About 31 days into flower now. I was wondering if it would be okay to cut some of the lower brances or even just a few buds that are not recieving much light if that would be harmful to the overall development of the plant with respect to the cola buds.


Thanks for any advice


Peace

Buds use the energy the fan leaves produce so with that reasoning I'd assume that cutting off the bud would increase growth in other bud sites although being a tiny low light bud site it wouldn't be very much

Cutting the fan leaf off wouldn't hurt very much either cause again it's a low light site but if it's just hanging there all shriveled and brittle you could probably just remove it...

This next part I'm not sure about so it's either one of 2 things...

1. The energy the fan leaf produces can be ported all over the plant which means you should cut the bud and leave the leaf as it will help the other buds a little...unless the leaf had some sorta spreading infection or whatever I'd leave it

2. The energy the fan leaf produces can only be used at the bud site it's connected to or some limit there in...which would mean if you chop the bud you chop the leaf

Logic makes me think it has to be 1. but if someone knows otherwise feel free to post

You can have both light to your bud AND keep the leaf if you just tuck it or tie it down and out of the way. It's what i've been doing, esp since i'm only working with a 250watter, i need to conserve all i've got. move the leaf out of the way but into a position where it can still catch some light. this will probably be better than cutting it.

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And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

--Genesis 1:11-12

I always clip the lower/lesser branches.

Dive

Hey Godbud.... if you are using a 400W HPS bulb then go ahead and chop the lower branches, no worries. Better yet, use them for clones (yeah you can still do that while 30 days into flower). 400W bulb wont give enough light to hit the lowest branches.

Dboy

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start chopping=stress...which proceeds to make the plant go into repair mode instead of finishing strong=yield suffers.

I get what you're saying, but my rationale has been that when the plant is in flower, I'd rather the plants energy go towards the strong bud regions rather than the weak. If you chop the lower couple of branches, yes you have a wounded plant, but you are also removing weak-budding areas, which (by my theory anyway) redirects energy to the remaining stronger bud regions. Of course I'd only do this if you're using 400W lights, and I could be wrong about everything:-)

The main thing I try to AVOID chopping is the fan leaves. They're not only used in photosynthesis but are also used for energy storage. The plant will drop the leaf when it is no longer needed. I will fold a leaf under, or out of the way of light if its shading the plant too much.


Dboy

__________________
" The illusion of democracy will continue so long as the illusion works to the advantage of the powerful"--- Frank Zappa

Pruning lower branches is not a bad idea at all BUT you should do it before you get buds on them... ideally about a week or more before initiating 12/12. this will give the plant time to repair/recover. And you can use the pruned bits for clones.

As for fan leaves... leave them. Even though they might not be getting a ton of light, they serve as repositories for mobile nutrients such as Nitrogen, which the plant will tap into as it nears the end of its life cycle.

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Thanks for the comments peeps. I cut 2 lower branches a few days ago. I havent touched any fan leaves just tucking on them. I agree with LW on stressn the plant. Shes lookin really nice. Check er out in the Alien NLX thread

Peace