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:

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:

Here the plants are at day 42 of flowering, they have 're-bushed' while making a forest of flowering growth:

Here is a closer shot of 1 beauty at day 49:

Here is the crop standing at day 54, with all the fans off, just prior to being cut, and having a final close trim:

And the same day, a little closer:

And the cured crop in glass jars at the end:


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 ?