What should i take off my plant

[oakley2112]

Ok im trying to find out just wnat i should be taking off my plant
so far ive just been taking off thr big sun leaves the purple stemed ones
am i hurting this plant cause im doing it in both veg and bloom im"pruning for bigger flower" but am i? havent been going long enough to know if im hurting or helping

 

[nibec]

Re: what should i take off my [plant

need more info.

how far in are you,
where are you removing the leaves from?
lighting?

 

[ledtron]

Re: what should i take off my [plant

yeah, more info, but i remove leaves that are about half yellow and the ones that block light to bud sites; although some of those can just be tucked in or whatever.

 

[oldred28]

i never cut healthy shade leaves, those absorb the light to feed the plant. if anything just cut the very top growing shoot off and the plant will bush out like crazy.
to test your plants for sex, take clone and once it has roots put in flowering room till it shows m/fthat way mom keeps growing. (or dad)

 

[JB42]

Ok im trying to find out just wnat i should be taking off my plant
so far ive just been taking off thr big sun leaves the purple stemed ones
am i hurting this plant cause im doing it in both veg and bloom im"pruning for bigger flower" but am i? havent been going long enough to know if im hurting or helping

Hi oakley2112, This is like one of the biggest questions for growers, do I or don't I take leaves off? The plant needs them big shade leaves to provide the plant with needed sugars and to waork as like solar pannels to your plant.

I personally only take off pan leaves that start to cover bud sites 2 week into flowering. The only leaves I take off before then are only shoots to make more bud sites.

Dont take them off in veg as they help make the plant stronger and produce more growth!!

Jorge Cervantes will tell you never take any off at all!! But IMO when you remove ones that cover bud sites or bend them out of the way the buds defo start to grow bigger faster!!

I will take the leaves and stalks from around the bottom of the plant though because they dont produce anything good and gives airflow and more power to more important buds.

Hope this help, there a link in the growroom on how to grow marijuana on trimming.

 

[420inOregon]

I do for lighting But its your opinion. Me personally I prune my big fan leaves, But I also thinks it hurts her. But Im doing it for her, she just dosnt know it until its gone. Yes when I do prune I get faster growth out of that node. I dont know yes? no?. Your choice
there is pros and con to every thing

 

[Ganjahoarder]

Need pics to be able to help.

 

[nibec]

Hi oakley2112, This is like one of the biggest questions for growers, do I or don't I take leaves off? The plant needs them big shade leaves to provide the plant with needed sugars and to waork as like solar pannels to your plant.

I personally only take off pan leaves that start to cover bud sites 2 week into flowering. The only leaves I take off before then are only shoots to make more bud sites.

Dont take them off in veg as they help make the plant stronger and produce more growth!!

Jorge Cervantes will tell you never take any off at all!! But IMO when you remove ones that cover bud sites or bend them out of the way the buds defo start to grow bigger faster!!

I will take the leaves and stalks from around the bottom of the plant though because they dont produce anything good and gives airflow and more power to more important buds.

Hope this help, there a link in the growroom on how to grow marijuana on trimming.

i do the same, i do a scrog, and cut all growth below screen as it will never see the light anyways.

basicly... if it doesnt see the light, it isnt doing any good. and it needs to go. at least with CFL you see HUGE success with that.

 

[JB42]

i do the same, i do a scrog, and cut all growth below screen as it will never see the light anyways.

basicly... if it doesnt see the light, it isnt doing any good. and it needs to go. at least with CFL you see HUGE success with that.

Yeah forgot to mention I use CFL as well and yeah basically more direct light more buds, but no pans, no energy so be carefull , leave the top half.

 

[preprodigy]

quick breakdown:

only prune once every 7-10 days. (plant experinces shock and you dont want to over do it)

never remove more then 30% of the larger fan leaves from a plant in one sitting.

make sure that when you do remove leaves/ small useless branches. that you only take the leaves that are blocking light, or are so burred in the plant that they dont receive light anyways.
once you've cleaned those up, you can take a step back and re evaluate your plant, if at this point it still looks crowded, then you can go back at it.

when lollip popping the underside of your plant, be sure to grab all the scraggly stuff first, then worry about cleaning up larger fan leaves, again its best not to remove more then 30% of the plants fan leaves at a time.. those are the engines or water pumps that actually draw the water up from the roots then threw the plant structure itself. so you def need those for a strong healthy plant.

you should really post a pic of the plant or plants in question. us here on 420mag would better be able to assist you with your questions that way.. just some food for thought!

 

[preprodigy]

@okley1212 check this link out, its a quick read and it will give you all the details you need to know to approach this situation with some confidence. check it out, it helped me allot. maybe it can do the same for you

 

[Casa Verde]

leaves are the motors of the plant
If the leaves get no light it's another story.
The plant consumes energy to the leaves that do not receive light, in this case, removal of the leaves so that the energy can be used at the top .

Excuse my poor grammer.

Greetz
Casa Verde

 

[Flipper]

My grow i am doing now is northern lights and cream caramel. I cut some of the lower leafs off to give the lollipop effect. This helps with better air circulation to the plants and any buds. Also the cc are dominating the nl so i have cut some fan leafs to get better light penetration. If you don't do this anyway, a lot of bottom leaf will die and fall off anyway do to lack of light. I do this more with indicas because of the large leafs and lack of light penetration. This should not hurt your plants.

 

[Truth Seeker]

Ok im trying to find out just wnat i should be taking off my plant
so far ive just been taking off thr big sun leaves the purple stemed ones
am i hurting this plant cause im doing it in both veg and bloom im"pruning for bigger flower" but am i? havent been going long enough to know if im hurting or helping

In veg, I leave all the leaves, they are suger leaves... they also help the plant grow big and strong... it's not til about week 1 or 2 that you should start to take off leaves that are covering the bud sites, you want as much light as you can get on the bud sites to give you big massive bud production...

from what I have been finding out recently, is that you can do 2 major defoliation in flower mode day 15 and day 45...

