Can fan leaves be removed?
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Many will debate the pros and cons of removing leaves. I personally only remove them when they are blocking other bud sites. It may stunt the growth of that branch, but the new shoots usually take off w/ the extra light and more buds are better than more leaves. 
oh great now we have one of these thread in the coco section, thanks man, lol.
in the end the main school of thought is that fan leaves are the factories that provide energy for growing sites/buds. but indoors some people swear by it, mostly smaller grows will use this system to get a bit more light further down on the plants. in the end the plants will just increase the size of the left over small leaves to continue catching as much light as possible. personally the only fan leaves i take off are the few i feed my cats when they have been good. best bet is to try it on 1 plant and see what it brings in your set up.
in the end the main school of thought is that fan leaves are the factories that provide energy for growing sites/buds. but indoors some people swear by it, mostly smaller grows will use this system to get a bit more light further down on the plants. in the end the plants will just increase the size of the left over small leaves to continue catching as much light as possible. personally the only fan leaves i take off are the few i feed my cats when they have been good. best bet is to try it on 1 plant and see what it brings in your set up.
Training sometimes bunches fans together. Some strains appear more fan-happy than others. IN micro grows, fans can impede air-flow in addition to light penetration. But they have their advantages so try not to cull too many at once. Some strains might stress enough to need a bit of recovery and other strains don't miss a lick.
What's with cats liking fans, gaiusmarius? They're sweet?
My cat used to freak out on raw corn-on-the-cob. He didn't just eat it, he fought it and killed it, every time.
Then picked it clean, better than people.
I wish they had Funniest Animals back then. Might not have won the money but I'm pretty sure Cat would have gone viral on youtube.
What's with cats liking fans, gaiusmarius? They're sweet?
My cat used to freak out on raw corn-on-the-cob. He didn't just eat it, he fought it and killed it, every time.
Then picked it clean, better than people.I wish they had Funniest Animals back then. Might not have won the money but I'm pretty sure Cat would have gone viral on youtube.
B
Butte_Creek
of course you can.
i don't know why people are so hell-bent on not removing any leafs. it's a plant, and people sometimes act like this weed we grow is so finicky that removing a few over sized fans will hinder the plant and ruin your yield. though, this isn't black and white of course, it's not always leave every single leaf on the plant or remove an excessive/every fan leaf.
some low yielding indica varieties(purples, bubba) i've had experience with removing some fans that otherwise shade many opportunities for new inter-nodal growth/budsites, and noticed no ill effects. actual seemed very beneficial for the variety. during flower also i will remove a fan that would otherwise just float/lay directly above a key developing kola.
i know icmag member nomaad has a great example/story of the benefits of what he called "aggressive de-leafing" on an otherwise low yielding squat purple variety, grape ape, outdoors even. sum it up, only concern-able difference in gardening techniques was buddy de-leafed the crap out of his GA, nomaad achieved couple #s, buddy pushed 5#.
i've never de-leafed to the extent of some members, as in removing almost all fans, so i can't speak for that technique, actual seems excessive to me, but i don't know. remove some broad leafs that shade flower sites and key areas of inter-nodal growth on the broad leaf varieties.
i don't know why people are so hell-bent on not removing any leafs. it's a plant, and people sometimes act like this weed we grow is so finicky that removing a few over sized fans will hinder the plant and ruin your yield. though, this isn't black and white of course, it's not always leave every single leaf on the plant or remove an excessive/every fan leaf.
some low yielding indica varieties(purples, bubba) i've had experience with removing some fans that otherwise shade many opportunities for new inter-nodal growth/budsites, and noticed no ill effects. actual seemed very beneficial for the variety. during flower also i will remove a fan that would otherwise just float/lay directly above a key developing kola.
i know icmag member nomaad has a great example/story of the benefits of what he called "aggressive de-leafing" on an otherwise low yielding squat purple variety, grape ape, outdoors even. sum it up, only concern-able difference in gardening techniques was buddy de-leafed the crap out of his GA, nomaad achieved couple #s, buddy pushed 5#.
i've never de-leafed to the extent of some members, as in removing almost all fans, so i can't speak for that technique, actual seems excessive to me, but i don't know. remove some broad leafs that shade flower sites and key areas of inter-nodal growth on the broad leaf varieties.
Training sometimes bunches fans together. Some strains appear more fan-happy than others. IN micro grows, fans can impede air-flow in addition to light penetration. But they have their advantages so try not to cull too many at once. Some strains might stress enough to need a bit of recovery and other strains don't miss a lick.
What's with cats liking fans, gaiusmarius? They're sweet?
My cat used to freak out on raw corn-on-the-cob. He didn't just eat it, he fought it and killed it, every time.
I wish they had Funniest Animals back then. Might not have won the money but I'm pretty sure Cat would have gone viral on youtube.
my cats just love the fan leaves. they will munch them like a couple of cows bite after bite. i will give them some when i'm trimming mums back too sometimes. i guess it replaces the grass they'd much outside if they didn't have fan leaves once in a while. it's quite funny to watch them if i hold out one leaf each they will race to finish so they can try get some off the other ones leaf. some times i wonder if they are not getting a slight buzz after all, but i could just be medicinal for them, like cat grass.
It's true that the leaves are the bud factories and if you take many off, you'll have a reduced yield. But, there are certain very squat, bushy, short internodal plants that have so many leaves that removing a few won't hurt. At least not as much as removing the few precious leaves of a plant that, for genetic or environmental reasons has fewer and/or smaller leaves. So, it can have more or less impact depending on the plant. Getting light to lower parts of the plant is better achieved through bending than removing leaves. Besides, bending can increase the 'light print' of the plant, which IS the most concrete thing we can do to increase yield (other than plant a higher yielding variety).
