Light getting directly to buds

[Jumbo]

I keep reading about growers trimming fan leaves on flowering plants & tucking upper fan leaves under your bud sites. The "wisdom" in this, as I understand it, is to get more direct light to the actual buds & bud leaves so that these buds will grow larger & firm up better.

Is there any research or definitive testing that supports this practice? Or, is it just growers' logic - and not based on objective observation?

If any of you folks really know the truth about this, please enlighten an uninformed and curious grower. Thanks!

Jumbo

 

[Martybutch]

I dont have the answer but this is a good post... I have been wondering the same too as i have 4 flowering plants... and im scepticle of trimming bigger fan leaves down without a good answer on weather to do it or not.

 

[nick88]

I keep reading about growers trimming fan leaves on flowering plants & tucking upper fan leaves under your bud sites. The "wisdom" in this, as I understand it, is to get more direct light to the actual buds & bud leaves so that these buds will grow larger & firm up better.

Is there any research or definitive testing that supports this practice? Or, is it just growers' logic - and not based on objective observation?

If any of you folks really know the truth about this, please enlighten an uninformed and curious grower. Thanks!

Jumbo

Thats a topic you're gonna find a lot of people on both sides and each side is just as passionate as the other.
To be honest, you can find pros and cons for sides, so you'll just have to make a choice which way you wanna go.
Me personally, i think it has more to do with what kind of grow your doing. In a scrog things get cluttered real quick, so trimming is pretty much essential. On a straight up grow you have a lot more spacing between so you can prob get by with side lighting

 

[GrowinTheDank]

From what I've read it seems that the fan leaves are necessary for photosynthesis to take place. Without the leaves, the plant is unable to produce food for itself. Thus outweighing any benefit from getting more light on your buds. What's the point of having more light if you kill how the plant uses it?

To be honest, you can find pros and cons for sides, so you'll just have to make a choice which way you wanna go.
Me personally, i think it has more to do with what kind of grow your doing. In a scrog things get cluttered real quick, so trimming is pretty much essential. On a straight up grow you have a lot more spacing between so you can prob get by with side lighting

The purpose of SCROG is to achieve maximum light distribution to bud, by creating more bud sites spread across an even canopy. So trimming fan leaves in a SCROG would definitely not be essential.