buds.

Click to expand...

The only problem I see with that is in order for that to work like you want it to, you'd have to fertilize your plant right until the end of flower. The fan leaves act as the nutrient reserves for your plants, once you cut off the supply of nutrients, it needs those leaves to grow the bud. Proof of this can be readily found at the end of flowering...you've cut off the supply of nutes (hopefully anyway) and now your leaves are truning yellow and dying...because the plant is using the stored nutrients in them to finish out it's life. Without those leaves you will have slower growth, and less yield IMO

fan leaves are the heavy light intakers of the leaves they are needed

i have aways trimmed all the big fan leaves off my tables and all i get is 1 or 2 big colals off each plant solid bud right to bottom of plant if i dont cut the fan leaves off i get no where close to the same yeild bottom bud not done .i dont think it hurts the plant more light the better

Killacrip said:

Ok so I had one person (who I really trust) tell me that I should cut the fanleaves on my plants.
I did it on twoplants last grow and they slowed down in groth considerbly.
I noticed nothing else.
now I have two people telling me this.

My plant is about two weeks into flowering,stems and buds seem to be forming well.
also one of these people told me that it makes your plant grow more buds and less homegrowinish look.

I want to know if this is a good idea or bad also if this I'd not a good idea how can I make my buds fill in better and dincer.

Click to expand...

Dont not cut your plants Fan leafs of it slows growth like you says and reduces your yeild a good bit ,

When i would cut of my fan leafs ... ......

5 days before harvest just to let all my buds ripen up only if they are causing a block out ..

And id also cut some fan leafs at the bottom 1/4 of my plants , They are just stealing vital energy away down there , we want the energy to focus on the top .

Other than that never cut your fan leafs thats were they soak the lights energy in from ....

shoot

From what i have read, seen and tried, generally you use ferts untill 2 weeks before harvest and then you begin a flusing period. So using ferts to make up the slight loss of energy fixing potental of a few missing fan leaves. And as for mother nature knows what she is doing, NO DOUBT! But in production agriculture plants are manipulated into producing a higher, better quality yeild. Mother nature knows whats up but we are just playing with her a little. Just like winemakers pull leaves for a better quality berry, we are attempting the same just with bud. If it was up to mother nature you would be smoking hemp, not marijuana. It is only after plant breeding that marijuana was made. And you would also be smoking a bud full of seeds because in mother nature plants are made to polinate eachother and reproduce. Mother nature is the shit, we just need to trick her a little in order to produce a better product than she normally delivers.