I've been defoliating for a while. I have noticed the plants that I defoliate aggressively suffer from narrow weak stems.
IMO, it is best to harden the plant with several forms of training in addition to defoliation. Incorporating Topping, LST, Super Cropping, and defoliation on a single plant will result in a much larger bush. Instead of focusing on just one method I try to apply each to the appropriate situation.
Defoliation can start very young, and works better during early-mid veg then it will in late-veg to early flower. Do not strip leaves between weeks 3 and 7 of flowering as your plant will have a very hard time recuperating the loss during the flowering building stages. By defoliating early and often you will harden the plant allowing it to deal with the stress of losing a fan leaf more easily. I find that plants 3-4 nodes tall improve the final structure by removing the top two fan leaf sets. The internode sets that contain the remaining leaves will catch up to the top of the plant producing many full tops and a pretty even canopy. Incorporating topping at this stage, once the plant has rebounded, will further improve the shape of the canopy and produce more tops. I then treat each new top like the younger plant and strip off the upper fan leaves when 3-4 nodes are present from the point of topping. LST can be used to control the effort pushed into individual branches by controlling which node is the "tallest."
Once the plant is about to flip to Flowering I'll stop defoliating as heavy or frequently and instead just pluck leaves that cannot be tucked to expose budsites to more light. At this point I will begin pinching and twisting and super cropping the plants to slow the growth of the primary top shoots and to force the plant to create thicker stem structures which will help support the plant and mobilize nutrients at a later point.
Finally, after the 2nd week of flowering the plant undergoes a final "cleaning" removing any under debris and budsites lower down on the plants which won't produce much nuggage. Once properly lollipopped I generally have a pretty interesting (looks like a Willow Tree) canopy.
Defoliation is cool to do if you're smart about it. Tuck when you can and have a process for defoliating that you can get reliable results out of. Try it out for yourself sometime on an "extra" vegetative plant and see if you like the results. Some do. Some don't. That's all it is.
IMO, it is best to harden the plant with several forms of training in addition to defoliation. Incorporating Topping, LST, Super Cropping, and defoliation on a single plant will result in a much larger bush. Instead of focusing on just one method I try to apply each to the appropriate situation.
Defoliation can start very young, and works better during early-mid veg then it will in late-veg to early flower. Do not strip leaves between weeks 3 and 7 of flowering as your plant will have a very hard time recuperating the loss during the flowering building stages. By defoliating early and often you will harden the plant allowing it to deal with the stress of losing a fan leaf more easily. I find that plants 3-4 nodes tall improve the final structure by removing the top two fan leaf sets. The internode sets that contain the remaining leaves will catch up to the top of the plant producing many full tops and a pretty even canopy. Incorporating topping at this stage, once the plant has rebounded, will further improve the shape of the canopy and produce more tops. I then treat each new top like the younger plant and strip off the upper fan leaves when 3-4 nodes are present from the point of topping. LST can be used to control the effort pushed into individual branches by controlling which node is the "tallest."
Once the plant is about to flip to Flowering I'll stop defoliating as heavy or frequently and instead just pluck leaves that cannot be tucked to expose budsites to more light. At this point I will begin pinching and twisting and super cropping the plants to slow the growth of the primary top shoots and to force the plant to create thicker stem structures which will help support the plant and mobilize nutrients at a later point.
Finally, after the 2nd week of flowering the plant undergoes a final "cleaning" removing any under debris and budsites lower down on the plants which won't produce much nuggage. Once properly lollipopped I generally have a pretty interesting (looks like a Willow Tree) canopy.
Defoliation is cool to do if you're smart about it. Tuck when you can and have a process for defoliating that you can get reliable results out of. Try it out for yourself sometime on an "extra" vegetative plant and see if you like the results. Some do. Some don't. That's all it is.
Raedwulf
Member
I know a black Labrador that will try to steal Bud off the table when your back's turned.
She got a small one once, wolfed it, and (apart from waking to drink loads of water) slept almost continually for 24 hours. Have to watch her like a hawk now
I personally leave fan leaves on so long as they are healthy and not blocking anything important - though I may start offering some to the dog to distract her from my bud.
If you've got one plant, fans won't diminish bud size like shading from other plants.
Raedwolf, glad your dog's ok. I can't imagine what happens to deer when they eat whole plants.
Raedwolf, glad your dog's ok. I can't imagine what happens to deer when they eat whole plants.
After topping a few times my plants tend to get ultra leafy. Lots of overlapping and covering of lower shoots. If I don't thin some of that out, I find the lower buds don't thicken up as much, even with a staged harvest. But, I use a 600w hps and don't have the penetration of a 1k or the sun.
F
Frito Bandito
Yeah there are some great threads on removing the fans.
Frito
Frito
do it early and not too often, you will be fine. some plants like it, some plants hate it, and some plants say lol is that all you've got?
before anyone else posts in this thread, try the Defoliation thread with almost 3000 replies !
controversy!!!!!!!!
personally i go by feel, remove certain leaves.
controversy!!!!!!!!
personally i go by feel, remove certain leaves.
CoCo_Crazy
Member
i chop off any fan leaves that are in shade or any that are shading bud sites. Not full on defoliation but not more than 4 fan leaves per branch.