Hope someone helped... a lot of good names here giving you some great advice brotha

 

[NACnCO]

. . .you should really post a pic of the plant or plants in question. us here on 420mag would better be able to assist you with your questions that way.. just some food for thought!

Yeah, I think pics for discussion would be great. Like before and after pics. I'm really struggling to understand this element of plant care. There doesn't seem to be much agreement on this topic. I would think getting rid of the leaves during the early stages of budding would be the winning strategy. I'm comparing it to vegetable gardening though, and there may be some different issues involved.

Good discussion

 

[Bassman59]

I like controversy.


Last grow, in veg, before transplant, before stripping:

After stripping:

7 days after stripping:

Current grow, 1st strip in veg:

About a week later I think:

Before and after 2nd stripping in veg:

Roughly 5 - 7 days later:

Roughly 19 days into stretch:

Current as of moments ago. Notice there are still leaves, but so many are gone and the lights get down nice and low and bud growth is strong. Most of the bigger fans you see are either outer fans that dont really shade or are attached to actual buds fans which I'm led to believe we dont want to pluck.

 

[Cloudblood]

Leaves are the plant. The roots can't support bud growth alone, in fact without photosynthesis the nutes are useless.

'Water enters the root and is transported up to the leaves through specialized plant cells known as xylem. Land plants must guard against drying out and so have evolved specialized structures known as stomata to allow gas to enter and leave the leaf. Carbon dioxide cannot pass through the protective waxy layer covering the leaf, but it can enter the leaf through an opening the stomata flanked by two guard cells. Likewise, oxygen produced during photosynthesis can only pass out of the leaf through the opened stomata. Unfortunately for the plant, while these gases are moving between the inside and outside of the leaf, a great deal water is also lost. Cottonwood trees, for example, will lose 100 gallons of water per hour during hot desert days. '

This is all simply put the leaf is not just the engine to make energy nor just the storage area for that excess energy....It is the plants lungs. without proper foliage a plant will suffocate so the energy one thinks is misplaced into leaf growth or lost for bud growth is actually ONLY possible due to those leaves. Roots cannot support Marijuana alone. buds can't solely be responsible for accumulating the slush of excess energy created nor can a plant choose to put all effort into bud growth.

I understand the lollipop method to take less productive growth out of the equation and make better air flow. This method has a science behind it by allowing other leaves better access to their needed CO2 and O2 but to defoliate a plant for sake of 'flowering' or 'bud growth' is a misnomer that has yet to have a real science applied.

Think of your plant as a car. the leaf is responsible for being the gas tank (storage of energy), the engine (place where photosynthesis occurs breaking CO2, O2, nutes and sugars into usable pieces), the carburetor (responsible for fuel flow to the needed parts at a rate needed), the radiator (which regulates plant temps, heating and cooling), and the exhaust (the only way for a plant to release built up O2). The stem is simply lines to carry things around. The buds are just the result of all the other systems working up to par. ....

I am quite sure the method of removing leaves to force the plant to use energy on buds lacks the insight of you cut your energy production down with each leaf you take. Which furthermore can hurt your bud growth because your plant will try to grow more leaves to breathe....

So just make sure what you take off really is bothering you, because it may not be bothering the plant at all.

There is also a growing consensus on outer and inner leaves and how they work in coordination in canopies....it is all super interesting to a bio geek like myself. Happy growing and just wanted to get that out there for the discussion.

 

[Bassman59]

Now to begin the controversy!

Have you tried using a high defoliation technique with a specific plan towards it's outcome?

Theory is fine, but until you are experienced, it's just theory. Are you Experienced? Jimi Hendrix, 1967

 

[Cloudblood]

Impact of defoliation intensities on plant biomass, nutrient uptake and arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis

[h=3]Abstract[/h]'
The impact of different defoliation intensities on the ability of Lotus tenuis plants to regrowth, mobilise nutrients and to associate with native AM fungi and Rhizobium in a saline-sodic soil was investigated. After 70 days, plants were subjected to 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% defoliation and shoot regrowth was assessed at the end of subsequent 35 days. Compared to non-defoliated plants, low or moderate defoliation up to 75% did not affect shoot regrowth. However, 100% treatment affected shoot regrowth and the clipped plants were not able to compensate the growth attained by non-defoliated plants. Root growth was more affected by defoliation than shoot growth. P and N concentrations in shoots and roots increased with increasing defoliation while Na⁺ concentration in shoots of non-defoliated and moderately defoliated plants was similar. Non-defoliated and moderately defoliated plants prevented increases of Na⁺ concentration in shoots through both reducing Na⁺ uptake and Na⁺ transport to shoots by accumulating Na⁺ in roots. At high defoliation, the salinity tolerance mechanism is altered and Na⁺ concentration in shoots was higher than in roots. Reduction in the photosynthetic capacity induced by defoliation neither changed the root length colonised by AM fungi nor arbuscular colonisation but decreased the vesicular colonisation. Spore density did not change, but hyphal density and Rhizobium nodules increased with defoliation. The strategy of the AM symbiont consists in investing most of the C resources to preferentially retain arbuscular colonisation as well as inoculum density in the soil.'

....Defoliating affects roots....which try to become the breathing apparatus....I do a ton of Bio....Thing is unless your talking grains....defoliating is not much use.

 

[Bassman59]

Nice but that is a Lotus plant, a flowering plant of the pea family. Not a cannabis plant.

Again, Are you experienced?

What would you say to growers using this technique of hi defoliation, indoors, in hydro, harvested 15oz 9dry) of bud in a 32" square, 30 odd inch tall cannabis?