What do you guys think about cutting off small flowers?

[NewbieG]

I'm three weeks into flower and the plants are showing flowers in many locations. I trimmed them probably around 1/4 and was wondering if I could further increase the quality and size of top buds by removing lower flowers? The plants were topped and have some very long arms with small buds showing on fairly low parts. I want to remove those small buds so that all the energy goes to the larger top buds. What are your guys opinions?

 

[Mutt]

I don't trim anything. It won't "redirect" energy to the top. It will take energy from the whole plant to heal.
Best thing is to make sure your medium is good, ferts good, lights good.
The only time i would recommend trimming is in a screen of green set up..becuase anything below the screen is not getting any light.

 

[gettinggray1964]

i never remove anything until plant is ready, except for sample buds..... as for as it makeing other buds bigger, i dont know, you could get some side ligthing to put around the lower parts of your plant...

 

[iClown]

Never remove fan leaves but if you have a bunch of flowering spots that aren't getting alot of light you can remove the lower ones, I've seen this done plenty and the main buds seem to get alot more energy, if I am going to clip my lower flowers I wait a couple weeks 'til THC starts developing so I have something to smoke while waiting for my plant to grow

 

[NewbieG]

Never remove fan leaves but if you have a bunch of flowering spots that aren't getting alot of light you can remove the lower ones, I've seen this done plenty and the main buds seem to get alot more energy, if I am going to clip my lower flowers I wait a couple weeks 'til THC starts developing so I have something to smoke while waiting for my plant to grow

Thats what I wanted to hear. I tried this with the auto's and thats exactly what I saw happen. The top ones got much larger. Thanks for the input. I have some trimming I need to do.

 

[NewbieG]

I don't trim anything. It won't "redirect" energy to the top. It will take energy from the whole plant to heal.
Best thing is to make sure your medium is good, ferts good, lights good.
The only time i would recommend trimming is in a screen of green set up..becuase anything below the screen is not getting any light.

I agree it does take time and energy to heal, but I think its very little, and that you know have more leaves working for less bud sites. It has as much energy as it would have before, but less places to redirect it to. Thats how I see it?

 

[Tater]

I don't trim anything. It won't "redirect" energy to the top. It will take energy from the whole plant to heal.

Wrong. The technique NewbieG is talking about is proven and works for many fruiting/flowering plants. The trick is to remove the fruit/flower and not the leaves. Its a very simple experiment if you don't believe me. Grow say 10 plants together so that you have a small but decent sample size. Then on half of them remove the lower bud sites leaving the leaves and fan leaves on the plant. The plants with the lower bud sites removed will end up with top colas. There is in essence very little for the plant to heal, it won't try to grow back the bud sites, and as long as you leave the leaves its ability to produce food isn't diminished in the slightest.

Let er rip NewbieG, just be careful when removing the bud sites and be sure to use disinfected and sharp scissors or a razor blade to avoid unnecessary trauma and possible infection.

 

[dank.bud76]

tater, fill a brother in please. you say trim them and they will end up with a top cola. does it mean the other side branch buds turn into a big top cola like the one already there or does the top cola grow larger? just trying to figure this new trick you mentioned out!

 

[NewbieG]

Wrong. The technique NewbieG is talking about is proven and works for many fruiting/flowering plants. The trick is to remove the fruit/flower and not the leaves. Its a very simple experiment if you don't believe me. Grow say 10 plants together so that you have a small but decent sample size. Then on half of them remove the lower bud sites leaving the leaves and fan leaves on the plant. The plants with the lower bud sites removed will end up with top colas. There is in essence very little for the plant to heal, it won't try to grow back the bud sites, and as long as you leave the leaves its ability to produce food isn't diminished in the slightest.

Let er rip NewbieG, just be careful when removing the bud sites and be sure to use disinfected and sharp scissors or a razor blade to avoid unnecessary trauma and possible infection.

Good Call on the disinfected scissors. I'm actually going to use a sterilize exacto knife and just cut them out that way. I just trimmed the lower branches on Sunday but they recovered very well and started literally doubling their very small bud size daily since then. They are now drinking on average a gallon of water a piece a day but I really want to concentrate the buds and go for quality. Not a big fan of the popcorn buds.

