Quote Originally Posted by med-user
thats an interesting point. so C.C. your saying with a spidermite infestation in bloom, your more prone to bud rought, and mold or am i reading that wrong, and what about sativa plants to me they grow so bushy with nodes real close. thats what i have noticed anyway it seams like if i prune the older leaves off and let the younger leaves get more light they grow better, and it takes alot of the older leaves that are mite infested away from the fresh growth.
The moisture causes the bud rot not the mites. As for what to remove it's your call you want to save as many leaves as possible. The only time I remove a leaf is when one is super infested and the rest are not so bad, even then I try to only remove blades. I know how tempted you are to get light to those buds but cutting fan leaves won't make them grow bigger it does the opposite.You fan leave are your power houses and store mobile nutrients for when the is a deficiency in the new growth. I like the vaccuum idea but be careful, it's probably pretty stressful.