FAN LEAVES

Day 19 into 12/12.....the ladies have started maturing around a week ago....all the tops have started filling up with trichomes....i cannot count them in total....i have no access no more....the space 6x3 is filled up with branches and tops popping out from 4 large indicas.....in a corner i have another 3 of them in the same stage, budding, but these are the small ones, these will go first in about 2-3 weeks time....for testers.....
my question this time is:When is it wise to cut the fan leaves that cover the growing buds that exist in the middle of the plant.....when is it safe enough so as bud production will not stop? In two days will post some pics....3 weeks into 12/12.....i am a happy daddy already.... :)

also one more thing.....when do i have to stop using the fans blowing air on them? if i continue using them at the lower levels, between the pots will that be ok? i figure that if the air still circulates the chances for mold will be reduced.....what do you think?

hey there, i'm coming upon ending week 5 and am a bit ahead of you. i'm not sure what others would say, but i've cut ANY fan leaves if it is shading a flower, my opinion is that the flower has leaves around it and so i give the flower light priority over fan leaves. if i cannot move the fan leave out of the way, then i cut it. there have been NO negative reactions, growing is going good....also my plant is going ot have major yields so i threw my time into 10-14 with two extra hours of dark from 12/12. i can see that the buds have expedited themselves in just two days. i know some people may say to wait in 12/12 and keep the fan leaves until they start to die off, but i've done the opposite on both and all is going VERY well.

as for stopping that fan..... i've never heard of a tiem when you "should' stop blowing air them, so i'll also wait to see if anyone has opinions on that....

thanx kuri.....going to manicure some leaves 2nite :)

Your plant still uses the fan leafs. Just tuck them out of the way instead of pruning them. You can even tie them up out of the way if you need to.

The only leafs you really chop off is the yellow and dead ones the others are still providing use for the rest of the plant.

Peace

i agree with you zandor on what you said.... however, what if you have fan leaves that put too much shade over your buds so then you decide to 'tuck' them somewhere and they don't get any light? then it is a leaf that will not get light or one that will cover light from the buds....well, i can say that i've used the Low Stress Training to my plants so all parts of the plants are growing fast and ever the bottom buds are going good and have leaves around the bud.....

bottom line with my way of thinking is the advice i got from famous Ask ED book. i like ED as he is the master of growing.... he said plain and simply that if the fan leaves are blocking light from the buds and there is no other good place to put them, then go ahead and cut it off as it is most important to have the flowers get the light...

hi old smoker and everyone, i would advise not to trim any leaves unless there dieing, the plants fan leaves are there to absorb the energys from the light, buds will grow ok under them, yes buds need light, but so do the leaves, remember, your growing buds on a plant, not plants on a bud, without leaves your plants only source of energy is from the water and feed that you give it, it needs that light bro, dont be conserned that there blocking light to those lower buds, everybody that grows should know that buds dont realy put on too much mass and resin build up untill the last wekk or so anyway, and thats when the leaves die off natrauly, if you got it nearly right then things will happen natrauly, sure you can prune the odd leef here and there, but if you get a bit happy with you knife then be carefull peeps, you can premote male jender on a female plant if ya shock her to much, if they concern you to much then tie them, but dont stop them from getting light also, if you find at the end of ya grow that you got to much leaves, then think about another plant, or breed into your plant a gene that premotes less leaf on a plant, its not that difficult, just takes a bit of time bro, be luckey

anyways , thanx for ur replies ppl......i have already cut a few fan leaves as they were blocking the light reaching around two-three bud sites.....i lfollowed kuris' advice as it seems more logical to me as I did LST as well and have branches and leaves everywhere....i must have cut around 5 fan leaves from 3 four foot plants.....no harm done....one more thing is that practically each plant of the 4 big ones grows with 200 watts of HPS (if you consider that i have 4 giants under 2x400 HPS) so they get all the light they need i guess.....one more thing i notice is that the watering become more often lately....day 20 today..... thanx again evreryone , take care :)

yeah, i got a 400W HPS and and flowering into week 5 now and i notice that in my 5 gallon REZ that about 3-4 days after i put a new 5 gallons of water and nutes, that i have to add another almost full gallon of water to top it off. so the plant absorbs all that water and nutes plus the little bit of evaporation that occurs... i keep a gallon container around with premixed nutes to top off the REZ so the plant does not go hungry.

yes, with the LST method, i agree with you newgroweroldsmoker that the branches and leaves are bunched up in a different way when they are adapting to their new trained place. but do you notice the leaves around the bud and in the bud on the lower limbs growing faster and bigger? that is because they are receiving direct light just like the top buds are.... good luck on your grow and we'll meet up again here as it seems we are in the same flow in our grow. later

logical or not, it's never a good idea to remove the fan leaves before harvest unless they're diseased or dying. i have read many grow books over the years (not to mention a couple decades of experience) and not a one recommends trimming them. in fact, just the opposite. the plant needs every inch of leaf space especially in the lower light conditions of indoor growing.
next time do a test...pluck em off of half while leaving the other half alone. you will find bigger and denser flowers on the leafier plants...iow, bigger yield with a better product.