Trimming leaves

[Oleg6]

Hi, my plants are now starting to flower. A friend has told me to pinch off the larger leaves, I have done this before but I am now questioning the logic of this. As I understand it canopy size=vigor the leaves have been produced and are now producing. If the air flow is okay then they are feeding the flowering are they not? Do flowers even need/benefit from direct sunlight? Is there a point in development when I should start removing leaves and to what degree?
Thanks

[PurpNGold74]

Do you have a picture?

Indoors or outdoors?

Any mold worries? Humidity levels?

[Oleg6]

Outdoors, airflow is still good, no mold but humidity is high.

[Oleg6]

Here are two, there are a lot of inner stalks growing from the crotches of healthy leaves.

[4204life]

Looks like they are opened enough for air flow. I would let them be.

[DoneDeal]

I agree being outside I’d let it ride.

[DoneDeal]

Nodes (crotch) is where the colas form so that’s a good thing

[Oleg6]

Thanks for your replies. I read through some similar posts and that seems to be the general opinion. I didn’t read anything about flowers and light though. I just downloaded all the bibles I’ll look through the one on harvesting. Maybe there is a reason in later development. It sounds like it’s a pretty common practice where I am, but can’t find anything here to support it, so maybe it’s all crap. I wasn’t very impressed by the flowers the year I did do it.

[4204life]

@Oleg6

just downloaded all the bibles

There is a lot of info in them. You can also use the search icon on the forum to pull up certain topics. Good luck with your grow.

[Oleg6]

Thanks everyone, I just read the harvest download and there was nothing. Pruning is only mentioned in early stages of growth to increase the number of flowering sites in the grow guides.

[4204life]

Its not going to hurt the plant if you take a fews leaves here and there. Usually only if big leaves are blocking bud sites or hindering air flow.
You got this growmie!

[kellydans]

Looking good , Plants look to have good air flow an light penetration. I would remove the yellow leafs ready to fall off. Let it ride good luck !

[ChittyChittyBangin]

Let her grow ! Leaves arent only part of the power station, they are also a storage facility too. I leave everything for a snacky snack as long as airflow and light penetration is acceptable

[Oleg6]

“Bud sites” That is the bone of contention isn’t it? Fact is they are all shaded under the latest leaf or on the shoots that grow in the interior. My last effort 2 years ago I took off these large leaves to open up the interior to light and to keep the emerging buds on the growing colas in sunlight. What I got were lose buds with a lot of leaf between the buds, there was too much leaf if you ask me and I am wondering now if the plant wasn’t compensating for excess leaf loss which in turn weakened the budding? I am now thinking that the plant will tell me what it wants, if they start yellowing in large numbers at any point then they don’t need them and I’ll remove them. The plants main purpose at this point is to seed, if flower are better off in the sun then the plant will drop leaves to put them in sun.
Thanks again I feel pretty confident in this logic now. I’ll proceed slowly and only take what’s needed to keep it airy.

[PurpNGold74]

@Oleg6

What I got were lose buds with a lot of leaf between the buds, there was too much leaf if you ask me and I am wondering now if the plant wasn’t compensating for excess leaf loss which in turn weakened the budding?

Overthinking it here. I’m not sure defoliation leads to airey buds. That’s more genetics/environmentals. Defoil’s are more for opening up airflow and removing excess foliage.

Now could you have taken too much and killed her ‘powerplants/storage Rex’ or possibly stunted some growth which in turn delayed somewhat? That’s possible. But it’s all theoretical at this point.

As you are right now, she looks (well looked) good. Got updated pics?

[AL_GREEN]

Personally Ive never been too much of a “Leaf Trimmer” myself…enough to let the plant breath and just enough to let sunlight hit the buds…But other then that I don’t like to mess with them much ( Maybe sometimes to a fault). The fans are like little solar panels…I believe that light “airy” buds has to do with lack of sunlight… and yes I agree that sometimes the strain or even pheno of the plant can cause that…

[Oleg6]

Thanks for your post, there were many negative factors that year and it’s only possible to speculate now. I have some up-dated pics. Do you still think it’s airy enough, I removed maybe 15 big leaves from the interior that weren’t getting much light but were blocking the airflow (on the big bushy one). The thin sativa has yellow leaves BUT they turn back to green when the soil dries out, so I’m kind of on the fence with this one as it would reduce the number of leaves significantly. This one was moved 5 weeks ago and it lost some leaves then and still seems a little sparse.

First and last are the same plant, as are the middle two

[Oleg6]

Thanks Al, As I asked earlier, do you yourself think sun on the buds is an advantage? A lot of the skinny sativa’s are in sunlight, but the indica would need significant trimming to get all the colas in sunlight, there are a lot in the interior too. This is the way I trimmed the previous time so it’s easy to see why I think I over trimmed.

[Oleg6]

Here are some of the main stalks where the outside branch (last shot) looks fine the two main stalks seem pretty dense.

[Oleg6]

What would you do with these colas to be?