Lesser of 2 evils

[dedheded777]

Good morning all, or however you self-identify the time of day it is where you are smh...anyway good day. Query, what do you all think would be worse for a plant? Removing about 10 to 20 percent of its fan leaves only down low or the powdery mildew that is inevitably going to occur as there is already "sweat" on the leaves where 2 overlap. I loathe stunting by defoliation but fear ruination by mildew. These are autos so my window is small. I keep hoping for more stretching which I feel would spread the leaves enough to cure the problem but with flowering kicking in I'm not holding my breath. I've tied the limbs apart as far as I can to no avail. In some places there are as many as 4 leaves one on top of the other, none of them receiving any light at all anyway. Almost man hand sized leaves. I have excellent air exchange and a light fan on them at all times night and day. So, risk possible mildew or risk stunting. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[DW2]

Howdy dedheaded777, I have not had (so far, knock on wood!) any powdery mildew on any of my plants. I do not defoliate much at all, the plant naturally 'sheds off' the lower leaves as less light gets to them. I keep two 8 inch oscillating fans going in the grow room 24/7 to help keep the 'sweating' down. I do cut some leaves off, if I can not fold and tuck them out of the way, to keep the light shinning on the bud sites. I do, though, trim off leaves that got too close to the lamps and show 'bleaching' damage, but generally I do not like to cut good leaves off of the plants. I'm helped out by the fact that in my location, we have low relative humidity, it normally averages around 20% to 35% (unless it is raining).
Good luck with Your grow.

[PRIMO]

I am not an auto grower,but I believe that trimming some leaves stimulates growth not stunt it. With that being said, Green 75 is the expert, see what he has to say about it.

[Canuck147]

If you find leaves with white powdery dusty shit on them, cut them away. I have no problems with defoliating my plants, the growth you get back is worth it.

[PuravidaC]

Keep humidity around 40% or lower if possible during flower. That will go a long way helping to prevent mildew. I have always removed overlapping fan leaves but start slow with autos.

[KingKush]

I grow in one of the most cool, wet places available. My garage is 100% humidity the majority of the day and I fight WPM like nobody's business. If you look at my plants they are fine and I think as long as you maintain a little heat in the air mixed with a breeze you will do fine. Sweat happens it doesn't guarantee anything. The disease triangle is: HOST, PATHOGEN, ENVIRONMENT. It's always around you and you always have the plants so no matter what you do there is susceptibility especially when you consider that WPM attacks from the inside out. Keep your plants healthy and if you see some attacking your grow then sure, prune your leaves off.

DangerDan wrote an article which explained the difference between pruning
leafing
defoliation

Pruning is essential! Leafing is taking it to a technique and defoliation is the thing that people like to debate about lol.

Prune some leaves so they aren't all overlapping and make sure you get your room warm and dry. I grow WPM for a living and it's a marginal problem that won't cause much of a headache. Easy to solve and it's preventable.

[Potted]

I trim off only the leaves that blocks my buds, autos included.Lol

[GreenhouseEffect]

If you have several stuck together and there is no airflow around them, I would at least prune those out of there. They provide a place for things like spider mites and Bud Rot to take hold, and like you said, your not really gaining anything with them anyhow.