Squidbilly
Member
Look at this AWESOME free text I found online, anyone who is serious about growing should read it, maybe it will stop all this 2nd grade regurgitated information about what leaves do, yes we all leaned about photosynthesis.
Bottom llne is if your not removing SOME fan leaves strategically, and your growing indoors, your not maximizing your space or yield.
Here is the text, it's free
http://plantsinaction.science.uq.edu.au/edition1/?q=content/home-page
It's called ADAPTATION IN NATURE AND PERFORMANCE IN CULTIVATION
I read the entire thing. Turns out leaves are REALLY important...some are more important then others. Some, like the really big large fan leaves actually compete for energy with your buds. Hey I'm not a scientist, but the people who wrote this book all are.
Those really big fan leaves everyone says are big storage units that directly influence the size of budz...well they aren't, they are competitors.
I know from my personal experiences on EVERY strain I ever grew, that removing these big fan leaves(when you need to for room/air movement/light penetration to lower branches) during veg(the ones at the base of a branch where it meets the stem) caused a growth spurt in the branch it was cut off of.
Here's proof!
"
Distribution patterns of 14C-labelled products relate to developmental morphology of fruiting shoots. Typically source leaves are nearby on the same lateral branch, both above and below the fruit. In apple, fruiting spurs may develop primary leaves (emerging soon after budburst), then spur leaves (in a rosette at the base of the flower), then bourse leaves (growing on spur bourse shoots). Each in turn provides assimilate for the next phase of leaf growth (primary → spur → bourse); then as leaf expansion ceases, all provide assimilate to the developing fruit (Tustin et al. 1992). Leaves on adjacent extension shoots can provide some photosynthate to fruit, but if indeterminate growth continues furthermost leaves become progressively less important as suppliers, and more significant as competitors. If the normal suppliers are removed, carbohydrate can come from longer distances, sometimes from leaves more than a metre away (Bollard 1970).
Relative strength of source and sink is a major factor for distribution patterns, but transport options are dictated by vascular connections. During plant growth, development occurs in an orderly and patterned manner, creating separate files of leaves. This pattern (phyllotaxis) is accompanied by a matching pattern of vascular connections. Photosynthate tends to move along a pathway of least resistance, following these direct vascular connections where they exist, hence distribution patterns generally follow phyllotaxis."
So there you have it, leaving all your fan leaves on while your growing indoors is taking energy away from your buds. The plant needs energy to support those big ass fan leaves.
In fact those big fan leaves are only suppliers when they are about 50-70% their final size, once they reach any bigger they are no longer the plants main source for energy, quite the opposite. They were made to produce energy for the new branch, once the branch is developed, it actually takes energy away from the bud at the top of it-it competes for food and the food reaches the that fan leaf first.
Read the damn book, think critically, and stop listening to people on cannabis forums-we're a bunch of sheep who listen to hobbists over scientists. Do your own research, the information is out there and it has been out there for a while.
I tried to leave all my leaves on my plant before, I got leafy larf bud towards the bottom of my plant and big beautiful fan leaves all over the place.
I am NOT talking about defoliation! I am talking about selectively pruning and manicuring your plant-those people who grow the darkest red roses know what their doing, and they know which leaves to remove to accomplish this.
In nature, the leaves serve a FAR greater purpose then turning light into energy. They are big resin coated pollin catchers. Plants don't want to grow big buds, they want to become fertilized as soon as possible and put their energy into making seeds.
I want nice fat buds in a nice even canopy, I don't see how this is possible without removing some of these leaves.
It seams the people who are against removing leaves grow huge trees-no wonder they are happy with their yeild!
Bottom llne is if your not removing SOME fan leaves strategically, and your growing indoors, your not maximizing your space or yield.
Here is the text, it's free
http://plantsinaction.science.uq.edu.au/edition1/?q=content/home-page
It's called ADAPTATION IN NATURE AND PERFORMANCE IN CULTIVATION
I read the entire thing. Turns out leaves are REALLY important...some are more important then others. Some, like the really big large fan leaves actually compete for energy with your buds. Hey I'm not a scientist, but the people who wrote this book all are.
Those really big fan leaves everyone says are big storage units that directly influence the size of budz...well they aren't, they are competitors.
I know from my personal experiences on EVERY strain I ever grew, that removing these big fan leaves(when you need to for room/air movement/light penetration to lower branches) during veg(the ones at the base of a branch where it meets the stem) caused a growth spurt in the branch it was cut off of.
Here's proof!
"
Distribution patterns of 14C-labelled products relate to developmental morphology of fruiting shoots. Typically source leaves are nearby on the same lateral branch, both above and below the fruit. In apple, fruiting spurs may develop primary leaves (emerging soon after budburst), then spur leaves (in a rosette at the base of the flower), then bourse leaves (growing on spur bourse shoots). Each in turn provides assimilate for the next phase of leaf growth (primary → spur → bourse); then as leaf expansion ceases, all provide assimilate to the developing fruit (Tustin et al. 1992). Leaves on adjacent extension shoots can provide some photosynthate to fruit, but if indeterminate growth continues furthermost leaves become progressively less important as suppliers, and more significant as competitors. If the normal suppliers are removed, carbohydrate can come from longer distances, sometimes from leaves more than a metre away (Bollard 1970).
Relative strength of source and sink is a major factor for distribution patterns, but transport options are dictated by vascular connections. During plant growth, development occurs in an orderly and patterned manner, creating separate files of leaves. This pattern (phyllotaxis) is accompanied by a matching pattern of vascular connections. Photosynthate tends to move along a pathway of least resistance, following these direct vascular connections where they exist, hence distribution patterns generally follow phyllotaxis."
So there you have it, leaving all your fan leaves on while your growing indoors is taking energy away from your buds. The plant needs energy to support those big ass fan leaves.
In fact those big fan leaves are only suppliers when they are about 50-70% their final size, once they reach any bigger they are no longer the plants main source for energy, quite the opposite. They were made to produce energy for the new branch, once the branch is developed, it actually takes energy away from the bud at the top of it-it competes for food and the food reaches the that fan leaf first.
Read the damn book, think critically, and stop listening to people on cannabis forums-we're a bunch of sheep who listen to hobbists over scientists. Do your own research, the information is out there and it has been out there for a while.
I tried to leave all my leaves on my plant before, I got leafy larf bud towards the bottom of my plant and big beautiful fan leaves all over the place.
I am NOT talking about defoliation! I am talking about selectively pruning and manicuring your plant-those people who grow the darkest red roses know what their doing, and they know which leaves to remove to accomplish this.
In nature, the leaves serve a FAR greater purpose then turning light into energy. They are big resin coated pollin catchers. Plants don't want to grow big buds, they want to become fertilized as soon as possible and put their energy into making seeds.
I want nice fat buds in a nice even canopy, I don't see how this is possible without removing some of these leaves.
It seams the people who are against removing leaves grow huge trees-no wonder they are happy with their yeild!