TO PICK OFF SUCKER/SHADE LEAVES OR NOT TO???

[eastcoastedge]

During the bud cycle i will strip the bottoms of the plants of all the small stuff that wont mature into anything but a pain in the ass during trimming and also will pick the sucker/shade leaves off threw the hole cycle and in the last couple weeks of the cycle i will pick off any leave of any size,i figure all there doing is taking away from the buds,so why leave them on the plants,but you see alot of pictures of gardens and alot of people dont even pick off the yellow dead leaves,so im just wondering what everyone thinks about leaving the shade leaves ON or OFF????

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE TOPIC??

 

[ThcInfused]

IMO, some leaf removal is fine, but i would strongly recommend not to strip all the leaves off at any stage of growth..

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

There's more here on the subject than one could read in weeks.

 

[captinknots]

leaves provide energy, in fact, its the only way a plant gets energy, through its leaves.... so leave them!

 

[Phaeton]

The "Defoliation..." sticky in this subforum discusses this somewhat, gives a few different viewpoints.

 

[rick shaw]

During the bud cycle i will strip the bottoms of the plants of all the small stuff that wont mature into anything but a pain in the ass during trimming and also will pick the sucker/shade leaves off threw the hole cycle and in the last couple weeks of the cycle i will pick off any leave of any size,i figure all there doing is taking away from the buds,so why leave them on the plants,but you see alot of pictures of gardens and alot of people dont even pick off the yellow dead leaves,so im just wondering what everyone thinks about leaving the shade leaves ON or OFF????

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE TOPIC??

Stay Away from my plants.

 

[cjk]

i clean up some undergrowth and pinch fan leaves here and there throughout the entire plant. this promotes air flow and penetration of light. i am selective in this process and do leave most fan leaves up top where the light is plentiful.

 

[eastcoastedge]

i figure most people wouldnt touch any leaves but in my opion not pullin most of the small under growth off will result in more smaller bud that just takes away from the tops and not picking any of the sucker leaves makes you hole garden more prown to powder mold and other issues like restricking the light to the lower buds and restricting the air flow threw out the garden,iv see the same kind of clone under the same size light same nutrient,one not touched and the other garden with the small stuff stripped off the bottoms and most of the shade leave picked off besides the very tops and the difference was DRASTIC the better one being the one that was picked,but thats just my opion and what works for me....

 

[Phaeton]

I notice most plant stages have more than one way to do them right.
I have my own leaf removal philosophy, but after reading the defoliation sticky I got pretty aggressive, not as aggresive as the OP but much more so than my normal. About halfway budded now and it's really hard to tell the difference. The plants definitely look to have slightly smaller buds at the five week stage.
Could be my eye.
I track main cola weights so the scale will tell. My eyes always lie to me about how much I can eat, why should I trust them about this?

 

[Scrogerman]

Suckers shoots/laterals maybe, no such thing as a sucker leaf imo!

I prune the bottom 1/3rd - 1/2 in ScrOG. The removal of the lower shoots will stop energy being sucked outta the tops/colas(focasing plant energy where you want it), thats the aim of the practice. lower to middle leaves get removed as they see little light & become useless, restrict airflow, wither & die, which will promote pathogens. the plant has to have enough leaves to cope with pruning or you'll impeade growth.

My advice, start from the bottom up, & leave the top half of the plant, exept for some problematic light blocking leaves & a little middle to upper leaf thining for the same reason.

if your gonna prune, do it as needed, dont hammer plants, do it gradually, little but often. You may or may not get good advice from the de-foliation thread.(controversial thread for seasoned growers, not rookies imo!)

But imo you'll get better advice from this thread:https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=115377

Defoliation/Pruning has its place, but learn to grow the plant & understand what leaves are, why the plant has them first(their function).!

G'luck!

