What about the leaves directly associated with that bud site? There's no correlation between the small leaves getting light and being able to provide direct energy from the light. Just wondering only thing I could ever explain for it is that the leaves directly attached the buds provide better energy to those bud sites. Again spit balling I've never been able to explain it I now the buds themselves don't have much photosynthesis power but what about the sugar leaves? Other leaves around it possibly?
Yeah I think the inference here is that photosynthate from sugar leaves travels less to the local Bud site and therefore is more energy efficient.
The less energy spent moving sugars around the more it may contribute to bud development at specific times.
That's my thought of the day, at least.
I'm also wanting to learn more about the proposal that larger/older fan leaves become energy competitors with buds and become undesirable. This makes practical sense, I just don't know if there's any solid science behind it relative to our plant and setups.