I just flipped my beautiful purple ghost candy photo. It’s almost day 22. It’s my first photo by myself. I’ve been reading a lot and it’s either one way or the other. I hear ppl say get rid of everything except for a few leaves per bud site. But others say leave as much on. I have not done a lot of pruning because I’m scared of taking too much off or something. Any suggestions.
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A plant should only be trimmed as necessary to maintain good airflow within the plant’s canopy. The plant otherwise needs the leaves it has to produce the sugars (via photosynthesis) the plant needs to be healthy.
What you seem to be referring to is lollipopping, which should be done only very late in a grow.
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Your plant looks very good. As you suggest, you will get advice from across the spectrum.
Other than dealing some sort of issue, I seldom remove leaves until close to harvest time.
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Is it the same for photoperiods as it is for autos in the pruning and trimming?
They are my autos. Trying different to see what I want to do my next full grow with. Making sure I have everything in smooth running order so I can fill my tent up I can’t wait. I love g m
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Same for both autos and photos.
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I have only grown a few autos, I treated them mostly like I do photos. That said, mostly I use LST. I don’t typically top or FIM.
Edit: There is a common belief that because the plant quickly replaces removed leaves that the plant “liked” being defoliated.
I think that the plant quickly replaces removed leaves because the plant needs them.
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Thank you for your input. So then I feel it makes sense to me that keeping as many fan leaves and other leaves as possible will keep the plant having enough energy to devote to all of the plant making it just healthy all around. I feel like by removing so many leaves and everything that your taking away most of its energy so it now only has a little energy to devote to bud development. Every where I read I hear different things. That’s kinda why I did not do a lot of pruning in this grow. Does that kinda make sense?
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Bro science imho. Plants produce sugars for energy. The energy referred to is the sugars that are produced by the plant’s leaves via photosynthesis. Less leaves = less photosynthesis = less sugars = less energy.
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I personally clean the bottom and inside. Anything that receives no light and will produce nothing. Leave full, lush canopies.
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Additionally the plant only know what it experiences and will try to preserve itself when experiencing too much trauma. Can induce dormancy or turn hermaphroditic.
Gonna really dive into this as it seems the OP needs it.
This is mainly for photos.
What was said above is true. Removing fan blades is taking away the solar panels which provide energy. Leave them unless they need to come off.
Timing is also a part of this…Defoling early in veg is not recommended. The defoling alot of folks do is right before the flip. Removing fans that are blocking a bud site or fans that are clogging up the center of the plant blocking airflow to the center of the canopy.
Then at 21 days of flower, some of us, me included will “Lollipop” the plant. Removing lower growth that will not amount to much will increase overall yield and allow the upper canopy to fill in with larger bud sites/Colas.
Then another defol at 42 days of flower. Once this last defol has been done, the only fans that come off would be consumed, not doing their job or blocking.
A few pics for reference…
This grow I went for 6 mains to see if I get get 12" or larger buds.
My first defol
and this was just getting a super flat canopy and then letting her do her thing
She was big and bushy and here is the upskirt when I trimmed her lower growth going into full flower
and the final result
You mentioned this way or that way but I do not think there is a right or wrong way, there are always variables to every grow by each person. Take all that people say and develop “your” way!!
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I do it if i need hard veg. Take 1 get 2. My 3x3 needed a lot of veg for recovery. I pruned every other day or so. Veg exploded and filled the scrog. This was a special circumstance. The payoff was from first pic to second.
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Dude, I saw when you posted that up in another post. Nice job.
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Thanks man. Wasnt sure if she would take that much of a beating. Glad she did. Now I know where I can go with them.
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Speaking on this, I have been struggling lately. My last several grows have been crap. Sickly looking stunted plants. Early signs of unhappy, My nutes were over 3 years old so trashed them all and bought AN pH perfect line. Coulda been that, but I keep leaning toward early defoliation when I am trying to achieve a certain type of result like quadlining, mainlining etc…
So with the new nutes and me not cutting my girls up when young, maybe I can get back to where I onced belonged. Get Back, Get Back…you know the rest.
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