Can you cut leaves off?

[Flange]

Just wanted to know if/when I can cut some of the big leaves that seem to be blocking/shading the light to the little stems at the bottom of the plant ...its getting really bushy and crowded in there if you know what i mean... and can i cut and prune the plant as it grows ?

 

Thanks anyway

 

Peace

[F420]

I would prefer that you didnt, The leaf contains the plant energy source.

If its covering anything then move it sideways or whatever but dont remove them.

[sLiM sHiFty]

id agree with ferengi ... you'd probably be better off training it to grow sideways if your really concerned about the bottom of the plaant getting more light penetration.

[Flange]

Cool thanks guys, ill jus have to get the pipe cleaners out an do some adjusting.

 

Peace

[Luke Skywalker]

I would definitely agree with the above sentiments. The only exception for removing leaves is imho when they've fully yellowed and begun to abscise, (drop off at the base of the leaf stem, or petiole). These, and other dead leaves, should be removed when dropping to prevent any potential moulding.

 

I also would have to say that you can trim the undercanopy as the plants grow, removing the shitty undergrowth that never reaches the main growth zone that the lamps reach, and thus concentrating growth in the upper parts of the plant, i.e. the buds. This should be done carefully though, and over time, as there's no sense in removing too much material, all at once and shocking the plants.

 

It also helps to remember that only 18% of the light hitting a leaf surface is actually being captured, the rest is passing straight through to the leaf below, which takes another 18%, and so on. This might not seem like much, but once you get down to the bottom of the plant, where all the leaves on top have created a dense canopy, you can have very little light getting through. This is of course sometimes an advatage, but it also means you can't really get any benifits to plant health from the foliage down there. IMHO of course.

 

There is of course the issues around humidity too, and this means you should try and keep the individual colas to a certain minimum distance from each other, and not touching each other. If they're too densely spaced, and there's no oscillating or other kind of undercanopy ventilation blowing air through this zone, then they can quickly develop moulds and you lose the lot. Course, if you've got ventilation and air movement under control, and you train well, this needn't be an issue.

 

Hope that helps.

[Flange]

Thanks Luke Skywalker, all this info is much appreciated as these are my very first set of plants and im experimenting and triend diff things to each to see how they react and hopefully learn afew things along the way.

 

Also jus another question.... would growing under fluros slow down the whole proccess from seed till bud by heaps?, i mean is it the more light= the faster they grow?

[Luke Skywalker]

Yeeeessss... but the actual process of stimulating flowering is daylength, or really, nightlength. When the photoperiod is 18 hours light and 6 hours dark, or even as high as 24 hours light and 0 dark hours, then the plants are in a state of vegetative growth. The responsible hormone is called phytochrome, and it builds up in the plant the longer the dark period lasts, as it cannot be synthesised in light.

 

When the photoperiod reaches a critical point in either autumn in outdoors, or indoors when we switch lighting to 12hours light 12 hours dark, then the plants respond to the buildup of the hormones by flowering. They'll stretch out their branches for the first couple of weeks once flowering is stimulated, as well as producing small preflowers and smaller flowers at the nodes of the stretching branches. Once the branching is formed, the buds fill out by growing many many little flowers or calyxes, and when mature and unpollinated these will swell and super-produce thc and other cannabinoids, and we pick them soon after this point to ensure maximum yeild and potency.

 

You can grow plants almost perpetually under a 24/0 or other short night regeime, but some strains are sensitive to photoperiod less than others, and sometimes stress can stimulate flowerin in plants which are being maintained under short nights for long periods of time. Course, there's also the point that preflowers usually appear before the flowering has been deliberately stimulated, and these are useful for determining sex and maturity, as when this happens, you're pretty close to being ready to flower.

 

A clone taken at this time, with preflowers, can also be flowered immediately, because whilst it has only been an individual plant for a short time, the branch has already matured sexually, and so will not be adversely affected by early flowering.

 

A seed grown plant however, will never yeild the same if its not grown out in veg for a certain amount of time. That can be 6 weeks or even 3 months sometimes, depending on the strain, and of course taking into account males and strains which aren't as photoperiod determinate. Sexual maturity is judged through three things, age, (see above), preflowers, and alternate nodes on the branches. The alternate nodes I think you'll understand, but just in case it's when the leaf and new shoots appear with one on one side of the stem and then one on the other with a gap inbetween them. When young, plants will produce opposite nodes, where the stem has two nodes directly opposite each other on the stem, with no gaps. With all three of these markers, you can be fairly sure your plant is mature, and thus ready for either immediate cloning or flowering.

 

You can of course grow plants in vegetative stages for a lot longer than when the plants show maturity, and through this control of photoperiods indoors we can acheive growth and maintain plants under lights which would otherwise not be able to grow that large, or even that quickly.

 

Hope that answers your question, and helps again.

[jackfrost]

Hey bro,

 

just a little advice if you must remove some fan leafs (especially if the stem of the fan leaf is protruding out of the bud).

 

Make sure you pull open the bud back to the main stalk and remove leaf stem at the node on the main stalk.

 

If you dont do this and just snap leaf stem off, the rest of the stem where it does through the bud will/can get rot and start off mould in bigger buds.

 

Jack

[pro_libertate]

hey flange

 

I thought i would use this as an oppertunity to test out uploading pics and to show how much pruning i did on one of my last plants :reallyexcited: The plant is about 5.5ft tall (but that bent as you can see) and was grown indoor from seed not clone,its Sensis NL,Only the top 2ft or so has any foiliage everything underneath has been taken off to concentrate the energy of the plant to the top where it is in the best part of the light .

 

peace p_L :yingyang

[Flange]

Thanks p_L,

 

Thats exactly what i was thinking, every leave ive pulling off ive been doing it like jackfrost recomended.. bending down at the stalk to it kinda cleanly "drops" off, and the leaves have all been either the lowest along each stalk or just really poking out to the point of annoying me/shadowing whats underneath it, if you know what i mean...

 

And Luke Skywalker, that last post was everything i needed to know about plants, ive cut and pasted it a txt for future rerefence... cheers..

 

Peace