First auto plant, can I trim?

[Canachris]

This is my first auto, it's a Bruce Banner from 42 fast seeds. I'd like to trim off a few leaves to open up the branches to get more light. I know I only have a short period of time to manipulate her to the shape I want. So can I cut off some lower leaves with minimal damage

 

[Listersmeghead]

Hiya canachris
personally I don't cut leaves this early on a auto. I start to bend and tuck around day 18, but I leave the solar panels in place. Other growers might do it different.
She's looking good for 2 weeks

 

[Phytoplankton]

Too small to be trimming leaves off it, you could try tucking them down out of the way to expose growth sites, but looking at the plant, I don't see that the fan leaves are blocking much. Those fan leaves are the powerhouse of the plant. Let it get bigger, then if you want to remove a FEW leaves to expose bud sites, have at it. But remember, it's an auto, so it doesn't have time to recover from stress, like at photo does.

 

[Delps8]

Fiddling with the leaves might make you feel better but it will do nothing for the plant. If you want to make sure it gets enough light, give it enough light. Spend some coin on a LUX meter - about $35 for a Uni-T lux meter - and start at 200µmols.

If you don't know what "µmols" are, catch a Bugbee video (YouTube) about grow lighting.

If you're interested in how much light you can give an auto to make it thrive, check any of my grow journals. My current grow is a photoperiod but my others were autos but the light levels are the same.

Re. it's an auto and "time to recover" - I've just now started my first photo grow having done five auto grows. I've topped all of my plants and never noticed them not growing very quickly. That's relative though because the only thing I've grown other than cannabis is old. And I haven't grown in 50 years. Shit, I've barely even bulked up…

When topping a plant, the amount of material removed is insignificant. And that very small amount of growth has never done anything to contribute to the growth of the plant. Plants don't reminisce about "What could have been…".

The wound that's created is a few square millimeters. Healing starts immediately and is complete in…12…24 hours.

The impact of topping is immediate. The apical stem - the one that you lopped off - suppresses the growth of the branches on the node immediately below it. When the apical stem is removed, the branches that make up the node immediately below the excision point become the "top dog" branches. They grow faster and, in turn, suppress the growth of the branches immediately below them. What you should see after topping is that the new "top branches" grow more quickly than they would have if you had not topped. But unless you're conducting an experiment, there's no way to determine that because you have no "control" to compare it to so don't worry, topping works. Check my grow journals to see how well topped autos can grow.

Bottom line - I've never noticed my autos (or my current photoperiod plant) "slow down". As one poster, one this site perhaps, said "Autos are like a drag race car - they take off as soon as they start growing."

 

[Canachris]

I did cut off the first 2 sets of leaves, the single finger and the 3 finger they were small and not really contributing anything. I also manipulated the big fan leaves out of the way. I would really like to try topping her, but I'm just going to try and lean her over

 

[PaleSun]

Autoflower varieties are particularly susceptible to stresses that can cause stunted growth. Other than a FIM at about 5 wks, leave them alone. I don't even bother FIMing mine. Once they're bigger you can do some gentle LST to open up the plant. Best of luck cheers

 

[skirk]

On every auto I grow, I remove all growth under node four or five, depending on height, when I get a mature fifth node.
I do this for ease of watering, airflow, no popcorn and increased yield by tying down nodes around the pot and striving for the anatomy in the last pic. After much trial and error, this works for me.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Hey @Canachris, lookin' good!

 

[Canachris]

I have cut off 3 more sets of big fan's, it was the only way to get her some ligh to the iner branches. There is some kind of issue whether it's genetic or something I'm doing, but she has no vertical growth she's like a bowling ball and she would have just been a mess if I had left her alone. This other plant is only a week ahead of her and the difference is substantial

 

[Delps8]

A few observations:

I'm not a soil grower so I don't know much about watering soil but I think that leaf tips that turn down could indicate an issue with over-watering. Is that a possible issue?

Re. removing fan leaves - try as I might, I can't find a reason why that would possibly benefit these plants.

There's no reason to remove healthy leaves so as to expose other leaves lower down in the plant to light. One of the main functions of leaves is to use the photons that hit them in the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis converts photons and water to sugar (glucose) and oxygen. The oxygen is returned to the atmosphere as a waste gas and the glucose is shunted to other parts of the plants where it is used for growth.

As leaves age, their ability to photosynthesize diminishes but that comes much later in the life of a plant. When plants are in veg, removing leaves reduces the plants ability to photosynthesize, it removes the chemicals that leaves store for later use, and it also impairs the ability of the plant to transpire which is the mechanism that plants use to give off water vapor allowing them to both cool off and to maintain the amount of water stored internally.

When cannabis is in the flowering stage, growers are admonished to make sure that there's plenty of air flow under the canopy to stave off powdery mildew. Also, the battle cry goes out to remove old fan leaves because they are becoming inefficient. Both of those reasons have merit. In the case of the fan leaves becoming inefficient, lopping them off would seem to be a way to improve net photosynthesis in the plant but that also comes at the expense of getting rid of the chemicals that are stored there by the plant for use in flower.

By removing healthy leaves during veg, however, you are reducing the growth potential of the plant. In turn, that will tend to reduce yield and crop quality.


Looking at the photo, I see plants that have been well lighted and that have been provided good nutrients/nutrient levels. The plants have great color (good nute mix), there's lots of inflorescence, and it looks like the internodal space is short which indicates that you're giving them a good amount of light. Another symptom of good light is that the plants are "praying" meaning that they're elevating leaves toward the light.

At this point, I would leave the leaves alone, check the watering levels, and spend $35 on a Uni-T light meter to get the plants to the light saturation point as soon as you can.

 

[Canachris]

so should I just remove the lower branches that are in the dark and get no air circulation and just kinda rot and stay small and under developed and produce tiny buds. Out of the 3 plants I'm growing the one I have been trying to slow growth by cutting off big fan's and lower branches is the biggest and healthiest. I understand the science of what those big leaves do and out in nature I'm sure it all workes as mother nature planed, but in my artificial environment this method is what works best for me. I wish I had the $35 to buy a light meter and a lot more useful tools.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Looking very healthy!

 

[Canachris]

Here she is just shy of 5 weeks, no stretch yet plenty of flowers starting. wonky genetics I'm thinking, So steer clear of North Atlantic seed Co.

 

[AgedMaster]

Here she is just shy of 5 weeks, no stretch yet plenty of flowers starting. wonky genetics I'm thinking, So steer clear of North Atlantic seed Co.

she should start stretching now mine was 3 ft at 5 weeks ended up 7ft by 8 weeks some won't stretch to much one of mine was 4 ft the other was 7ft in same tent. i am growing a auto now she is the same age as yours and about the same size i grew the strain last time she will end up about 4ft i wouldn't worry to much your plant looks healthy

 

[safeman]

Ethos recommends leaf removal when there are 5 node (5 sets of leaves) and just lower (ref: Ethos Mag #1)