When growing ANY kind of plant material, I mimic the specie's natural environment as close as I can. A plant family has been programmed to certain light values, temps, water, salts, etc. I'm "hostile" aka frustrated because of all the gardening forums I participate in, only the cannabis forums will find a way to fuck up a weed. For example, local commercial peach growers would laugh at me if I advised them to pick off all lower leaves so that the fruit found at the lower levels can have more light.
Most of you guys don't have clue when it comes to botany, to natural plant processes, so you come up with some kind of crap thinking you're Joe Kewl. You're not. Botany and natural plant processes can not nor will not be reinvented by a bunch of dopers. Sorry. You're just playing a fool by picking off the highly efficient photon collector that God placed on our herb. It's laughable. When a plant is reading to discard an unproductive leaf, it will do so using an internal CO2 flag. Keep your grubby little hands off healthy, green fan leaves.
Also, this subject keeps coming up again and again because some noob is too damn lazy to lurk and do a simple and fast search. Try Lollipopping, another stupid cannabis noobie drill.
Even the title of this thread is laughable and says it all. If you post - Fan Leafs. Blockers of Light Or Energy Producers??? then it suggests you don't belong in a camp of growing anything because you don't know what makes a plant tick.
'no' I don't worry about pH within a couple of points regarding my soil or water. CO2 injection is a waste of my time....I consider it worthless and another gimmick Joe Kewl is concentrating on when they should be taking the time researching plant processes and what makes a plant tick. I don't "supercrop" nothing....another cute little name for another silly drill. I "supercrop" by growing naturally (and retaining healthy, green fan leaves until harvest) using conventional gardening methods that have been honed for decades by nurserymen, farmers and other horticulturists. No, I don't do LST (another silly misnomer as topping does not cause plant stress, but LST'ing and noobs do LOL), and in general, I don't fuck with my plants. I let them grow naturally and I NEVER fail. Once in a while I do play with root pruning products latest being RootMaker.
Having said that, put me back on Ignore and stay ignorant and within your lame cannabis forum Comfort Zone.
Uncle Ben