Help with trimming lower fan leaves!

[herb]

I need to trim my lower fan leaves to make more space for airflow as they are very big and blocking alot of light and growth. Where should i cut the leaves off exactly? ( flush with main stem or where the leaf meats with the branch therefor leaving a stump). And should i just cut off a few leaves leaving some to work as solar panels?
Some help will b greatly appreciated thanku...

 

[BBFan]

Hello Kero tcv-

This question gets asked alot and the answer is always the same-

Don't cut off any fan leaves! Doing so actually slows growth.

 

[herb]

Thankyou, sorry for silly question then.. but greatly appreciated

 

[legalize_freedom]

You can cut a couple sets of bottom branches from your plants (lollipopping) to increase air flow. These are also prime canidates for clones, as the most bottom branches clone easier. These guys above are right about just randomly cutting leaves, you generally do not want to do that. But your going to remove some leaves when you lollipop your plants, or take clones.

 

[smithgrown]

hey guys sorry to pop in on this thread but i recently had a huge prob with heat and ened up losing all but 4 of my fan leaves on a 4ft plant. with what was said above does this mean the rest of my flowering cycle will be very slow or not productive at all? she has been flowering for 7 weeks now but lost the fans on weeks 4 and 5

thanks guys happy growing

 

[BBFan]

hey guys sorry to pop in on this thread but i recently had a huge prob with heat and ened up losing all but 4 of my fan leaves on a 4ft plant. with what was said above does this mean the rest of my flowering cycle will be very slow or not productive at all? she has been flowering for 7 weeks now but lost the fans on weeks 4 and 5

thanks guys happy growing

Hey Smithgrown-

Sorry to hear of your troubles. We've all been there at one time or another. My experience with a large loss of fan leaves (nute problem) was that growth came to a screeching halt.

For me, all I could do was wait for the trichs to ripen- bud mass did not increase.

Good luck with her.

 

[legalize_freedom]

hey guys sorry to pop in on this thread but i recently had a huge prob with heat and ened up losing all but 4 of my fan leaves on a 4ft plant. with what was said above does this mean the rest of my flowering cycle will be very slow or not productive at all? she has been flowering for 7 weeks now but lost the fans on weeks 4 and 5

thanks guys happy growing

My first indoor grow I had 6 afghani's going, all being fed and watered the same thing, One ended up getting somekind of, what I believe now to be a nute lockout, from my ph being too low. Anyway, all the fan leaves got dried out and died, and the ones that didn't die (very few) if they had the spots on them, I cut them off. This plant finished at the same time as the other 5, slightly less yield, and had the same taste, and effect as the others. Good Luck to you.

 

[smithgrown]

thanks for the info guys.... the truth isnt always pretty...lol

happy growing to all!!!!!

 

[herb]

im not trying to randomly cut off the fan leaves.
I just think i might have too because of my small space and lack of airflow. (Massivley short and stocky plants) the tops are lushious the bottom is ok and green but some leaves in the very very back corner- thats like an amazon junjle! is getting brown dots, but still look healthy..

 

[BBFan]

Hey Kero_TCV-

Those brown spots may actually be a ph problem. Do you have pics?

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

How much ventilation do you have? I find most people with small grows are often underventilated, believing that small grows do not need it.

 

[herb]

My flow system is very big for my room, 250mm centrfugal extracting and 150mm inline intake. ph always between 5.8 and 6.2. pics in my profile, much bigger now but.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

My flow system is very big for my room, 250mm centrfugal extracting and 150mm inline intake. ph always between 5.8 and 6.2. pics in my profile, much bigger now but.

What does that translate to in CFMs (really the only thing that matters).

What is the pH of your runoff?

 

[herb]

whats a runoff sorry? I have DWC, the water n nutrients inside is a ph of around 5.8 - 6.5,
My fans are 200mm 180watt 2800r/minute
150mm is 40watt only used as air coming in

 

[legalize_freedom]

Thats a pretty wide margin 5.8 to 6.5, do you not have a ph pen that gives you an exact ph? If you don't you should really get one, especially for doing hydro, soil is a little more forgiving, but your going to need a good ph tester for hydro. Run-off is the water that runs out of the bottom of your pots after you water, and it has ran through your soil...but since you are doing DWC, it won't apply. You really need an accurate ph test to know where you stand, if your ph is off it will lock out nutrients, and your plant won't be able to use them. So what looks like a defeciency, and probably is, could be caused by that particular nutrient being abundant in the medium, but the roots are not able to uptake it. I hope this makes sense...fix your ph, and the rest of your problems will be easier diagnosed.

 

[leafminer]

Your extract fan is a lot bigger than your inlet fan, so your grow room will be under negative pressure. That's what you designed it for? It will prevent odors escaping.

 

[noobiewithadoobie]

Thats a pretty wide margin 5.8 to 6.5, do you not have a ph pen that gives you an exact ph? If you don't you should really get one, especially for doing hydro, soil is a little more forgiving, but your going to need a good ph tester for hydro. Run-off is the water that runs out of the bottom of your pots after you water, and it has ran through your soil...but since you are doing DWC, it won't apply. You really need an accurate ph test to know where you stand, if your ph is off it will lock out nutrients, and your plant won't be able to use them. So what looks like a defeciency, and probably is, could be caused by that particular nutrient being abundant in the medium, but the roots are not able to uptake it. I hope this makes sense...fix your ph, and the rest of your problems will be easier diagnosed.

If your ph was out of whack and nutes are actively being locked out, how long will it take for hydro plants to recover once you have flushed with ph'd water and nutes assuming just slowed growth (which is my case) has occurred and no real damage?

 

[legalize_freedom]

noobie....I'm not a hydro guy, so I'm not sure, I know in soil it can take a couple weeks to recover from a ph problem, and if in flower...2 weeks can really set ya back, thats why IMO ph is really the most important thing to watch...so many people worry about what to feed and when...but the feed isn't working to it's potential if the ph is off.

I'm sure you can get it to recover faster with hydro...but I don't know how much...hopefully one of the hydro folks will see this and respond, sorry I'm not much help in that area.

 

[herb]

Thankyou those replying to my last post.

Legalize.... my ph is only 5.8-6.5 the first time or two i check then sits on a constant 6.2, is that ok or what is the right ph level for hydro?
But my plants are looking much more healthy looking as time grows. I am using the SCROG method also, everything underneath the mesh seems a little less lighted than the rest but still very green, bushy and healthy.. thats what i was worried about (whether to trim fan leaves to get light down their?) I tried a wall mounted 100watt light but it was too close too leaves, as my plants are growing flush with all four walls, im in the 2nd week of flower now and they are half the height of my grow room. can i use chicken wire again?? im just worried as they are growing still i will run outa space. i have the light as close as possible without burning them...
all help needed thanks...

 

[legalize_freedom]

I'm not into hydro, but I looked in Jorge C's book and he says 5.8 to 6.5 in hydro is where you want it...it seems like I see it recomended lower on here though, you may want to check through the resources for ph, cause Jorge also recomends 6.5-7.0 for soil, and I think that is a little high I was under the assumption that it is 6.3-6.8 for soil...and have been running mine at 6.5 (in soil) for the last 4 grows. I hope this didn't confuse you