Cool to remove fan leaves in week 1 of flower???

I guess I have my answer! It's a foolish man who seeks advice and then refuses to follow it. You guys have posted way too many replies saying NOT to remove the fan leaves. The collective experience of all you guys seriously outweighs my ZERO experience, this being my first grow and all. SO, I'll take the advice and keep my pruners away from the fan leaves. I'll take Antman's advice and tuck the fan leaves out of the way on a daily basis. I'm messing with the plants everyday anyway since I'm adjusting the lights and turning the plants daily. I'm keeping the lights 3 or 4 inches above the plants and the girls are being turned daily because I have supplemental lights in the rear of the tent - daily turning is needed to give both side of the plant equal light exposure.

Bottom line, I'll stick to tucking leaves and LSTing these ladies. I really appreciate the input! You guys may have saved me from sabotaging my grow!

It's day 8 of flower. Below are pics of some of the little bud sites. Does this look about right to you guys?

White Thunder (Indica dominant)


Pineapple Sativa

Gratefulgrowin93 said:

i usually don't spray anything on the leaves other than neem oil occasionally throughout veg to prevent pests and pm

I've heard of people misting and/or foliar feeding but i stick to watering directly and if i need anything added to the water i use a compost tea blend rather than bottled nutrients

very good information and nice folks over in organics if you're interested in any of that stuff,
i know your in coco / perlite but possibly for future grows i know i like experimenting haha

i started in soilless for example now I'm making my own version of super soil and getting higher quality smooth smoke and still very potent indoor flowers

but soilless/hydro definitely yields more so it's all up to why you grow/ how much medicine you need just a thought man sorry for rambling i am a little baked

but i hope flowering goes well for you man any questions be sure to ask us here on the site!
i get advice from so many nice folks on here in various sections

peace, love, and weed
happy gardening all!

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Hey Grateful. Thanks for the insight! This being my first attempt at an indoor grow I wanted to have a nice balance between simplicity and decent results. Using a soilless mix seemed to be one of the most forgiving methods (hard to overwater, less likely to mold, etc.) and I read it can lead to pretty good yields. I'm also using the General Hydroponics FloraSeries nutrients for the same reason. It's been working well so far. Just add a few squirts of nutes to every other watering and that's it.

That said, I'm very interested in going organic. I've got a little outdoor garden where I grow tomatoes and peppers, all organic. I use a mix of lots of different types of compost (cow and chicken manure, mushroom compost, worm castings, bat guano) as well as peat moss and vermiculite. Would that be considered a super soil? Would such a mix work for an indoor grow?

I'll likely do a few more grows with coco coir and the FloraSeries nutes to get comfortable with that method, but looks like the same company makes an organic nutrient set as well. You have any experience with / opinion on the General Organics GoBox nutes?
http://www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-Organics-Go-Box/dp/B004PS4B08

I may eventually graduate to making my own compost teas, but that's probably a ways off.

Gr8Xcape98 said:

Hey Grateful. Thanks for the insight! This being my first attempt at an indoor grow I wanted to have a nice balance between simplicity and decent results. Using a soilless mix seemed to be one of the most forgiving methods (hard to overwater, less likely to mold, etc.) and I read it can lead to pretty good yields. I'm also using the General Hydroponics FloraSeries nutrients for the same reason. It's been working well so far. Just add a few squirts of nutes to every other watering and that's it.

That said, I'm very interested in going organic. I've got a little outdoor garden where I grow tomatoes and peppers, all organic. I use a mix of lots of different types of compost (cow and chicken manure, mushroom compost, worm castings, bat guano) as well as peat moss and vermiculite. Would that be considered a super soil? Would such a mix work for an indoor grow?

I'll likely do a few more grows with coco coir and the FloraSeries nutes to get comfortable with that method, but looks like the same company makes an organic nutrient set as well. You have any experience with / opinion on the General Organics GoBox nutes?
http://www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-Organics-Go-Box/dp/B004PS4B08

I may eventually graduate to making my own compost teas, but that's probably a ways off.