 

[Tater]

tater, fill a brother in please. you say trim them and they will end up with a top cola. does it mean the other side branch buds turn into a big top cola like the one already there or does the top cola grow larger? just trying to figure this new trick you mentioned out!

Whoa, slow down brother. All I'm saying is that if you trim a budsite without removing the leaves the plant will direct its energy to the remaining budsites. Its a technique used in all types of gardening. It won't change how your plant grows, only genetics do that. Other than that I'm not to sure what you are asking really.

 

[Mutt]

So what your saying is to just cut the buds off and leave the leaves?
that makes some sense...but not for my uneasy hands. but wouldn't that be as much of a pain as pulling nanners off hermie bud? Which I chuck hermies, but did have a grow where they all did it, so figured...what the hell finish it out and just pulled off as many nanners as i could.

 

[BBFan]

Tater's right on this one- the plants energy when in flower goes to all buds- but those lower ones will never amount to anything more than hash trim. If they're not getting light and are smaller than the rest, cut them off.
The energy will be redirected to the other buds.

 

[Tater]

Mutt yup, just like world record setting pumpkin growers will pluck all the flowers but one from a polinated vine, you can do the same thing with marijuana. I would do it though in the first couple weeks, the smaller the budsite before its picked the less time and energy the plant will have wasted on it.

 

[Growdude]

I removed alot of lower branches in my White widow monster grow.

It definitely put more energy and growth into the top cola's, the trade off is that you get a bigger top bud with less or in the later case hardly any secondary buds. Vertical growth is increased as well when the plant has less branches.

IMO some "popcorn" branches should be removed because they just dont ever produce.

 

[WeedHopper]

I agree,,if they are wasting space and energy,,they need to go. That includes fan leaves at the very bottom.They are like Solar Panels,,they aint no good if the sun or light dont hittem. The cant store energy,,if they cant get to it.

 

[Tater]

That includes fan leaves at the very bottom.They are like Solar Panels,,they aint no good if the sun or light dont hittem. The cant store energy,,if they cant get to it.

You do know that even a dying leaf provides food to the plant right? If a leaf is on its way out because of lack of light or whatever, the plant will cannabilize the leaf and put those precious sugars to good use. Take away fan leaves from the bottom is literally taking food from the plant. Leave's fall off on their own when the plant no longer needs them. Unless they are dead and at risk for rotting leave em be. As for them not being able to store energy if they can't get to it, that is somewhat true, the fact that the leaf is means that it already has stored energy, remove the leaf remove the energy.

 

[NorCalHal]

Spot on Tater.

I also remove lower vegitation and bud sites. Have been for years and that is the only way to go, imo.
I have never seen ill effects of doing this. As a matter of fact, I have done this on a tray of plants, and left a couple I just was too lazy to reach. I kick myself come harvest time, because the plants I didn't get too had much smaller buds and alot of lower swag I ended up tossing.

As far as the lower leaves, I think it depends on how tall your plant is. I pretty much judge it like this.
I use 1000w lights. The efective penetrating depth is 4'. So, anything under 4' from the light I cut out, leaves bud sites and all.

I can agree with Tater on not removing leaves, but I do it any way, on the lower part of the plant. I have a fan that blows under the canopy for added circulation, and this helps with a number of things.

Interesting thread.

 

[Tater]

I can agree with Tater on not removing leaves, but I do it any way, on the lower part of the plant. I have a fan that blows under the canopy for added circulation, and this helps with a number of things.

I can see how this may benefit someone in certain situations. It was a kind of interesting thread. I like anything that makes me think and research outside of this site. I by no means have all the answers but am willing to look for them. Sometimes I'm wrong but I'd rather be wrong sometimes than ignorant all the time .

 

[lordhighlama]

One benefit to leaving the lower bud sites is that come harvest time you can leave them on the plant and use those sites to start a reveg if you are in to that kind of thing. :hubba:

 

[WeedHopper]

Everybody has an opinion,,that was just mine. The Limbs,leaves or buds I remove at the bottom seems to help my plants produce,,but thats just me.