Trimming, or taming question

[ZaineFyrBlaz]

Ok here my info on the grow

Bag seed of unknown origin or strain.

Outdoor grow with only humus drain and light guano nute

About 2-3 weeks into flower stage, topped into two main branches

Growing in a 5 gal bucket with drainage hole in bottom, and air holes in sides.


Question: I have trimmed almost all of the fan leaves away to get light into the bud sites. I am somewhat of a expeirienced grower but have never really had as much of a problem getting light to the bud sites!

So I was wondering, how safe would it be to trim all of the fan leaves away, or any alternatives as the branches in question are entirely to small to use the tie down method?

 

[ZaineFyrBlaz]

I know this is bad as the fan leaves are the energy makers if the plant but I've heard if the secondary branches are large and abundant enough they can take their place

 

[Conradino23]

As I can see you have a nice indica leaning hybrid. The rule of a thumb is to prune lower nodes first as these ones won't get much sun and thus will produce nothing but popcorn! Trim 3 or 4 bottom nodes then. As it grows you need to check for shading. If leaves block the buds from getting full sunlight exposure you get rid of them once in 2nd week of flowering and then follow up in 4th week... until they stop stretching. Don't worry, but then some growers won't even pluck a leaf off. Petsonally, I think that you need to help your plant by trimming all leaves until you see that plant took an advantage of it. Stay below 30% of all leaf mass every time you do it and you won't do any harm. Experiment, that's the way to do it!

 

[ZaineFyrBlaz]

Thx, I have been plucking leaves here and there as I am in 2-3 week of flowering and noticed some branches are stretching out to get light on thier own and others are just hideing in the cluster fuck of smaller leaves hidden even more by the fan leaves.

Useful info though thank you

 

[Conradino23]

I see a quick bud growth due to defoliation - and other things too - on one of my plants, but I take it easy. I started by plucking 3-4 leaves and then did good, but not too heavy trimming twice. I'm on SCROG though so it's kinda necessary, but even without it you should try it in my humble opinion, cause it works big time!

 

[ZaineFyrBlaz]

Over the last two weeks I have plucked quite a bit of the fan leaves off, most before the above pic.

And it seems to have a small but possitive effect on growth, not as big as I had hoped but I can't exactly take its batteries and expect it to work faster now can i

 

[Conradino23]

Remember she's gonna keep going forward better if she gets good nitrogen rich fertilizer till 3rd week of flowering and has space for root to expand - smart pots & air pots help - as well as good temperature on the buds. It's always little bit stunted over 90F, but if all conditions are right, you'll see sudden growth very soon.

 

[DgC 4Life]

I have trimmed fan leaves all of some off I tried cutting partial of the leaf off and leaving some to continue to produce energy but all mine were indoors....one thing I notice is if i strip ALL fan leaves it stunts growth slightly and you see them try to produce more leaves to replace buds are smaller but more all over plant....i tried taking only a few fan leaves any that block budsites and found that buds may seem to slow in growth from affected area of leaf removal while your newly lit buds take off in growth.....meium buds throught plant covering whole plant even as low as the grow medium and i trimed parts of the leaf to not completley remove it but allow some direct light below buds are big, medium, and small(sometimes), all on same plant but my best results have been from triming part of the leaves blocking budsites and leave some if i can and removing lower nodes as conradino23 suggested...I'm not to expierenced only 3 indoor grows but i have done alot of expirements to see what i like because once i herd it was a weed i knew i didnt have to baby it and thats what i love about these plants a million ways to achieve the same thing that in the end its gonna come down to your growin style...... after the basics like light climate nutes theres almost no wrong answer....well at least thats how i see it