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bat guano, castings, and quality compost are all key parts of a super soil mix,
look into a few different mixes like the Rev's or Subcools (and members on here have good mixes too) for ideas of ratios to use and different ingredients

eventually you want to get creative and try your own mix with similar ideas but tailored to strains you grow, if they are heavy or light feeders, etc.

building a good soil with a great culture of beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizae and all is easier than you think read around on the organics section and ask some questions
there are some nice people over there who are extremely knowledgeable and experienced


compost teas are awesome and have given my plants explosive root and shoot growth

I've borrowed some recipes from here with great results and tried some things out of curiousity, the more i learn about compost its benefits, soil food web, teas, etc i seem to get better grows every time going deeper into organic gardening

i have used the General Organics line of nutrients with success in earlier organic grows
i find following the schedule and using all the additives they recommend is a bit hot for a lot of strains so cut it in half or so and work up depending on if your girls eat up a lot or just a lil bit

peace, love, and weed
happy gardening all!

Removing healthy plant leaves doesnt make then plant more productive. In fact the plant needs there leaves to produce the max amount of chlorophyll. Removing leaves slows chlorophyll and stresses the plant messes with its hormones and stunts growth. Removing unhealthy or dead leaves is perfectly fine. If you want to have the plants get better bud production try experimenting in pruning the tops with FIM/super cropping or removing lower branches that'll get small spindley buds.

UPDATE (For anyone who cares)...

Below are recent pics of the ladies. I understand during the first few weeks of 12/12 the flowers are supposed to stretch, but I'm really surprised at how quickly they are growing! I watered the ladies with their nutes yesterday (nutes every other watering) and I think the indica has grown nearly 3 inches in the last 24 hours! I still have a couple feet of room to raise my lights, so it's not an issue.

I no longer plan on clipping any fan leaves. I've done some gentle LSTing using binder clips and stretchy plant ties. This along with tucking some of the fan leaves have opened the plant up and is allowing more light to hit more potential bud sites.

The ladies are getting taller at a healthy pace.
Top view. The lady on the left (indica) received some LST love to open it up a little.

Examples of the LST technique I'm using. Nothing dramatic.


Thanks for all the replies. Catch you guys around the way.

Gr8Xcape98 said:

What Up Plant Lovers,

First time grower with an idica dominant plant in it's first week of flower. During veg the plant was topped once and received some LST love every few days during the entire veg period. The plant seems to be doing very well and since being switched to 12/12 a week ago it's been stretching like a champ. That said, it's a busy little bastard and I think it could use a serious trim. I know there are strong feelings about removing fan leaves (both for and against) so let me just say this - I WILL REMOVE SOME LEAVES, the only questions are when and how many. Due to the LSTing during veg I think there are a number of potential bud sites but they aren't getting enough light due to all these damn fan leaves. Is it cool to remove leaves now (day 7 of flower) or would that slow/stunt growth? Are there any specific leaves that SHOULD NOT be removed? Should I wait until the plant is further along in its stretch before giving it a trim?
View attachment 3443800
View attachment 3443802
Teach me oh wise ones!

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i usually wait until week 9 or 10 to remove leaves, and then i remove all of them.

Hessam said:

Pruning fan leaves for exposing bud sites to more light is like removing the engine from a car in order to decrease weight and drive faster!

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lolz, i like that, and might have to steal it in the future, just a head's up, lol..

Gr8Xcape98 said:

UPDATE (For anyone who cares)...

Below are recent pics of the ladies. I understand during the first few weeks of 12/12 the flowers are supposed to stretch, but I'm really surprised at how quickly they are growing! I watered the ladies with their nutes yesterday (nutes every other watering) and I think the indica has grown nearly 3 inches in the last 24 hours! I still have a couple feet of room to raise my lights, so it's not an issue.

I no longer plan on clipping any fan leaves. I've done some gentle LSTing using binder clips and stretchy plant ties. This along with tucking some of the fan leaves have opened the plant up and is allowing more light to hit more potential bud sites.

View attachment 3445305 The ladies are getting taller at a healthy pace.
View attachment 3445302 Top view. The lady on the left (indica) received some LST love to open it up a little.

Examples of the LST technique I'm using. Nothing dramatic.
View attachment 3445303 View attachment 3445304

Thanks for all the replies. Catch you guys around the way.

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Looking good. I wouldn't worry about defoliating with these girls anyway, they're not super tall and they should stretch a bit during continuing flowering. What light do you have over them? I would back of the nutes a bit, it looks like your medium is a bit hot ppm wise.


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racerboy71 said:

lolz, i like that, and might have to steal it in the future, just a head's up, lol..

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Feel free my friend.

Dont do it

kmog33 said:

Looking good. I wouldn't worry about defoliating with these girls anyway, they're not super tall and they should stretch a bit during continuing flowering. What light do you have over them? I would back of the nutes a bit, it looks like your medium is a bit hot ppm wise.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Hey Kmog. Below is a pic of the light set-up. That's 20,000 lumens of 3000k up top and 10,000 lumens of 10000k in the rear.
I've taken your advice and backed off the nutes, but hopefully I've backed off enough. My home AC kicked the bucket a few days ago I'll have to replace the entire system. Gonna set me back a few grand and it won't be done for at least a week (it being summer all the good AC contractors are back-logged). As a result my home is getting up to about 90 during the hottest parts of the day. Needless to say, the tent is getting WAY too hot. For the past few days the tent has gotten up to the high 90's while the lights are on. One day the thermometer in the tent hit 102! I say that to say since the AC died the plants have been sucking up water (and nutes) at a crazy high rate. I'm pretty sure the girls are heat stressed. I'm hoping they can hang in there for another week.

Light set-up


Keeping the lights 3 to 4 inches above the plants

Gr8Xcape98 said:

Hey Kmog. Below is a pic of the light set-up. That's 20,000 lumens of 3000k up top and 10,000 lumens of 10000k in the rear.
I've taken your advice and backed off the nutes, but hopefully I've backed off enough. My home AC kicked the bucket a few days ago I'll have to replace the entire system. Gonna set me back a few grand and it won't be done for at least a week (it being summer all the good AC contractors are back-logged). As a result my home is getting up to about 90 during the hottest parts of the day. Needless to say, the tent is getting WAY too hot. For the past few days the tent has gotten up to the high 90's while the lights are on. One day the thermometer in the tent hit 102! I say that to say since the AC died the plants have been sucking up water (and nutes) at a crazy high rate. I'm pretty sure the girls are heat stressed. I'm hoping they can hang in there for another week.

Light set-up
View attachment 3447361

Keeping the lights 3 to 4 inches above the plants
View attachment 3447360

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Are you running your lights during the day or at night? It also may be worth like $200 in a small ac specifically for the tent ventilation, it should be more cot efficient than your houses central. Get a fan lowing directly at the bulbs also it'll cool down the initial light temps by about 40-60% off the bat.

Gr8Xcape98 said:

What Up Plant Lovers,

First time grower with an idica dominant plant in it's first week of flower. During veg the plant was topped once and received some LST love every few days during the entire veg period. The plant seems to be doing very well and since being switched to 12/12 a week ago it's been stretching like a champ. That said, it's a busy little bastard and I think it could use a serious trim. I know there are strong feelings about removing fan leaves (both for and against) so let me just say this - I WILL REMOVE SOME LEAVES, the only questions are when and how many. Due to the LSTing during veg I think there are a number of potential bud sites but they aren't getting enough light due to all these damn fan leaves. Is it cool to remove leaves now (day 7 of flower) or would that slow/stunt growth? Are there any specific leaves that SHOULD NOT be removed? Should I wait until the plant is further along in its stretch before giving it a trim?
View attachment 3443800
View attachment 3443802
Teach me oh wise ones!

Click to expand...

The more leaf you take off the less food it will consume less light hitting plant my best results have been when I've not touched them at all near the end of life they fall out opening the plant up id just wait till flush then start hacking them to death if you take to much off you can put plant into shock and there's one two weeks off lost flowering time you can never get back the first 3-4 weeks of flowering are where you either get oz a plant or grams if all goes good by week 5 it should not be far off what's at the end besides it filling out with pk you won't see much difference in size of bud it just hardens up so be nice at beginning or you want have much towards the end and what ever you do don't give it lots of feed at first water once a day maybe twice but little bits then after 2-3 of flowering start feeding it as much as you can but in small amounts the more food you give it without over doing it the better the smoke and yield

De leaf or not ....to my blog: https://www.rollitup.org/Journal/Entry/de-leaf-or-not.30156/

kmog33 said:

Are you running your lights during the day or at night? It also may be worth like $200 in a small ac specifically for the tent ventilation, it should be more cot efficient than your houses central. Get a fan lowing directly at the bulbs also it'll cool down the initial light temps by about 40-60% off the bat.

