:( I think i messed up... Please help. Rep will be given.

I went and cut off ALOTTA fan leaves right before flower. Is this good or will buds not grow because i cut the internodes off? I left a little of the stem of the leaves on there so there will still be an internode. I guess about a half inch or so... Darn man... Will the buds not grow in those places because I cut the leaves off?

SativaLion said:

I went and cut off ALOTTA fan leaves right before flower. Is this good or will buds not grow because i cut the internodes off? I left a little of the stem of the leaves on there so there will still be an internode. I guess about a half inch or so... Darn man... Will the buds not grow in those places because I cut the leaves off?

Click to expand...

its best to leave the fan leaves on as they supply food and therefore growth to the developing flower, the fact that u have cut them means that the buds will be smaller and yield reduced.....there is an argument for defoliation but its partial and in mid to late flower, personally I leave some plants alone and pull a few fan leaves off bushier ones, don't worry u will still get bud

they will still grow, they just wont be as big as if the fan leaves were still there. those fan leaves are the power factories of your plant, they like to stay in operation.

You cut shoots or leaves? I think you are confused as to the different parts of the plant. The internodes are where the secondary branches meet the main stem (or any secondary branch off a stem). The petioles are the "leaf stems". The petioles connect the leaves to branches, often at internodes.

The growth tips, or "shoots" are the tops of the branches. This is where new leaves, branches, nodes and flowering sites come from. Cutting the shoots is not defoliation, it is pruning. Cutting the tops closest to the light during flowering is a bad idea as these would be the best producing areas. Pruning the lower, shaded branches (shoots, leaves and all) is done to remove areas that wouldnt produce dense, quality buds so the plant can focus energy on the upper tops.

When you defoliate you remove the mature, large fan leaves that shade out growth tips lower on the plant. Grab the base of the petiole with your thumb and finger and lightly jerk it downward. It should pop off easily and cleanly. Leaving a portion of the petiole is unnecessary and is more prone to infection.

I defoliate during veg and flower. I just started using this technique last run and I had better yields and not a single airy, immature bud on any plant. I pull fans that are blocking bud sites every time I check on the plants. Maybe a handful off each plat each time. I wouldnt go stripping all of them at once.

MYOB said:

When you defoliate you remove the mature, large fan leaves that shade out growth tips lower on the plant. Grab the base of the petiole with your thumb and finger and lightly jerk it downward. It should pop off easily and cleanly. Leaving a portion of the petiole is unnecessary and is more prone to infection.

Click to expand...

It is better for the plant to pinch the leaf stem off then cut it or ripping it off. They will recover more quickly from this kind of injury. Defoliating has gotten a bad rep due to the fact of people don't have a clue of what they are trying to accomplish. With defoliation you are trying to move all growth to a position on the plant that will get the most light possible. Manipulating growth by removing shoots and even lower branches can all be considered defoliation. It all depends on haw much you stripped off and what you left. If you could post a pic or two I could tell you where you stand. JAS

Yeah man, ripping off all your leaves is the new thing.

Rip off all your leaves as they're useless.

If you rip off every leaf, it leaves more room for buds.

No leaves blocking the light, pure bud. It's as simple as that!

I prefer to completely defoliate the entire plant just prior to putting into flower. This way all the energy goes into bud production, I routinely produce 1/2 pound buds 40-50 per plant.

YEAHHHHH! Thanks yall. Thats a relief I thought that if i cut them off the buds wouldnt grow. m so relieved.

Did you make sure to get every single leaf? You should also cut off all the roots, and the stems.

Man, you're high as fuck, aren't you.

SativaLion said:

YEAHHHHH! Thanks yall. Thats a relief I thought that if i cut them off the buds wouldnt grow. m so relieved.

Click to expand...

Did you try driving nails into the main stem and boiling the roots yet?? THC comes from the roots you know.

@SativaLion if you look closely, they're being sarcastic

Where's my +rep.

are you fucking with me?

I wouldn't mess with a lion.

SativaLion said:

are you fucking with me?

Click to expand...

Lol. dude. I was relieved though because i cut off a pretty good amount. Ill be good though. Theres already new growth.

are you a discerning man? can you tell who is giving you good advice and who has googled new grow trends in cannabis growing, keyboard farmers .....

SativaLion, IMHO, you do not want to cut fan leaves at all. The fan leaves on the lower third of the plant will fall off naturally during the 8 or so weeks of flowering. The rest are necessary to produce yield. In addition, I find that some plants stop taking nutrients through the roots in the last three weeks of flowering and instead pull energy from the leaves, which is why they fade in the last stage of flowering. If you've cut off the fan leaves, there's no energy for the plant to pull from and you'll get a lower yield.

The fan leaves up top are as important as light, so just keep them on but tuck them out of the way if you think they're obstructing light to a bud site. If the plant doesn't need them, they'll fall off.

I still dont think that you need that many leaves for a plant to get energy from?

SativaLion said:

I still dont think that you need that many leaves for a plant to get energy from?

Click to expand...

Dude...lol...listen to krypto ^^^^...think of it like this, your fan leaves are like solar panels, no panels, no energy...haha...SO YES YOU NEED THE FAN LEAVES....if you're doing a LST or an HST then you may wana defoliate "a little" to get light to the bud sites, but yeah man you need them, they store the sugars an nutes that the buds will need to grow big...good luck..