Veg stage fan leaf pruning issue

[vyserage]

What do you guy's think? I have my 6 plants and i have been every other day clipping off upper and middle fan leaves that are blocking light to lower nodes inside the middle of plant so that light easily penetrates the entire inner side of all shoots. Even if its a top fan leaf ill let it grow to about an inch stem length and snip it off to let light inside below it. Some days i would clip off 5 leaves from all 6 plants, other days 20 leaves, depending on whats blocking light in the middle. I would for the most part leave outside fan leaves since they are not blocking light. After looking at many of my plants, i'd say about 60% of all the sides that have a clipped leaf has a stunted node compared to its opposite side node.

So here are some pictures and i would love some feedback. Do you think doing that is whats causing that side of the node to get stunted? You can see from the pictures that the opposite side of nodes are perfectly fine and ahead in growth compared to its opposite side that had its fan leaf clipped off.

I do have some sides that are the same growth rate even with a clipped fan leaf on 1 side but im thinking this is because i let the nodes grow to a minimum rate at which it could self supply with its new tiny future fan leafs, and then i had removed fan leaf. I wasnt paying attention until i read up on a few things pertaining to prune. I know this helps a lot in flowering stage as i had 1 'experimental' plant last grow that was over 20 grams more than all other 4 plants.
So im thinking of testing this theory with a top node fan leaf that has equivalent level of nodes on both sides. If the side that has its fan leaf grows at a faster rate than the side with no fan leaf, ill know but i still want feedback

 

[The Germinator]

Cutting a leaf does not stunt the node. I've tested this many times. You've cut the growth shoot along with that leaf prob.
I can take pics now of mine with some growth shoots larger on the side with the cut fan leaf. It varies.

 

[vyserage]

Cutting a leaf does not stunt the node. I've tested this many times. You've cut the growth shoot along with that leaf prob.

there are plenty of tiny sided nodes with a missing leaf, i think in 1 of those above photo's i may have or it just was too small to see.
Edited for an easier view lol

• How persistant were your tests?
• How many leaf's did you test this with?
• All on the same plant or multiple plants?
• Were those plants the same strain or did you try it across say 2 or more strains to see if some strains were picky while others not?
• And lastly, did you try it with a node that had tiny fan leaf's already developed to the point you can clearly see they are fan leaf's, vs a node that hadnt developed yet?

Just trying to get a broader idea

 

[The Germinator]

I've been growing some level off and on more than 30 years. To defoliate or not to defoliate has been a topic of great controversy. So I always notice things like this. I've seen some smaller on the cut side but also larger. It's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

 

[Cultivator]

your pruning method isnt the best. if you constantly removing leaves you are constantly sdtressing the plant. its better to do it in set stages. bend your stems , clean bottomn 1/3rd of the plant of all growth a couple days before flipping to flower. then in flower based on an averasge 8-10week flowering plant, do a light defol around day 21 of 12 and again around 2 weeeks before harvest.

 

[vyserage]

your pruning method isnt the best. if you constantly removing leaves you are constantly sdtressing the plant. its better to do it in set stages. bend your stems , clean bottomn 1/3rd of the plant of all growth a couple days before flipping to flower. then in flower based on an averasge 8-10week flowering plant, do a light defol around day 21 of 12 and again around 2 weeeks before harvest.

Well its not constantly trimming, i may get like 5 leaf's clipped across all 6 plants (total of 5 leafs) in 2 days, then 2 days later i may clip 2 or 3 total, 2 days later i may clip 7 or 8, its just depends on whats blocking light down the middle of the plant. Sometimes i go 4 or 5 days without clipping anything if everything looks good.As of now im doing more tucking behind other fan leaf's as well as clipping if its untuckable and falls back into the middle. So as far as stressing the plant, its not as bad as youre thinking.

I'm definitely going to try and do majority of tucking, as far as bending goes, i already do that to ensure an even canopy. I already mainlined and already topped as many times as im going to. trimmed off everything below the mainline already. I feel if there arent any leaves blocking the middle of the plant, thats direct light to all lower/lowest nodes and gives them a fighting chance to get much higher to the canopy, but who knows, i could easily be mistaken haha.

This is only my 2nd grow in soil and i know to defoliate in the 2 stages during flowering, as well as a few leaf's here and there rather than all at once to a plant for anything not in the 2 stage defoliation. In fact my 1 experimental plant where i removed quite a bit of fan leaf off of it compared to all other's is the one i get over 20g more than all the other plants. I'll definitely be doing that again but to all my plants, however i didnt really clip many during veg aside from 2 days before switching to flower. This grow ill be doing it 7 days before the switch for more recovery time (depending on if i clip off more than a few per plant)

I've given everything some thought based on my first grow experience, but how im doing this now and in veg is a bit different than how i did it in my first grow. Thats why i decided to post about it and get some knowledge from people who may have already done similar or even this exact way (i dont know of anybody else that clips off inner leaf's to allow light penetration. Here is a pic to show u what i mean, notice how light is perfectly going down the middle? Thats what i aim for, especially during flowering after 3 weeks from switch (first trim like u said).

Now that i've explained a bit more of what i experienced and now what im trying/doing (just during veg stage is different, ill do everything i did like my first grow for the flowering stage, im only interested in improving the veg stage since i plan to do the flowering stage the same), do you still feel the same as your above post?

Its kind of hard to tell since you're not looking at them yourselves, but you can see the main stems through the middle so i guess thats a good indication of what im trying to show. TBH i think next grow im going to try 2 plants, 1 where i did use this middle open method and 1 where i did not and just let it go with basic trimming once before flowering. Then i can see if the results are any different for total weight after dried. Experimenting is the best after all

 

[Cultivator]

if its working for you then its good. plants look healthy, i was under the impression you were taking leaves of constantly. I do one big defol in veg and prune but i grow in coco and hydro so recovery rates are fast, soil is not so forgiving so your approach may be better for soil. ive grown many thousands of plants and i suggesrt to people what works for me but if your plants are healthy and groing well you have already answered your own question.

 

[vyserage]

Ya i feel it still requires further investigation, a somewhat in depth one. I will be trying it next grow for sure (the open middle thing). As for the leaf node size stunt from chopping a fan leaf, ill definitely be testing this on the sour diesel strain to see the results (you can see in my pics above i marked them with the garden string). Once i see the results from there, ill then try it on the Critical Kush strain, should be interesting since SD is more sativa and CK is more Indica (its taller and less bushy in comparison anyway). I guess in the end you just gotta do your own experiments haha. Also this is my last soil grow, i have a RDWC coming in Next grow is 2x super lemon haze, 2x purple trainwreck and 2x Blue Dream, im expecting great things from hydro

 

[Cultivator]

coco coir is a better transition fgor hydro, it is hydro and very little can go wrong if you follow the basic rules. ive got a thread on how to grow in it, check it out.

 

[vyserage]

I can now confirm (atleast for Sour Diesel strain) that cutting a fan leaf off while its got a small node with its own tiny leaf's, doesnt show any noticeable stunt to its node. I observed no difference in growth rate over the course of 5-6 days.

Next test (which is to chop a fan leaf next to a node that hasnt developed its own tiny fan leafs yet) will have to wait as im about to do my pre flower defoliation and i dont want that interfering with the results.