The proper time to lollypop is the subject of this message.

I have been thinking about this a lot since making this series of posts with you and wanted to share something that I have recently learned in my tent. Prior to this, if you has asked me if you should trim fan leaves and clean up under the canopy after flower has started, I would have said no. I would have based my answer on needing to keep from stressing the girls and probably would have been quite adamant in my answer.

Today I realized that I had found an exception to what I thought was a rule. My room was getting a bit crowded. Although trimmed before they went into the flowering tent 4 weeks ago, massive side growth had occurred under the canopy and was dying off due to a lack of light. Some of this, especially in the back of the room was getting out of hand, being hard to reach, and I had been relying on my 2 oscillating fans in the room to keep mold issues down. Things were remaining dry underneath, but I started to notice that one of the girls was yelling at me... fan leaves were curling up and dying at the canopy level! This was not good, and I suspected that I may have a mold problem, so I went to work.

Attachment 287823

Luckily, this was not mold, it was just the plants trying as hard as they could to get rid of these now inefficient and unneeded fan leaves. My general rule is that if something is in the way and the plants want it gone, it will turn brown and fall off. This works pretty well in nature, but not in our tents. hmmm.

The problem here is that inside of our tents, we are missing out on a very vital component that in nature, allows the plants to cast off these larger leaves, and essentially lollypop themselves as we near the middle of the flowering period. That vital component is random and sometimes violent wind. The larger fan leaves naturally collect much more of that violent wind when it happens, and they are removed as needed.


In our tents we create breezes, but it is a regular and repetitive movement, and not nearly as violent as sometimes happens in nature. Sometimes we have to help our plants out when things get overcrowded. So today I did just that. I cleaned out under the canopy quite thoroughly and removed all of the largest fan leaves, especially any that were beginning to turn. I have always thought it better to not shock the girls when in flower, but today I drastically broke my pattern and went crazy with the scissors. All that is left now are the buds that I expect to make it to harvest with a decent size. Airflow and light penetration is better than I have ever achieved at this point, and I pray that the girls will forgive me for this one morning of a thousand cuts and will now concentrate all of their energy right where I want it. I do believe that something important has just made it's way into my head here, but of course I could have just killed them all too. I will keep you posted and here are the pictures:

Attachment 287824Attachment 287825