Click to expand...

Hey Kmog. I'm running the lights at night, from 5:30pm to 5:30am. We (did / will, once AC is fixed) keep the house coolest at night, the wife likes it cold when she sleeps. I bought this house a few years ago "as-is" and it's now clear the AC was installed by a con-artist. Shit started giving me problems a few months after moving in. Been putting "band-aids" on it ever since. I just signed a contract to get a complete Trane AC system installed. It's gonna set me (way) back for a while, but by this time next week it should be nice and chilly in here I'm hoping that does the trick cause, like I said money will be pretty tight so an AC just for the plants won't be an option. Besides, the tent is only 3' x 3' x6' and I'm not sure if I could find an ac that would fit in there with the girls.

As for a small fan to blow over the bulbs, that's something I can look into. Thanks for the suggestion!

Gr8Xcape98 said:

Hey Kmog. I'm running the lights at night, from 5:30pm to 5:30am. We (did / will, once AC is fixed) keep the house coolest at night, the wife likes it cold when she sleeps. I bought this house a few years ago "as-is" and it's now clear the AC was installed by a con-artist. Shit started giving me problems a few months after moving in. Been putting "band-aids" on it ever since. I just signed a contract to get a complete Trane AC system installed. It's gonna set me (way) back for a while, but by this time next week it should be nice and chilly in here I'm hoping that does the trick cause, like I said money will be pretty tight so an AC just for the plants won't be an option. Besides, the tent is only 3' x 3' x6' and I'm not sure if I could find an ac that would fit in there with the girls.

As for a small fan to blow over the bulbs, that's something I can look into. Thanks for the suggestion!

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I ran a little ac in my little tent just outside the tent as my intake or a while, it cost me like $90 on craigslist, that's why I made the suggestion, thought it might be a cheaper fix lol. But a fan on the bulb will definitely help your heat out a good bit.

les2579@googlemail. com said:

The more leaf you take off the less food it will consume less light hitting plant my best results have been when I've not touched them at all near the end of life they fall out opening the plant up id just wait till flush then start hacking them to death if you take to much off you can put plant into shock and there's one two weeks off lost flowering time you can never get back the first 3-4 weeks of flowering are where you either get oz a plant or grams if all goes good by week 5 it should not be far off what's at the end besides it filling out with pk you won't see much difference in size of bud it just hardens up so be nice at beginning or you want have much towards the end and what ever you do don't give it lots of feed at first water once a day maybe twice but little bits then after 2-3 of flowering start feeding it as much as you can but in small amounts the more food you give it without over doing it the better the smoke and yield

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i found this quote to be a great piece of advice for me since i started flowering my plants.
and because i check it from time to time, for comparison, i always wondered:
when you say "the first 3-4 weeks" you also include the first 2 weeks of stretching? or 3-4 weeks since first signs of flower?
the same with "by week 5....." is it week five in the life of a flower? or week five since flipping to 12/12?

thanks!!! i'm looking forward for your reply!

Lots of schools of thought on this. I selectively prune. Right up till the end.

snipsnip said:

Lots of schools of thought on this. I selectively prune. Right up till the end.

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You also selectively suck balls

Gr8Xcape98 said:

Thanks for the reply Phase. Adding more light would be tough, it's a small tent and heat is already an issue, even with good ventilation. That said, some leaves have gotta go, I just won't be able to help myself. Maybe not today, and maybe only two or three leaves at a time, but I've gotta get some of those inner bud sites room to share in the light.

Question, do you never take any leaves off? Like not even during veg? I plucked about 10 fan leaves in total during the veg state, the last few coming off about a week before switching to 12/12.

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I probably remove a third of the entire plant during veg. Not just the fan leaves, but any flower site that doesn't look like it will make it to the top of my scrog by the time I switch to 12/12. I use those for clones. Best time to do a light prune during flower is only after its had 3 to 4 weeks of flowering. You have a nice canopy. Have you found the cause of that yellowing?