should i remove fan leaves during final flush?

I flushed my plants yesterday and just made sure the soil was clear and there were no dead leaves on my plants to help prevent mold but want to know if I should now remover the fan leaves from my plants to improve air circulation and give the buds extra light for the last week? Iv got 17 cheese plants growing in a sog in 15litre pots. My mate sed take the fanleaves off but just want some confirmation first from a few other growers?

The leaves need the light, not the buds.

not necessary, imo. a lot of light blasts right thru them fans, and a gentle breeze will keep things airy and mold-free, again.....imo

Something in me didnt want to take them off. Dusnt feel right taking off healthy leaves. They grew ther for a purpose right!? Whenever i see pictures on here tho the plants rarly seem to have many leaves on them. I was beginning to wonder if it was standard practice to remove them once the buds were at a nice density and overall size.

Wot does imo meen? sorry im not into all the abbreviations.

I remove the lower fan leaves & have noticed significantly more thickening on the lower nugs. I'm talking about a confined indoor set up. Outdoors the sun isn't stationary so you have much better penetration & air movement. IMO "in my opinion"

in my opinion......which it all is. i've been right, more than wrong, but i've been wrong

Haha decisions decisions.

u could just remove leaves from 1 plant and tell us about it. that way u learn something firsthand.

Tell you what il take the fan leaves off half and leave the other half on and write about the differences if there are any in a thread. Why not.

parate the other fellas idea il do a third of the plants with all fan leaves left on, a third with none and a third with just the bottom half removed.

That should of read infact to incorparate the other fellas idea.

Why not just do it on one or two. I take them off if the fan leaves are really covering the nuggets below but if it's outdoors it's not a massive deal. Just turn your plants a bit every day for the whole of flowering and leave them on. Only in a tent will the be blocking lower leaves producing energy for the bud. But it really is growers choice I never noticed a huge difference.

I'd leave the leaves alone, they're like little sugar factories, and serve only to help the buds. Adding a fan or opening a window would be my first choice, but if I had to get creative I might try dusting them with diatomaceous earth (DE). Normally DE is used to prevent pests, but it absorbs moisture too, and it's safe to use up till harvest. Just make sure to wash it off before harvest or lest you want people to think is moldy or tainted with crack.

leave the fan leaves alone,the idiot I grow with now pulls to many off and fucks our yields up ever run.This is my last grow with this dumbass...

Mr Mc Wilson said:

Why not just do it on one or two. I take them off if the fan leaves are really covering the nuggets below but if it's outdoors it's not a massive deal. Just turn your plants a bit every day for the whole of flowering and leave them on. Only in a tent will the be blocking lower leaves producing energy for the bud. But it really is growers choice I never noticed a huge difference.

Click to expand...

The only reason i want to break it up into thirds like this is simply beacause il trust wot a few plants tell me over just one or two if u get wot i meen. If they all react the same way in a certain group then i know its due to the fan leaves been removed or kept on and not just an individual plant doing its thing. Hope that makes sense it does in my head ha. You might be right tho it might not have an effect, especially this late in the plants cycle.

Vindicated said:

I'd leave the leaves alone, they're like little sugar factories, and serve only to help the buds. Adding a fan or opening a window would be my first choice, but if I had to get creative I might try dusting them with diatomaceous earth (DE). Normally DE is used to prevent pests, but it absorbs moisture too, and it's safe to use up till harvest. Just make sure to wash it off before harvest or lest you want people to think is moldy or tainted with crack.

Click to expand...

Haha im gonna mix it up abit and just see the reaction the plants give if any. Probably a bit late in the cycle as it is with just a week to go. I appreciate evrything everyone has said here tho. It seems the majority would leave there fan leaves alone which surprises me actually. Iv heard people remove them during the flowering phase but definatly will not be trying this as i cant see any good coming from it. I dont even like the idea of lollypopping but have no experience with the method so who am i to comment.

I used to be a purist when it came to fan leaf removal, would never remove anything under any circumstances. Then I ran into this weird(large one photo's on left))plant last year, had to trim it repeatedly. And after that, I ran into Sannie's indica gear which in some cases are necessary to trim b/c bud branches tend to grow directly into above fan leaves.

So, now I trim on a case by case basis.

One question i have is does direct light onto the budsite help the bud grow? If not then why would anybody care about fan leaves blocking there budsites? Only saying because theres a comment from someone at the start of this thread saying its the leaves what need the light not the buds. Someone also told me the leaves dont photosynthesize at this point of the plants cycle and dye off because now the plant just takes all the nutes built up in the leaves etc.. any one shed abit of light on this for me?

I've found that the lower buds that are blocked by fan leaves don't finish as well. When I trim some leaves later in flower the green lower buds really respond and bulk up and turn a nice finished colour
like the tops