Opinions needed - trimming leaves during bud cycle

[kickstart]

I am currently in the bloom cycle of my latest crop; I am a fairly experienced grower but am afraid I have to ask a relatively simple question (for the experts).

I am flowering a Bubba Kush grow. By nature they are short, squat, tight, almost pure indica. Their leaves are HUGE! Here is my question:

Do you recommend trimming healthy leaves off to allow buds to have direct sunlight, or do I leave them alone (leaves are solar panels...) and let the buds have indirect sunlight?

Below is a shot 1.5 wks into bloom. They are about 20" tall and just perfectly packed in...

Ooops! apparently it takes time for photos to get OK'd...

Photo to come as soon as it gets approved...

 

[L8tNightSkunk]

Usually people just removed the leaves that are turning yellow and dying but some people do remove some fan leaves a week or two before harvest to allow more light to the bottom.

 

[Mr. Supergrow]

You should never remove the heathly leaves unless nessessary, this can really stress the plant and decrease yield

 

[kickstart]

That's how I usually opperate, it's just these leaves are so thick in the grow room... For some reason my photos never appeared in my gallery... I will have to see what I am doing wrong.

 

[kickstart]

Here we go... These are 1 week into flower. I have since spread them out a few more inches, but space is limited...

 

[Smokeyjoe]

Wow they look beautiful and very stacked!
Keep up the good work! + reps

 

[Mr. Supergrow]

if it were me, i would leave it as it is, see how it goes if you start having trouble trim as nessassary.

hope this helps

SuperGow

 

[kickstart]

Thank you everyone. They are in week 2 of bloom right now (took me awhile to get that pic posted...). I will get an updated pic soon. The girls are about 20-22" ea. I have found that it is a bit of a waste of time to make them any taller (they were turned back at about 16"). This Bubba Kush seems to take a lot longer to veg and bloom; a slow growing plant for sure. The internodal spacing is nice and tight. The last crop I had was mostly Sour Diesel and just a couple Bubbas; this time it is all Bubba Kush... Should be easier to keep a uniform canopy height. It is time to start outdoor crops right now here, so I suppose I will be dropping a few in the dirt the next couple days.

One last note on the BK strain. The last stuff I grew was the last in the group to be harvested (about 65-70 days in bloom). It was worth the weight. Smell and taste is great; the buds have a large amount of purple in them... Really nice coloring. We will see how this one goes...

 

[Mr. Supergrow]

Thank you everyone. They are in week 2 of bloom right now (took me awhile to get that pic posted...). I will get an updated pic soon. The girls are about 20-22" ea. I have found that it is a bit of a waste of time to make them any taller (they were turned back at about 16"). This Bubba Kush seems to take a lot longer to veg and bloom; a slow growing plant for sure. The internodal spacing is nice and tight. The last crop I had was mostly Sour Diesel and just a couple Bubbas; this time it is all Bubba Kush... Should be easier to keep a uniform canopy height. It is time to start outdoor crops right now here, so I suppose I will be dropping a few in the dirt the next couple days.

One last note on the BK strain. The last stuff I grew was the last in the group to be harvested (about 65-70 days in bloom). It was worth the weight. Smell and taste is great; the buds have a large amount of purple in them... Really nice coloring. We will see how this one goes...

Nice sounds good, keep us informed with pics and updates.

SuperGrow

 

[HeadMed]

at the most i will trim leaves that are under the canapoy and no longer getting light... just to improve air flow. But otherwise no trimmin... those leave are little solar panels to make enerygy for buds. They have more surfface are to collect light than buds keep em

 

[drumlove420]

Yummy! I have the same questions you do. I try to avoid pruning unless the leaf is not healthy. Is there any part of the budsites that benefit from direct light? The swollen pistils and emerging growth tips seems to be the majority of my bud material, and as far as I know, they don't have anything to utilize the light with like the leaves do. I've tended to try to tuck the fan leaves out of the way of the bud, but is the light better used by letting the shade leaves do their thing? It's a never ending debate, but if your girls look that healthy, You are the man!

 

[shaggie-420]

hey kick, i know this is late on the list but its relevant. we grow a steady crop of bubba and we have started thining out about a third of the large fans in the canopy to allow more light to penetrate to the lower fans and it increased our structure a good amount we generaly pull them around the 2nd or 3rd week in flower. ill see if i can get some pics the next time we do it..............
also ... the retractable light hangers work great... we have them and the nylon zip hangers on all of our xxxl hoods quite handy.. makes it easy to ajust the lights.....

 

[The303Stoner]

I seen pix, of a near bare of fan leaves, plant that turned into a huge cola I think the fan leaves balance the plant.