Quote Originally Posted by WidowMaker
I have been reading apparently contradictory statements concerning trimmming the shade leaves on growing plants...I have a very small cabinet (2.5' x 3') and currently 3 plants in the mid flowering stage...they are pretty close in there, and I thought it wise, after consultation w/several online sources, to trim some shade leaves...Then I started reading some contradictions, from Ed Rosenthal el al, suggesting the trimming has a price, oftentimes too steep of a price, ie, disease, stunting or even hermaphroditism...Nothing I can do now, having trimmed 2 dozen or so shade leaves, but in the future, should I clip these huge shade leaves, or leave them be???
Never cut shade/fan leaves I did an experiment on this subject in my early grow days, I had some bubble gum cuttings that I had let veg to a nice size they were about 3ft high very bushy and fairly uniform in growth and pattern I decided to prune the best looking one and stripped off most of the fan leaves can't remember exact yields but I can remember all the none pruned plants yielding significantly more than the poor old pruned girl, needless to say I never stripped the fan leaves off a plant again.

Trimming lower leaves and branches where the light cannot reach in the 2nd-3rd week of flowering is good practice or alternatively you can leave them, flower the top half of your plant then trim that off to harvest, then finish flowering the lower half of your plant, I found the lower bud seemed to be better in taste than the top bud:stoned: