To prune or not ?

[driftwood]

Was wondering every ones take on pruning fan leaves . I like to let them stay if they appear healthy . I myself haven't seen more than a dozen grows in my life that weren't my own . Most my buddies hack them . While poking through here in the gallery it seems as though quite a few more do extensive pruning near the harvest point . If you do prune please explain why and its benefits .
Much love .

[hashcat]

I like to prune all lower growth (anything from about halfway down each branch) do concentrate growth on the tops.

However Ive never removed fan leaves at any point until they had turned fully yellow and bout to drop anyways. Always been interested though to see what peoples results when pruning to let more light through the last couple weeks.

[lepstadder]

Ive never removed fan leaves at any point until they had turned fully yellow and bout to drop anyways. word .

[dee189]

I think that taking out fan leaves that are blocking out light to lower buds is essential. I also believe in completely chopping off some of the lower branches (lollipoping) they never get enough light to produce quality bud,mostly just popcorn bud. It also concentrates the plants energy to the top of the plant were the light is sufficient to produce big,dense buds. Some varieties it is a must to get some of the fan leaves out of the way,especially when you have tight inter nodal structure.
Don't worry about all that talk that fan leaves are solar panels that make sugar that give the plant energy to grow, this is true but too many leaves can be more detrimental to producing quality bud than to little fan leaves. Use common sense , don't strip off every last leaf, but get the ones that are blocking out light from lower bud sites.
Also during flushing, the last 2 weeks for soil or the last 3-7 days for hydro, it is a good idea to take all the fan leaves off it will help the plant to flush out quicker. Thats what I think you are seeing from other people on this site.
I say just use common sense, if you got a dense bush that light and air can't penetrate, make the plant happy, it looks good it probably is. Balance is the key my friend.

[YukonBikerGuy]

These plants vegged 'for a while' in the floro veg room, and then were placed under the HID lights for a week of hard vegging before triggering flowering. here they are on day 1 of 12/12 with all leaves intact:
http://www.fullmeltbubble.com/gallery/files/5/1/6/day1aMedium.JPG
Here they are on day 3 of flowering, recieving a severe pruning, removing all branches and leaves that would impede airflow and/or produce little of quality by harvest time:
http://www.fullmeltbubble.com/gallery/files/5/1/6/day3aMedium_315601.JPG
Here the plants are at day 42 of flowering, they have 're-bushed' while making a forest of flowering growth:
http://www.fullmeltbubble.com/gallery/files/5/1/6/Day42cMedium.JPG
Here is a closer shot of 1 beauty at day 49:
http://www.fullmeltbubble.com/gallery/files/5/1/6/Day49hMedium.jpg
Here is the crop standing at day 54, with all the fans off, just prior to being cut, and having a final close trim:
http://www.fullmeltbubble.com/gallery/files/5/1/6/Day54Medium.JPG
And the same day, a little closer:
http://www.fullmeltbubble.com/gallery/files/5/1/6/Day54bMedium.JPG
And the cured crop in glass jars at the end:
http://www.fullmeltbubble.com/gallery/files/5/1/6/JarredRYKMedium.JPG

You can see that beyond the initial pruning to increase yield at the start of flowering, all leaves were pretty much left alone. That said, if a huge fan leaf from the top cola, or the first 'crown' or level of buds, is shading a large grouping of developing buds in the first or second crown, I will first try to rearrange the leaves a bit to unshade, and as a last resort, remove 1, or possibly 2 leaves, but no more. It is too easy to say " oh, and that 1, and just that 1 more..... ect... to the point where you have removed a large portion of the solar panels powering the bud making machine. (there, I said it, happy? :) )

Balance is key, but error on the side of bushiness.... In My Humble Opinion.

YBG

[dee189]

Great post, your plants are perfect, exactly what I was talking about when I said balance is everything . But imagine you sent those babies to bud without doing that major trim job you did at end of vegging. They would be more than bushy. At one point you just got to get in there man, and get snipping. that's all I'm saying.
peace, Dee189

[Razz]

i call it selective pruning..fan leaves i remove to increase light to the lower branches and also to increase air flow. i'm not to worried about removing some leaves, when you grow trees there's lot of leaves leftover so it wont hurt the plant, but if your plants are smaller be even more selective. i ask 3 questions when i am about i am move a leaf, 1. is this leaf damaged or blocking light, or preventing air flow...if the answer is yes, then i cut it. by the end of your harvest all those fan leaves should have turned yellow and been pruned off already. hope this helps.

[YukonBikerGuy]

Yes, most of the fans in that crop were yellow and dry or yellowing and about ready to drop off anyway when I removed them at day 54. I flush well so my crops turn all sorts of non-green colors at the end, mostly yellow, but also shades of orange, red, burgundy and purple. I also prefer to remove dead dry leaves as they occur, purley athstetic.

[fullmeltbubble]

the plant derives its energy from the leaves....

[dee189]

how much energy do you need ?

[OnlyHighGrade]

one of the most informative threads i've seen on fmb in awhile. thanks for your contributions YBG. great pics! merry krismus everyone!

[f0urtwenty]

as many others have said, i too prune the undergrowth as stretch is finishing up but not as aggressively as the pics above. i leave the sun/sugar leaves until a slight tug will remove them. depending on strain, the amount of N will eventually determine when this is, typically weeks 6+ (and also other variables, such as the amount of moisture within the plant). as far as the undergrowth becoming 'popcorn' nugs, that may be the case when the grow room has become overgrown, however with supplementing co2, the popcorn nugs become dense and it becomes beneficial to your grams/watt efficiency to keep them. for once i'm keeping good tabs on my yields during this harvest and it's looking at tad over 1.2g/w while keeping some lower growth & supplementing co2.


i'm gunna create a sig one day and the bottom will say "as always, my two cents".

[rastailly951]

great pics YBG and thanks to everyone for their useful input

[hashcat]

YBG how early do you do that final trim before chop????

i have NEVER seen buds that trimmer while still in the soil...but you buds look perfectly fine. how do you collect you trim when its still attached with roots?????

[YukonBikerGuy]

I took those pictures, put down the camera, and harvested that room right then.

I find that taking all the fans off before a final trim keeps the big (mostly non-frosty) leaves out of my quality trim that I use for making primo bubblehash, and it also reduces the total trimming time for each plant for after they are cut.

I cut them and do the close trimming over a table, then hang the buds on suspended lines to begin the drying and then curing processes. In the past I have actually tried to do all close trimming while the plants were still standing, but it was unwieldly and made a mess. Not worth pursuing further IMO.

[hashcat]

i dont know if we understood each other but i mean how early do you remove all the big leaves before harvesting? i.e how long are the plants in the soil without fans

[YukonBikerGuy]

I took off the fans 1 day, took the pictures and cut them down the next day. They wont live long at that advanced ripeness without leaves.....

[hashcat]

k thats what i thought and was wondering how long they could live like that. so do you think the fan leave pull aids in flushing or just easier for trimming?

[Green Supreme]

He removes them so they are not part of the material he uses to make hash. Least that's what I got out of what he wrote. Peace GS

[YukonBikerGuy]

I have done it up to 3 days in advance of cutting, it wont aid flushing, just make final trimming easier.