Itâ??s probably not the best idea. I've grown with pruning and without. Like people say, â??the fan leaves act like solar panels for the buds, feeding them energy. Unless the bottom buds have significantly strong branching then they will never become very big. You'd be better off adding side lighting of some kind.
The next bit is unproven but I've noticed that if you prune leaves, the buds grow more little fan leaves to help perform photosynthesis. These little fan leaves aren't as resinous and take away growing energy from tight resin packed buds.
I believe you should keep your fan leaves as healthy as possible during the entire veg and flowering stages. Add side lighting and/or increase reflectivity, LST, top, scrog, sog your grows for increased yields.
elcheapo Reviewed by elcheapo on . Pruning... do you do it? Hey everyone, My girls are 24 days into flowering. The buds on top are growing nice and big, but the ones on the bottom are still puny. Post a reply and tell me if you prefer to prune off the bottom crappy branches to focus energy on the good buds, or if you just let them all grow. I want to do whats best for the plants (but a little sample smoke would be nice too :D ). Thanks for the input! joe. Rating: 5