should i trim leaves?

the reason why i ask this is because i went to go to play airsoft at our feild yesterday, and my friend showed me his plants, and to make a long stoey short i got kinda pissed because he has no knowledge of growing what so ever AT ALL... lol not usinf ferts or anything and his looks better then mine. by better i mean his main buds are fuller then mine...

is it really because he trimmed almost all of his leaves, i thought you needed them at this point in the plants life, someone please help me out, cause if this does actually work i wanna bring the clippers outside right away lol



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I normaly take off the "shade","water" leaves. If it has a stem, it comes off. Makes for more sunlight to get inside, and less leaves for the plant to need to feed. All energy is now focused on the buds. Good luck.

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Originally Posted by BOYZNUS

I normaly take off the "shade","water" leaves. If it has a stem, it comes off. Makes for more sunlight to get inside, and less leaves for the plant to need to feed. All energy is now focused on the buds. Good luck.

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but where does that energy come from........you guessed it, the leaves. i think of the as solar panels, the more the better.

Right. Leaves do not 'shade the buds'; they are the location where the bulk of teh sugars are produced- where the plant fixes atmospheric carbon into sugars that it then uses for energy and building blocks for its tissues and resins.

To reduce shade, trim the WEEDS around your plant! :jointsmile:

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Originally Posted by stinkyattic

Right. Leaves do not 'shade the buds'; they are the location where the bulk of teh sugars are produced- where the plant fixes atmospheric carbon into sugars that it then uses for energy and building blocks for its tissues and resins.

To reduce shade, trim the WEEDS around your plant! :jointsmile:

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well i always used to go by your word stinky, so i guess your saying dont trim them at all. thats what i was thinking but he was like "no man its so much better" phhhhh i knew he was wrong lol

actually, ive gown both ways, trimming and leaving the sun leaves. what ive found over 25 years of growing is that i DONT TRIM THEM OFF until about 2-3 weeks BEFORE harvest. ive noticed that when i trim them, the buds (i know they usually blow up to some extent with the last two weeks or so) seem to get quite a bit bigger and tighter.

it CAN BE a double edged sword though, depending on what strain your growing. some strains ive done like that make gorgeous clean buds UNLESS you trim the sun leaves, then the buds themselves seem to throw off WAY more smaller leaves intertwined in them.


this system works for me, BUT id also listen to what stinky says. while havent been here long ive read alot of his stuff and he seems to know probably more than me ( or at at least AS MUCH as me...LOL.....) so id seriously consider what hes saying. what works for me isnt always whats gonna work for the next fellow

Bump to what above posters said. Do not cut the leaves unless they are burnt up or almost dead. If I were you I would try bending fan leaves out of the way of the buds. Some hydro stores sell clips that are used for SCROG and LST purposes. I've never tried them but I am sure either these or mouth floss will do the trick on bending the leaves out of the way.

I use twist ties for bending, works great and you can find them anywhere.

BTW, Stinky is a woman...

That's some good info, but what about purple leaves? Like the blueberry I'm growing for the first time got several purple fan leaves and seems to dried up already.