Leaves contain a flowering inhibiting hormone..?

WTH !

Latest HT. Sept 2011 Page 59.

I thought leaves were our friends ?!

Now I've been hearing that during flowering to slowly remove fans leaves as these actually will slow the growth and potency of the flower.

It's no wonder my SSH did so well, weight and size wise, because I was chopping leaves off willy nilly....this was before everyone stated leaves are your friend. ( A couple of years ago when I first got legal and didn't know the "F" I was doing anyway)

I can understand cutting bottom or dark leaves ( leaves with little or no light ) especially using Sea of Green method. I use this method.

I E-Mailed the guy and finally got a response and he said by the time harvest rolls around there is nary a fan leaf left....just the bud leaf.

Feedback ?

I read a post a while back on this very forum about some guy chopping off almost all the fan leaves and his crop looked really good. He posted pics of the plants at various stages..and these babies were almost naked.

hmmm sounds fishy to me, whats the hormone responsible?

Yeah I agree, I've always trimmed all the way through flower. Mainly because I scrog and take off all the light blockers, which is usually quite a bit. Just don't do it all at once. I've never seen any lil effects. Good example is my current plushberry grow, they have the biggest fan leaves I've ever had. If left untrimmed light would only be hitting the top couple inches of each cola. Those leaves have huge stems too, must suck up alot of Energy and fluids better left for the buds.

Theoretically it's kind of a mixed table. The leaves produce the stop flowering hormone, which is why we swap to 12/12. This gives the plant enough time to produce enough flowering hormone to last all day. But the leaves also provide chlorophyll, so chopping them takes away that production. I personally try not to trim more than 1/3 of the fan leaves in a given grow. I've seen people that have chopped them all and ended up with underformed buds because it didn't have all the pieces to make them.