The Importance Of Leaves.

[traymondo]

good thread grub,but why does lollypoping go on then?i thought i should have left my girls alone,thier so bushy i just wanted to make sure lower bud sites would thrive,but dos,nt it mean that if you do lollypoping that the smaller bud sites would be taking energy and food away from better top bud sites?

[traymondo]

yeah have always got the point,so y be it peeps say about lollypoping and even triming?

[traymondo]

yeah i get what your saying bud,but some would say you dont need direct light?so its the same as what im saying yeah?

[Grouter]

Dam wish i read this before i did the same!! But But... my plant is really really dense and there is still loads of fan leaves on it (2 weeks into flowering). So lol will it still be ok? (trying to convince myself i think) cheers

[j4ck_fl4sh_3k]

Great info,

Have cut leaves off in the past but with current grow am going to leave the most of them on. I'm sure that leaves help with the overall taste, but can't say this with 100% certainty!

[Fieldy]

thanks grub

[Grub]

I can see how removing leaves can damage the growth of the plant but i was under the impression that when using CFL's to grow the light barely penetrates through the canopy (I can see this in my own grow where the lower regions of the plant are darkly shaded by top tier leaves. When flowering the buds will have better growth when exposed more to direct light so trimming off the necessary fan leaves shading the buds would help your yield. Have i got it wrong?

Basically Yes, you have got it wrong. The buds don't take in the light, the leaves do. The light is then converted into food which promotes bud growth.

[doctor gonz0]

This is the blurb on the 'House and Garden' website regarding their product Bud-XL.

Start adding Bud-XL to the nutrient after the first flowers are formed. This is the period when the big bracts lose their functions. By adding Bud-XL you ensure that the plant's energy is no longer used for keeping the bract, but is directed into forming the flowers and fruits of the plants. Bud-XL also extracts sugars from the bracts and transports them to the flowers or fruits.

I currently doing a scrog and the advice on this thread says it is ok to remove leaves for scrogging but as i am using the above product, i feel i should be keeping as many as possible so the Bud XL does its job. My questions are...

1. Would i be correct in thinking the above blurb was saying that at the formation of the first flowers, the big bracts (fan leaves) stop photosynthesising and become nothing more than energy stores?
2. If that is the case then surely I could safely tuck these leaves, without breaking the stem, as far out the way as possible and they would still retain their function?

I've been tucking them away for a few days now. I've actually been using some of them to support buds that never quite made it to the screen so they get some light. Now i wonder if im doing more harm than good. Any thoughts???

Cheers

gonz0

[wazza]

some good advice from most people nice one

[wazza]

what is the coup on lighting then is 125 watt dual spectrum cfl good for growing sometimes you have to ask instead of trolling through the archives for the answer you want advice appreciated.