To cut fan leaves or not to cut?

[MaeEast]

Good day All.
I have an outdoor haze berry that is starting to flower and the massive 9 leafed fan leaves are covering up lots of bud sites. Should I remove some of them, or does the plant need them all for photosynthesis and nutrient storing?

 

[redxber]

My vote would be to try and tuck them under to allow more light to hit the bud sites...If not then remove some of them as they are covering bud sites.

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/defoliation-with-auto-flowers.60544/

 

[MaeEast]

My vote would be to try and tuck them under to allow more light to hit the bud sites...If not then remove some of them as they are covering bud sites.

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/defoliation-with-auto-flowers.60544/

Thanks for the advice.
She's a beast of a girl and has so many fan leaves with bud sites on every branch so hard to tuck them away. Dont want to stress her by cutting too many but looks like I'll have to do a few. She would have totally benefited from LST. It's my first grow so didn't want to try it.

 

[Frankthetank]

Good day All.
I have an outdoor haze berry that is starting to flower and the massive 9 leafed fan leaves are covering up lots of bud sites. Should I remove some of them, or does the plant need them all for photosynthesis and nutrient storing?

Personally, I would take a 3 or 4 every few days until the bud sites are exposed. I usually take only leaves on the inside of the plant, and leave the ones on the outside of the plant, since they are not covering bud sites most of the time. I stay away from taking a lot of leaves at one time...they seem to not mind taking a few on a regular basis. Hope it helps.

 

[Proph]

I remove any and all leaves that cover bud sites. I want to grow weed, not fan leaves. Removing fan leaves does not harm the plant. They naturally grow way more leaves than they need, knowing they will lose some.

 

[CannaDaTaBiz]

I would let it grow at least for now. Having that fan leaf will help to grow budsite on its height and above. What i would do is i would do some low stress training(very low) where i would bend the top so that the low budsites get exposed. It will help to get the lower budsites growing so that they are not so much covered when you release the bend. Then you might want to do the other side also. You can also cut the leaf half if it helps getting the light thru. But you need to also remember that parts that are not receiving as much light tend to stretch out more, so it might shoot out with very little bending.

When you bend over 90˚, top of the plant cant send hormones from top that focus most growth to there and starts putting most growth energy to side branches. Essentially does what topping does, but not as extreme and can be reversed after. Bending less i have noticed can enhance side branching under the bend a bit, plus it gets more light and properly trained they can shoot out pretty fast enough to not have to bend or tuck leaves much.

A rule of thumb i have developed by taking a lot of leaves and observing what happens is that dont take off any leaf that doesent have large enough side branch on its root that can grow without the help of that fan leaf. What you will sacrifice most by taking off a fan leaf is the side branch on its root. If that branch is large enough to collect light on its own enough to continue growing without getting stunted for too long and if the shadowing cant be avoided in other ways, then take off the leaf.

 

[MaeEast]

Thank you all for the help. You are the best.
The stems and leaf branches are quite thick so I don't think I'd be able to do very light LST right now, except for upper branches that don't really need it.
I'll try removing 2-3 larger leaves every few days to open up some sun spots on flowers.
Otherwise does she look OK for a first time grower? I have no clue what I'm doing. Lol

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

ive never cut a leaf off a plant,but in a lazy grower but if i did i would only take a few off a day
nice structure n size,alls lookin good
keep er lit

 

[420Forever]

Good day All.
I have an outdoor haze berry that is starting to flower and the massive 9 leafed fan leaves are covering up lots of bud sites. Should I remove some of them, or does the plant need them all for photosynthesis and nutrient storing?

if ya can't tuck em -> *snip-snip* :smoking: but then again, me a fan of defol, so... and yup, she'z lookin great for first time! ppp

 

[MaeEast]

ive never cut a leaf off a plant,but in a lazy grower but if i did i would only take a few off a day
nice structure n size,alls lookin good
keep er lit

Thank you Archie.