Removing old fan leaves on autoflower cannabis plants .

[orion7769]

Hey guys, again it's me with another question about my grow. Most of my plants are at day 37 from seed (4 thc bomb, 4 cosmic bomb, 4 cherry bomb all autos ) and started the pre-flower stretch at the begining of the week and i was wondering are there any benefits of removing fan leaves, except for light penetration. I already removes some on some of the plants that were bushier and what i want to open up abit and they all look fine. Those big fan leaves at the bottom, that are still lush and healthy but are not receiving any light still important for the plant ?
PS: I removed only the leaves, without the stems for less stress, however the plants seems to be very resilient, cuz two of them are thriving with broken main stem and one is with cut-off main stem. Thanks

[Farmall]

Personally, I’d try to tuck the leaves under others to open the plant. Try using tie downs to pull it open or even thin dowel sticks to spread the plant apart. You can pluck a few leaves but remember, autoflowers have their own agenda to flower quickly and not keep vegging to produce leaves. Once you remove a solar collector,( leaf), you will reduce the amount of photosynthetic food you supply to the plant. A few won’t hurt though. Just plan accordingly. Your plants look good... bushy and good👍 The floor is clean, what kind of show are you running ? 😉

[SoOrbudgal]

I agree with Farmall on the approach with autos and removing leaf. I keep looking at my little Berry auto it's stacked pretty tight nodes lots of small suger leaf very few large fans like you have.

[orion7769]

Personally, I’d try to tuck the leaves under others to open the plant. Try using tie downs to pull it open or even thin dowel sticks to spread the plant apart. You can pluck a few leaves but remember, autoflowers have their own agenda to flower quickly and not keep vegging to produce leaves. Once you remove a solar collector,( leaf), you will reduce the amount of photosynthetic food you supply to the plant. A few won’t hurt though. Just plan accordingly. Your plants look good... bushy and good👍 The floor is clean, what kind of show are you running ? 😉

Thanks guys, your advices here are much appreciated. Currently running 3 4x4 tents with 600w hps on a digital balast with air cooled hoods by 1 6 inch inline fan, with carbon filters in the tent plugged with another 6 inch inline fan, one oscillating fan in each tent (i will put one more) and an AC in the room where everything is happening. Current grow is in soil, 20 l compo sana soil in 15 l air pots. I'm not very experienced, since this is my 7th grow.

[Farmall]

Damn, I’d call that some reasonable experience ... unless you had you eyes closed. Sound like you’re under control.... keep posting your net results...it helps everyone

[Canuck147]

And I'm on the other side - snip snip - take off the leaves that are blocking branches underneath - encourages those branches to zoom up.
When I say branches - I mean those those that are just underneath with pistils at the ends.
Don't have to trim all the plants - just those that need it.
If you have 2 similar plants that you think need trimming - trim one and not the other - see what happens.
We're pretty much rocket scientists conducting various experiments - doesn't hurt to mix it up.
Just pay attention to the ones you trim - if any - see how they respond. Some strains will go all droopy and pout for days before they bounce back- other strains don't miss a beat and actually improves their growing ability.

[RagWeedDWC]

This is my approach, keep it clean underneath and spread out as much as possible, snip off anything blocking what I let continue to grow.

[dilvish]

Nebula suggests in one of her tutorials that the lower half of the plant is where the fan leaves should be trimmed. I would venture to guess the upper ones be left alone as mentioned to be the "light collectors". If the leaves are really big on top i tend to just rotate my plants at every watering to expose the plant to all angles of the lights.

[Booger789]

I water usually every 3 to 5 days, I grow in soil only. I pull each plant to look it over, prune a little if need be, water and or feed, then back into the tent rotated from what it was. But I do take a few leaves here in there from the top of the plant to let some light to get to the younger chutes at the top of the plant. I do this to photos and autos. And I have been pleased with my results. Just don’t go crazy pruning and you will be fine. I usually prune the leaves that I know will gro towards the interior of the plant.

[JohnEmad]

You have far more growing experience then I do so I will save my trimming comments as i am still experimenting and learning every grow.
I did just win some Bomb seeds and have 5 each of the thc bomb & cosmic bomb seeds on their way.
Hope you keep posting your grow.

[orion7769]

Ok guys, i will post a quick observation. I noticed that, where i pulled leaves, the plant just spurted it's grow there. New small branches appear, and the old ones seems to grow as well. And i mean something like 5 cm in a day. I believe that this has probably something to do with the hormonal reaction of the plant, more than with the light, because this is not the case, with the plants with tucked leaves. I will post few pictures in a day or two.

[Canuck147]

Here's my Platinum Kush - I took off 4 sets of 2 leaves each early on to let the underneath branches grow up. I have cut off many more since. She is about halfway through flowering - 30 or 40 more days to let the buds swell.

[GreenState]

Canuck147 I tend to follow a similar approach as yours. I continuously defoliate trying to get light to the lower buds. Generally also stripping at least 2 sets of fan leaves below the top. Like to end up with three larger leaves on the top and avoid them pointing in. I probably go overboard. You can see the new "stars" being born on the lower canopy. This one wasn't topped, so I'm not used to having a center top to deal with

[Canuck147]

Looks exactly like what I would do to it - sorry Orion for hijacking your post. Pics always help.