Pruning Fan Leaves??

I just figured out how to +rep, so thanks for the helpful advice...

never pull off or cut off fan leaves unless they are already dying, the only fan leaves I ever pull off are the ones on the bottom [ lollipoping ] the plant i feel it gives the other tops the energy that would have went towards the bottoms that you lollipoped... if I'm wrong someone plz correct me. I always imagine the fan leaves as solar panels if you pull off all your solar panels how are you gonna produce anything? huh
again if im wrong someone plz correct me... But I feel 100% on my info, I THINK [LOL]

I am fairly new to the indoor game, BUT, i have been trimming my babies :O . With exceptional results! what I do is let the plant grow from sprout for 2 weeks, the plant is only 5-6 inches tall or so, but is startting to form hellacious nodeage , and not to mention a pretty thick canopy from all the fan leaves being crammed together due to the age of the plant. so what i do is keep every middle leaf on the fan leaves on the plant, but every other leaf i snip off, so what i am left with is a plant that hardly resembles a weed plant at all, just something that looks like a stalk with a bunch of single leaves all over it. when i first did it i thought to myself " are you a fuckin retard!?" but my mind is a very scientific mind and that being said, after about two weeks after you cut the leaves off you will notice an explosion of growth from all the "hidden" nodes that were under the fan leaves not getting ample light. Everyone is saying DO NOT CUT THE FUCKING FAN LEAVES!. I guess they are right because yes, the leaves do play an important role in the plants well-being, thats why I leave the middle leaf on. It works well for me and if you try it it will work for you too! your plant will branch like a motherfucker! +rep this motherfucker because you all have just been blinded by science ! lol

im fully aware of the role the fan leaves play, but if there's some fan leaves hanging right over one of my budsites you bet your ass im pulling that shit..theres plenty more where that came from.

As the orginal poster said,,


Method 1: Pull off a LOT of the large fan leaves during veg. and early flower to allow light to penetrate the canopy. I have several plants in flower like this and they seem to be doing well, but at some point they stopped producing fan leaves and dont have many. I know some people use the fan leaves as a sign of maturation (when they turn yellow and drop) and it seems to me that the plant may use them to collect light.

Method 2: Dont touch them. Ever. Until harvest. This produces a much denser canopy and looks great (I have a few in veg like this right now) but there is no way any light is getting past the top of the canopy.

well,,,,,
I trim when needs,, 50% damage,,
I think you should apply which ever to your setup,, i.e, are you using cfl's??? if so method one maybe the answer, just there penatrating power isnt so good.
what Im going to try this harvest( dec 1st) pruning fan leaves and that about a week before harvest. I have cfl's, this may give them the light to make the lower bud a bit bigger, anyhow see how it goes.

Take it easy...

Leaves?......Pssshhh.. Who needs leaves? I grow stems and buds, saves a shitload of time trimming.

420God said:

Leaves?......Pssshhh.. Who needs leaves? I grow stems and buds, saves a shitload of time trimming.

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Really? intresting, so may i ask God, how do you trim? just as needs or do you wait for decent buds then chop of the leaves,,

Just would like to know for when I trim one plant to see of it makes marked difference,

Take it easy

bigwheel said:

Don't mess with the fan leaves unless while in bloom you have one or several which is blocking out the light to a bud underneath. If so just cut off part of the offending leaf.

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Leaves only absorb/use roughly 15% of the light that strikes them and the remaining roughly 85% of light passes through to strike, and be used, by lower leaves and buds.

Lower portions of plants appear to the naked eye to be in low light conditions because the chlorophyll in leaves reflect green light and the human eye is most sensitive to green light, and far less sensitive to the light in the rest of the color spectrum. Plants are not the human eye. Green light is not what they thrive on so it not penetrating is not of importance to plants but they do thrive on what passes through upper leaves to then strike lower portions of plants.

If someone actually does have a low light condition for the lower portion of their plants the problem is inadequate lighting, not too many leaves, and the solution to inadequate lighting is to improve lighting, not removing leaves that are far more important to plants if the grower wants them to be as healthy and as productive as they can be. That is a proven botanical fact that a high percentage of members here totally fail to realize or understand.

the plant will tell you when to lose the fan leaves as they turn yellow before harvest.