trimming shade leaves???

[ozsmoka]

hey peeples
I see the shadeleaves as solar panels. may be the safe amount to trim is goverened by the light available. logic tells me that a plant must be able to survive natural predators attacking them. if trimming of leaves is dictated by amount of light maybe different hemisphere strains react differantly to pruning.
I grow outdoor. I have found I can prune to make bushy plants but growth overall is definately retarded. Stress seems to govern hermaphoriditism 75%.The only safe way to take shadeleaves is till wait till budding occurs and remove yellow leaf- but by then its to late if your growing in ltd space. I prune very moderately from time to time seems to be okay. I'd suggest try strains with diff light requirements. Eventualy youll find a genetic match for the type of growing you require.
Dont beleive everything you read. Best to experiance.
peas

[Colombian Chronik]

Dunno, I wouldn't prune or trim shade leaves, but topping the plant at the right time causes it to produce 2 colas at the top, not something I'd do if you got a lot of headspace in your grow room, but if you stealth growing in a small cupboard, or doing a scrog, topping is worth it, as I understand it (I'm a pretty novice grower myself, but I recon I've probably read a whole oxford english dictionarys worth of grow tips, it's often hard to tell the good advice from the bad, since a lot of authors seem to just recycle the work of earlier authors without actually testing themselves). Hopefully as time passes, more growers will post here, as the only real way to learn directly from folks who've tried it, experience beats 'book learnin' any day.

Oh, sorry, and I don't mean to contradict you, bonbon, just adding my take on it (I'm in a bit of a bolshy mood, so I've probably forgotten my socail graces)

tell me more about this forming 2 colas thing. it sounds like it mihgt work for me. PAZ

[Disco]

I always think of the sun leaves as solar panels and if you cut the the big solar panels off then somthing has to slow down .
I never done it coz i always had this thought and wouldn,t argue.
Mind i,ve heard of this many times b4 in different books and posts.

[david420]

trim too many -no way for the plant to make it's food and too much stress they'll go hermy. trim too little - some of the buds wont develop as much as they could cuz of lack of sunlight.
just trim a few of them so the lower buds get a little more sunlight but not too much.. lol

[Boojum]

The multiple colas thing is that if, while the plant is still vegging, you top off the growing tip of the plant, it will cause the plant to branch, and produce 2 growing tops. When you flower, each of the growing tops will form into a cola (group of buds), giving you two main colas instead of one, but they won't grow as big or fast, so it's more suited for growers with a limited growing height.

[MVilleToker]

This is my first time growing , plus im 15 and dont reallly know alot bout prunning so cood you explain how 2 top the plant off.

[jolly green giant]

Don't ever trim the shade leaves, they make the plants food so the bud can grow nice n big, and trimming may overstress the plant & turn it hermy.

i think i agree. ive trimmed plants mid flower and had some weird results compared to the same plants of a crop that havent been trimmed. slow growth and hermies, and some where seed pods appear at the junction of stems.

[sawleaf]

The only time I ever trim off any of them really is during the flowering. But very moderately. Usually one leave per plant every few days, and just the ones that are shading the buds from good light.

[magneslee]

light, light, light, if light is geting to the bottem of your plant then your good , but i dont hesitate one second to grab the clippers durring flowering , the plants light needs decrease at an increasing rate and the need for the flower pedel to get the light this perduces nice big buds , sorround your plant in mylar or go down to home depo or wallmart , and pick up some florecent bulb mounts and put tubes that are made for groing ( not the floresent bulbs that usaliy go in them ) and put thease on the side of your plant to ad light , do not put them lower then half of the size of your plant tho , if you place them to low you will confuse your plant and stun it

[rickone]

man,......i always keep the fan leaves cut, this allows more light to come in...i've never had any problems,...however, look @ plants EVERYDAY....for males,...when one shows kill it....
rickone