can you remove the fan leaves?

[xblackdogx]

If i cut all the leaves that don't produce bud off would anything different happen... i would cut it at a place that doesn't effect the branch that the flowering occurs on

xblackdogx Reviewed by xblackdogx on 12-17-2006. can you remove the fan leaves? If i cut all the leaves that don't produce bud off would anything different happen... i would cut it at a place that doesn't effect the branch that the flowering occurs on Rating: 5

[Perp]

I don't ever pull off leaves. I wait until they fall off on their own or it's clear that they will fall off soon.

If you pull off healthy leaves then the branch (and buds) that leaf fed will not grow as big as it would if you left it alone.

[GrowRebel]

Sound advice .... Let the plant decide when to remove the leaf .... you will know ... if you give it a gentle tug and it comes off, then it's time. They still need those healthy fan leaves.

Keep growing. :rastasmoke:

[xcrispi]

leave em alone unless your in like the 7-8th. week of flowering and even then i only remove the ones i cant tuck away that are blocking budsites . unneeded stress is always a bad thing .
crispi

[MisterE]

Never cut one off at the stem anyway. If for some reason you're going to remove a damaged leaf, chop the ends of it's fingers off, but leave the arm and the wrist and each finger up to the first knuckle, lol. Kinda strange analogy, but I think it works.

[xblackdogx]

okay.... i guess it's safe to say majority is: leave the fucking fan leaves alone...

I tied some fan leaves together and now there's much more light going to the budsies.

anyone know the ACTUAL FUNCTION of a fan leaf? that's the main thing my head is pondering about

[harris7]

Several reasons not to do it
1) stresses out plant as it needs to heal it’s wound = reduced yield
2) changes plants metabolism, = slows growth temporarily = reduced yield
3) The plant makes buds by burning sugars, sugars are created mostly in the fan leafs
4) The plant stores nutrients in the leafs which buffer your feeding and that will be used later in flowering
5) Evolutionary pressures selected good traits. Ie, the plant knows whats up

please run a search of the threads b4 you post.
This question has been answered probably hundreds of times,
If you run the search you’ll see

harris

[harris7]

anyone know the ACTUAL FUNCTION of a fan leaf? that's the main thing my head is pondering about

It is to photosynthesize.
Which is the process of taking CO2, Water and light energy and creating sugars the plan uses.

Isnâ??t this kind of obvious?

[ValkyrieAg]

I have some NL/BB females just starting week 2 in flower.

I pulled the ~27" tips over and tied some twine to the tip and a 3/8" drive socket to the end of it which rests on the floor. Your plant bends over and the branches start to develop. I feel that it is OK to remove fan leaves that are shielding these new growing tops/tips. If a plant has 50 fan leaves, it should be fine losing one or two for the advantage of getting more growing tops. I have one plant with ~6 fat tops. The mainstem is about 30" and I only clipped about 6 or 7 fan leaves. Well worth the loss of those to gain the new tops.