 

[GanjaPharma]

i hit em hard (every fan leaf) every 2 weeks in veg and never within 2 weeks of flowering, flip at 24-36" and do a final hard defoliation after the stretch is OVER including a hard pimp hand to the popcorn sites. then i clean up the colas, kind of a "pre trimming" around week 6.
over 16 years i have come a long way from the "never thief a single leaf belief" (ya i said it) and have found a place for the effects of defoliation in my toolbox.

.....but DO go read the defol thread.

 

[eastcoastedge]

its pretty much a everyday thing to pull a handful off and just as quick as i pull them off the smaller ones are filling there spots and turning into bigger leaves,it generates new/more growth to prun ur garden and is all around good for the garden but like i said before this is just my opion and what works for me...

 

[eastcoastedge]

im with ya ganjapharma,iv got 15 solid yrs under my belt and its all around better for ur garden and makes the plants alot stronger to ruff them up,if most people seen what i will do to the garden they would be hororfied but the new growth after you flip the garden is crazy,i dont understand why you see pics of people gardens and there is a ton of yellow dead leaves all over the place and they wont pick any of them off,iv always wondered its its lazyness or lack of knowledge

 

[Scrogerman]

i hit em hard (every fan leaf) every 2 weeks in veg and never within 2 weeks of flowering, flip at 24-36" and do a final hard defoliation after the stretch is OVER including a hard pimp hand to the popcorn sites. then i clean up the colas, kind of a "pre trimming" around week 6.
over 16 years i have come a long way from the "never thief a single leaf belief" (ya i said it) and have found a place for the effects of defoliation in my toolbox.

.....but DO go read the defol thread.

This may sound easy & simple, but this guy is a seasoned grower! approch with caution is my advice! experiment!

can you over do it, yes you can! ABA & plant defence, springs to mind! i see with heavy de-fol, veg times go through the roof, i say no need to hammer a plant.

 

[eastcoastedge]

there is alot of opions out there but iv done the tests for myself and there isnt anything better than testing for you own eyes,and there was a drastic difference not to mention if you dont prun anything off the plant it adds days to the total cycle time

 

[GanjaPharma]

This may sound easy & simple, but this guy is a seasoned grower! approch with caution is my advice! experiment!

can you over do it, yes you can! ABA & plant defence, springs to mind! i see with heavy de-fol, veg times go through the roof, i say no need to hammer a plant.

you are very correct about that scrogerman! i fuked up a giant grow while trying to push this to the limit. now i have found a perfect balance for ME. and I take a gradual approach when growing new strains.

there are breeders that use defoliation to INDUCE herms. if the strain is stress intolerant, you can easily end up reducing your yield, stunting growth, interrupting flowering, and causing nanners.

i should really start every post on defoliation that way.

you should try this beginning with 12-14" plants, still in veg. only one or two for starters. if they are too small they will stunt and cost you weeks.

if you want to try some defol in flowering i say, wait until the stretch is over and remove 50%-70% of the fan leaves. see how those do next to their sisters with only that single effort at leaf removal. even that one defol, makes a big difference in air circulation, and light exposure.

watch em close for herms. i have some girls that shoot nanners if i look at them crosswise, and others that just keep packing it on.

 

[eastcoastedge]

all strands are different in the way they grow,for example the NYCD we grow produces crazycrazy amount of branches and leave and if you dont get rid of the small branchs and small crap on the bottoms than the size of your tops will pay the price everytime and the CRYSTAL is a longer more lanky strand that doesnt produce much for branches and the pruning is nothing like the diesel so its very important to know what you growing and what they need for attention....

 

[grapeman]

its pretty much a everyday thing to pull a handful off and just as quick as i pull them off the smaller ones are filling there spots and turning into bigger leaves,it generates new/more growth to prun ur garden and is all around good for the garden but like i said before this is just my opion and what works for me...

Why do you ask for opinions if you think you already know what to do and poo poo others advice. LOL

You just looking for affirmations.

None here.

 

[W.Less Monk]

Leave the leaves, just let'em live..

 

[charliesheen]

there called LEAVEs for a reason. hahaha