large leaves blocking light- Should I cut it??

Tucsonlongbuds

Tucsonlongbuds

Member
I have several large leaves like in the picture that block some of the light of many future buds under them. Its pretty compact in my little cabinet with two plants on that side so I want to open up as much as I can to get light as far down as possible.
2-12 leaf.jpg
If there are large leaves can I cut them out or if that a bad move?

thanks

2-12 a.jpg
 
thizz13

thizz13

Well-Known Member
chop it, i trim every once in awhile with lst it has been beneficial, any other input? i really haven't noticed much difference leaving the fan leaves or removing them .
 
darkdestruction420

darkdestruction420

Well-Known Member
if your going to do anything w/them tucking them back is the way to go. Hurting your plants energy making ability(the larger a leaf the more effecient it is at making and storing energy for new growth) is not a good way to help a plant imo.i will concede that clipping a leaf or 2 probally wont matter much though, its not like plants never lose leaves in nature.
 
tendran

tendran

Active Member
I trim large leaves on LST'd mother plants. I train the branches on the topped plant outwards and when I'm taking cuttings sometimes I take off a few of the overgrown fan leaves. I've found it promotes growth from the colas growing at the base of the cut.

Selective pruning can be quite beneficial. I found other sites started to grow twice as fast at the base of the cut fan leaves. Here is a shot of a mother experiment where I'm attempting to get as many vertical off shoots and equal light distribution throughout the canopy. Notice quite a few nubs where larger intrusive fan leaves were deemed unnecessary. ;)

2011-02-13_00-48-01_755.jpg
 
NightbirdX

NightbirdX

Well-Known Member
I also trim large leaves. I only take ones that are blocking light and preventing good air flow. Basically if my plant becomes too bushy and I feel that it isn't going to get good air flow to the middle, and I have some big leaves in there cluttering things, i will remove them. 2 birds with 1 stone. I don't cut off a ton of leaves, just enough to clean it up a bit and allow better air circulation and light penetration. I only take a few leaves at a time though. Don't go hog wild. If I can get away with tucking back leaves I will do that. But if large fan leaves are hogging all the light and I am trying to get lower branches to grow and bush the plant out, I will take the big leaves out. It is your discretion, but if you do cut some off, don't go crazy doing it...
 
collective gardener

collective gardener

Well-Known Member
I have found that plants being altered or trained will need some leaf removal. The more the plant is altered from its natural shape, the more leaves will need to be removed to allow even light penetration. As Tendran pointed out, LST requires quite a bit of leaf removal. But always try to remove just enough to allow for even growth. I tend to spend some time deciding whether or not to rmove a leaf. Do I want to remove a big healthy leaf just to allow light to a tiny bud site deep down in the canopy? Probably not. But, if I can remove one leaf and allow light to reach a few good sized bud sites, I'll hack away. Don't kid yourself, removing leaves costs you growth potential...but so does a shadowed bud site. So weigh out the differences before you attack. Only you know how your plants grow and just how big that shadowed bud site can become if exposed to more light.
 
NightbirdX

NightbirdX

Well-Known Member
Like collective gardener said, you have to out weigh the pros and cons of cutting it and losing growth potential, or leaving it shaded and losing growth potential. I always tend to err on the side of letting a little bit more light through.
 
R

r3c@il

Active Member
collective gardener said:
I have found that plants being altered or trained will need some leaf removal. The more the plant is altered from its natural shape, the more leaves will need to be removed to allow even light penetration. As Tendran pointed out, LST requires quite a bit of leaf removal. But always try to remove just enough to allow for even growth. I tend to spend some time deciding whether or not to rmove a leaf. Do I want to remove a big healthy leaf just to allow light to a tiny bud site deep down in the canopy? Probably not. But, if I can remove one leaf and allow light to reach a few good sized bud sites, I'll hack away. Don't kid yourself, removing leaves costs you growth potential...but so does a shadowed bud site. So weigh out the differences before you attack. Only you know how your plants grow and just how big that shadowed bud site can become if exposed to more light.
Click to expand...
This post is spot on, IMO. I have to cut large fan leaves in scrog and sog. I hate doing it because its a lot of wasted stored energy. i used to try to tie them back and such in scrog, but its just not efficent for time and air flow.
 
M

Mattithius

Active Member
Not sure if i am reading this thread correctly, but it seems like u need to top your plant anyway... Plants get almost 2/3 bigger than when you put them into flower... So if the space it is currently in is its flowering site ull need to make sme changes... If u dont wanna top you may need a larger space... I would try to tie down everything i could as low as i could and then top the unven canopy because it will promote uneven growth in the colas
 
Talrox

Talrox

Well-Known Member
It all depends on what you gonna do next if your gonna veg for a good while still cut it off you'll promote new growth, if your gonna be flowering before the nodes your cutting the fan leaves off of have time to develop don't do it.
 
two2brains

two2brains

Well-Known Member
I just finished week 1 of flowering. I have fan leaves that are 13" wide! I am doing a scrog. Should i cut them or just try and bend them out of the way?
 
Stomata

Stomata

Well-Known Member
Tuck if you can. If there's already a branch with a few sets of it's own leaves growing from the node then cut it. I used to be in the "no trim" camp, but I started doing some extreme LST this grow and it's almost impossible to not cut a few here and there. But again, I only cut a fan leaf AFTER the shoot has grown at least a couple inches from the node and has it's own leaves.

Vegging is all about producing bud sites NOT growing giant fan leaves as big as your head. I'm trying to grow buds not leaves.
 
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