Sorry if they aren't specifically called fan leaves, maybe water leaves. Anyways, I was doing some trimming yesterday on my plant outdoors, and made me wonder if I was taking to much off or being paranoid and not taking off as much as I could.

I'm referring to cutting off the excess leaves that grow here and there around the plant, that do nothing but take up water. Should I cut from the bottom up in a gradual pace, or could I cut most of them with no worries of doing any damage? I figure that way the rest of my plant can suck up water and grow better.

Let me know, thanks!

trim bottom up for right now and burned or pale leaves but leave at least 4 set of fan leaves at top untill almost harvest

Don't listen to this guy ^^^

NEVER remove fan leaves from a cannabis plant unless they are ready to fall off on their own. They don't 'just suck up water'; they MAKE SUGARS! They are where the bulk of photosynthesis on the plant occurs, where the plant takes the energy from the sun and uses it to bind carbon from the air and hydrogen from the water into the basis for all the yummy resins it is going to make!

It's like cutting the blades off a wind turbine to 'make it spin faster'...

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Contacting Her Dankness: stinkyattic at hushm4il-please use the same discretion you do on the boards, thanks.
I don't claim to know the first thing about growing anything; hell, I can't make a Chia pet sprout.

ROFL. yeah thats about it. some people claim they do it to get light to the buds but they dont have any mechanism that requires light so I truly dont understand why you would trim at all.

db

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the only trim you would do is too even out the leaves so light can penetrate too the interior leaves and to make manacure easier is what i was taught......

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if you want light to the lower part of the plant and the fan leaves are blocking the light, don't trim them either.
Take a piece of scotch tape (the clear stuff) and bring the the first "finger" and the fifth "finger" of the fan leaf together and tape them together. The leaf will still "work" that way.

What if you have a leaf that is blocking a promising bud site? Is getting sunlight to the bud site or getting sunlight on a big water leaf more important? (Hoping Stinky will answer this)

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I quickly read this post the first time and realized my question was answered by SNSstealth the second time I read it. Sorry for the bad post.

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no prob. Dr.

I actually find its very easy to move the leaves so they sit against each other so the leaves around the bud site get light as well as the fan leaf.

db

__________________
Your style will eventually match your grow area and the amount of time and money you like to put into initial setup vs. long term maintenance.-stinkyattic

LED growing- An instructional grow log
Episode 3...Revenge of the LED
Episode 4: The Clone Colonies