Should I do one last trim?

[AKgramma]

This poor Lady has been through the ringer. My two grow areas were slammed with a massive spider mite infestation, before I learned why the leaves were spotted white. I was gentler on the ladies in flower, especially this one, who is close to harvest. I'm giving her a little more time to recover and maybe form more calyxes before harvest.

My question is, should I go ahead and trim out the rest of the fan leaves to give the buds room to fill out?

BTW, she has been in and out of 12/12 as I moved ladies around. This last session, she has been under 12/12 for 6 weeks. She measures 16" high without bin x 20 " wide. She's OG Kush (Sativa heavy)

 

[BuddroGreen]

I usually defoliate last on day 45-47 of flower...go light and only take what is necessary, I would be concerned with PW (powdery mildew), Mold, Bud Rot from lack of air flow through the bush (fatter, bigger buds more pron to prior mentioned)...so keep RH @ 30%-40% and lightly defoliate....lowering the RH will also help to make her trich up & with the defoliation, give her an extra 3-5 more days to pack on at the end.

 

[AKgramma]

I usually defoliate last on day 45-47 of flower...go light and only take what is necessary, I would be concerned with PW (powdery mildew), Mold, Bud Rot from lack of air flow through the bush (fatter, bigger buds more pron to prior mentioned)...so keep RH @ 30%-40% and lightly defoliate....lowering the RH will also help to make her trich up & with the defoliation, give her an extra 3-5 more days to pack on at the end.

There is no problem with keeping the RH down up here, even when it's raining or snowing. I seldom get over 50% in the grow room, and that is only after watering and misting. No problem with mildew and mold. And I have lots of air movement in both grow areas.

All I have left are a few large fan leaves at the top and sugary leaves, which I'm not touching, of course. I had to do some serious defoliation to control the mites, because I couldn't be as aggressive with her as I was with those in veg. ;-)

But thank you for reminding me about how RH affects tric formation. This is only my second harvest in a perpetual grow, and so much info to remember. I didn't know that I could let it get clear down to 30% in flower! That's easy. Just don't mist. LOL!

If I can keep her going for another 2 - 4 weeks, I will harvest then. My ladies in the first grow were clearly ready to give up the ghost by the time I harvested them.

 

[Rockskipper]

That one looks like mine, lol ( the thread of stiff leaves,) You do have some brown leafs that I don't on mine.

I was wanting to keep mine going for another 4 weeks but I have a plant now that acts like a fake plant. You push on a leaf and it don't bend like it should. The buds are getting really dense, and the trics are everywhere, on the hairs, the buds, and the leaves. Looking with a 30x loop they all look clear so I going to wait for someone to tell me what to do now, lol.

 

[AKgramma]

That one looks like mine, lol ( the thread of stiff leaves,) You do have some brown leafs that I don't on mine.

I was wanting to keep mine going for another 4 weeks but I have a plant now that acts like a fake plant. You push on a leaf and it don't bend like it should. The buds are getting really dense, and the trics are everywhere, on the hairs, the buds, and the leaves. Looking with a 30x loop they all look clear so I going to wait for someone to tell me what to do now, lol.

My old eyes never could see the difference between clear and milky, even with the 40x loupe, so I followed the advice of another old timer and just called a halt to my First lady's life, even tho she had gotten a second wind and was putting out new hairs and calyxes. However, the rest of her looked like Hell. She was obviously near the end of her life, trying to pump out her last calyxes.