First time grower question

[mountaineerfanatic]

Critical purple auto here 7 weeks and 3 days since sprout. Plant is really bushy with a bunch of leaves. Should I trim some of the leaves or let them be? The smaller plant on the right is gorilla glue auto. It's a week and a half younger.

 

[Sctanley007]

Welcome to the boards!! First of all congrats!! Your girls look awesome. I think you will get a pretty even split on your answers. From my reading there appears to be two camps.

Some say leave the plants be and let nature take its course...especially with us newer growers. There is always a chance trimming/pruning/defoliating can stress the plants causing various issues and lower yield.

On the other hand, depending on you growing area and RH, too many leaves can also cause issues with mold/fungus and pests. Additionally some feel that the plant is wasting energy on the leaves as opposed to budsite formation, whereas others feel the fan leaves are necessary to support further growth.

I personally only started modestly training and defoliating on my second grow, but that's because my first was a disaster.
I watched videos and found a style that works for me and that Im comfortable with. Start slow.. and think before you cut. You can always come back and cut it later but you cant put it back on after.

 

[Hdinkleman]

depends on your lights, if you dont have much penetration you want to defol leaves that are covering up bud sites/nodes.
remember if youre growing indoors you dont have a sun that hits your plants from different angles througout the day, you want a focus on the top of your plants ( unless doing vertical growing or have lights other than on the top of your tent) so yeah, give it a trim. just dont trim more than 10-20% of your leaves in one sitting, just as a precaution. you will notice that when you pluck off a few big fan leaves, the plant will conpensate and grow bigger fans on existing leaves to take its place.

think about it like this, during veg you are basically building a frame for your buds, be more mindful of creating the framework you want to maximize your canopy, and treat your roots right, because those two things will be vital when flowering begins. leaves not so much because (im assuming) you will trim alot off to lollipop the plant when flowering begins anyways, unless you want a bunch of larfy buds at the bottoms, or are just growing to extract oils or cbd

 

[Hdinkleman]

im of the school of thpught that i want to push the limits either way, too much or too little, so that i can find a middle ground on my own, rather than be constantly stuck in a rut of average.
if you dont push the limits, you dont know where the line lays, and you could possibly have sub par grows for a long time and not even know about it.
do some trimming, just use common sense, if a leaf is constantly laying on top of another leaf, cut it off! if you wait 5 grows to ever defoliate, you will end up starting at square one when you finally do. i did a mainline on two plants my first grow, ended up with 3.5 zips of pretty good bud. ( better than anything i could get in black market in my shitty local area)
i also nute burned my plants and stressed them, cannabis is a hardy plant, at least now i know what to look for and i know what nute burn does, i dont regret it.
always start low and work your way up, dont just blast the plant with double the reccomended dosage though, just think of the plant as your kid or pet and try to take care of the plant itself, instead of thinking that it is a just a “weed” that makes buds. if that makes any sense, hope things go good, if you got questions just ask and someone will help you out buddy

 

[Blew Hiller]

She seems well behind the growing curve @ 7weeks....I am guessing that is a lighting issue. Trimming won't make much difference at this point.

 

[Grassmaster]

I don't thing it makes much difference with auto's. I trim under the plant so I can water easier. I only trim fan leaves that are covering bud sites, or dead leaves. The plant uses the leaves to feed the bud sites. So I only remove them When they are dried out and about to fall off. Topping and auto is generally a mistake because it will make the plant more bushy.

If you have a super bushy plant you will have more buds but they will be smaller. Not much you can do to change genetics. Does it matter? Depends on what you're going to use them for.

 

[Hdinkleman]

She seems well behind the growing curve @ 7weeks....I am guessing that is a lighting issue. Trimming won't make much difference at this point.

my plants are definitely stunted because of the mainline at 55 days,

I don't thing it makes much difference with auto's. I trim under the plant so I can water easier. I only trim fan leaves that are covering bud sites, or dead leaves. The plant uses the leaves to feed the bud sites. So I only remove them When they are dried out and about to fall off. Topping and auto is generally a mistake because it will make the plant more bushy.

If you have a super bushy plant you will have more buds but they will be smaller. Not much you can do to change genetics. Does it matter? Depends on what you're going to use them for.

i dont know or claim to know anything about autos, i hought he was growing normal photos, guess i misread the post lol. i do have some auto seeds i will give a shot at some point though, just havent bothered yet, trying to get the normal plant under control first then was thinking of throwing a couple autos in the veg tent if i have a longer veg time for some reason

 

[mountaineerfanatic]

She seems well behind the growing curve @ 7weeks....I am guessing that is a lighting issue. Trimming won't make much difference at this point.

It was a number of issues when I first started. I didn't have a ph meter and it was off quite a bit. I also have a cheap light but I have another that is on the way and should be here in a week to help with flower. Other than that the roots and leaves look healthy. She is just not going to be a big plant.