Trimming Fan Leaves

[FERMENTATION]

Dissolve the fertilizer in worm water and spray the mixture directly onto the foliage. The leaves absorb the fertilizer into their veins. If you want to continue to put fertilizer into the soil as well as leaf feeding, be sure not to overdose your plants.[/B][/U]

Are you saying "worm water" like worm casting tea? Or was that a typo ment to say "warm water"?

Not meaning to nit pick, just want to be clear as to what exactly you had good results with when foliar feeding.

Peace

[Sparrow]

I found many good sites on google regarding them both and I was going to post them for you but my pc crashed.

[rodekyll]

yeah -- what is worm water? It doesn't sound like anything I want to eventually smoke . . .

. . .and sorry about the brain fart in my previous post. I had meant to say "elevated acid" not "elevated ph".
I keep the ph between 6.5 and 7.0. My emperical studies tell me that within reason, higher ph levels make for a more vital plant -- right up to where you plug up burn the roots out from under them. I've gone on about salts in other posts, I won't here.

But I digress . . . Fan leaves are placed by design where they are for reasons. They store water and food in caches along the length of the plant. Just like it's easier for fish to climb a fish ladder than jump a waterfall, or a worker to move a ton one pound at a time, it's easier for the plant to "hand" what it needs from one leaf level to the next than it is to pump it straight from the roots to the growing tip. That's what you're causing to happen if you get too crazy cutting off sun leaves. Makes for an unhappy camper.

If you look at a plant closely, you'll notice that the nodes aren't really set opposite each other. They generally have a right-handed -- though sometimes left-handed -- upward spiral. Being left-handed myself, I notice these things. (factor handedness into your genetic theories, guys!) Messing with the progression of leaves ultimately messes with the orderly uptake of nutes, especially during "shock" events such as drought, forgetting to fertilize, salting up, heatstroke, etc.

Having said that, I advocate bending and kinking plants in small space to grow them horizontal. It's the length of the plant, not the height that makes the difference, and you can literally wind up a pot plant like you wind the base of an antenna, getting many feet of stem more than you have ceiling space. This and a lot of other growing methods have the unintentional side effect of benefiting from trimming the leaves I just told you why you shouldn't trim. Since you're growing horizontal, there are no big steps from one node to the next, and the plant isn't working as hard to suck up food. Also, roughly a third of the leaves and branches along the main stem won't get a chance to grow upward and will suffer for lack of light. They'll also get balled up together, hold moisture, and breed disease and flies. So I cut them off and toss them in a bag to extract essential oils out of later in the year.

Bottom line is it depends on how you grow and why you might be wanting to cut leaves. The plants speak. They will tell you they're done with the leaf when they suck all the goodness out of it and let it go necrotic. But if you think it's gonna have a net positive effect on the plant due to environment or technique, go ahead and cut them. But during "dry" times, NEVER CUT LEAVES FROM GROWING PLANT FOR SMOKING!!! It's not fair to the plants, your yield, or your lungs.

[rodekyll]

crap -- that should have read "higher acid levels" way up there where I didn't proofread . . . :error:

stupid typonese keyboards :stoned:

or maybe it's the puppy chow

(takes another hit):rasta:

[Earthy Dank]

Forget about the worm water... Just use regular pH nuetral water.

[Dutch Pimp]

Since we'll on the subject, all my fan leaves dried up and fell off just before harvest. Bud was great. I kept the plants VERY dry, two weeks before harvest. Is this normal? Flowered 60 days - some fan leaves- 75 days-very few fan leaves- 90 days- no fan leaves left! I like the couchlock weed!

[stinkyattic]

Since we'll on the subject, all my fan leaves dried up and fell off just before harvest. Bud was great. I kept the plants VERY dry, two weeks before harvest. Is this normal? Flowered 60 days - some fan leaves- 75 days-very few fan leaves- 90 days- no fan leaves left! I like the couchlock weed!

I believe that is in fact perfecly normal. That has been my experience anyway. Think about it; you've been withholding nitrogen for 90 days, it's a mobile nutrient, it's getting sucked out of the old leaves and into the buds.

The dryness too- When I've let crops get really dry at the end I've really liked the result.

[latewood]

Wow, I cannot believe all the mis-information in this thread! some of you have good ideas, but some of you are full of crap...Sorry!

the fan leaves are necessary to uptake oxygen.

Fan leaves are responsible for drawing nutrients...to the top of the plant. If you cut all your fan leaves off. It is like cutting your drip lines short of your netpots and letting the nute solution bleed out all over the floor.

Fan leaves are also built-in temp monitor/stablizers...

If we both veg a plant, and I just grow mine without topping it or hacking off (butchering) the Fan leaves and you decide to top and trim, then top new growth and trim, and again top all the new growth and trim, etc. etc...
You're plant is not going to be growing, because it will be transferring all it's energy to repair the damage; And, then to grow new shoots....All the while My healthy will be flowering beautiful Buds.

Growing is all about creating optimum photosynthesis...
Once you hack a plant all up...Optimum photosynthesis is hard to achieve...peace

lw

[m.g.]

L-dub, this comes up like every other month and i have no idea how it ever got started. no book i know of mentions anything about trimming fan (some call em sugar or sun leaves too) leaves off yet some know-it-all comes along every time it comes up talking about the light needs to be right there! it especially amazes me hearing outdoor growers doing this insane act! this method of drying them out during the last couple weeks before harvest is something i do however and i encourage others to at least try it on a partial crop and see for themselves after the cure is finished. i think it makes for a better end-product, in my experiences. but never take off healthy leaves, especially if removing shade is the only reason...

[YaddaYaddaYadda247]

I dont trim mine. Some of the bottom ones are yellowing 3 weeks into the flowering process, oh well!