So I am currently on day 2 of flowering 12/12 and I know that it’s not necessary but if so when is the best time to get some fan leaves and excess foliage that are restricting light? I’m just nervous about it because of my inexperience and I was told that the reason I had a lot more popcorn buds and not bigger denser yield was from not doing any trimming during flower(this was during my time I was using RIU and it’s “amazing” forum LoL. Here’s a few pictures from the last few days and I am growing in a Phototron with potted soil and it’s just getting tight on space and I just started the stretch any input is welcome and remember I’m a newbie so use kindergarten talk. I will put some better pics after I wake her up later today.
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When you defoliate the idea is to make a path for the light to hit some of the lower fan leaves by clearing out some of the leaves above them (within reason). People will tell you you shouldn’t defoliate into flower cause you’ll stress the plant but I think you’d really have to go nuts to bother it. Day 2 of flip is a great time to get in there and selectively cull some fan leaves though before the plant even focuses it’s energy on flowering.
Even though I say you can I still try and do it piecemeal just in case to make sure the plant doesn’t stress over it. Trim some today, give it a day or two and trim some more.
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Your going to be in trouble for space hope she don’t stretch much
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Sorry, what do you mean when you said piecemeal? And I am actually in with my plant and I already have gotten rid of some of the leaves that are on the inside of the plant that are basically not needed and I’m focusing more on the little leaves touching or up against the branches of the preflower nodes and I am sorry for the long reply. I am just nervous about removing a fan leaf cause I have always been told previously on RIU lol to NEVER cut fan leaves.
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I usually let them stretch before I make defoliation decisions. It’s easier to tell what needs to go.
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Yeah that can go.
I usually strip the bottom 1/3 but in a phototron it might be different.
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I just wanted to add, you can trim or defoliate up twenty days or three weeks into flowering. I usually start off with well trained plants going into flower, then defol weekly to keep airways and light. Just a hint, next grow start training your plants so it’s not too much on her for removal of a few leaves.
Also, that’s a nice healthy plant you have
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Piecemeal means a little here, a little there. Instead of trying to trim everything you want to trim at once you would do some one day, give the plant a day or two to adjust and do more, etc.
I cut fan leaves I just don’t like the color of 
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Like @Foreigner said. Right now I would only trim up the bottom. Waisted energy down there. As it stretches I’d selectively trim fan leaves to expose more nodes to the light.
Edit: Im not sure how but I completely missed that its in the phototron. now that is cool!
this changes the way I think about this, its not really wasted energy as it has light surrounding it. I think in this case id take all the fan leaves off, any that have a longer stem to them. I would still take that little cluster off the very bottom though.
It would be an experiment for sure and I dont want to take you down a wrong path, but with the phototron I think that is how I would handle it.
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just bend the whole plant to one side. all them branches will be huge colas.
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Shes a beauty nice work
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I have taken the cluster off the bottom and some of the leaves on the stems of the nodes that are against the stalk or touching other nodes and I am going to leave it for a few days and see how it responds before I go Edward scissor hands on it plus I have never done any pruning/ trimming as it’s my second grow and here’s a picture of the first grow in the phototron and the stains Black Eyed Katy and remember these are from my first ever grow so be nice
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Dude, that looks great for your first grow!!
Im not going to show my first now, ever! lol
sounds like you have a plan there, always better to ease in.
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I’m not much of a leaf puller, but I mostly make hash, so small popcorn buds don’t bother me. If you feel the need to take some leaves to open the plant up, take more from the bottom or middle that aren’t getting much light anyway. You may want to take a few every day rather than a lot at once.
Pretty cool you are growing in a phototron. @PhilCuisine does a lot of phototron grows too. Maybe he can give you some helpful tips.
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PhilCuisine is the reason I have recently joined OG and said bye to RIU so I am waiting to hear from him but it’s been awesome so far on OG and the feedback I have gotten in a month is more than I got through RIU in 2 years and mainly because I was growing in a phototron and it just started to be a joke for me to even attempt to use one and I was the brunt of the constant criticism and how it was never going to flower and yield anything in a old pos and I didn’t have any laughter after I successfully got my first grow to harvest but I did it and today I officially got the bug and absolutely love growing and watching how a tiny seed given the right environment can turn into a big beautiful flower.
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Hi, what is the basis of this?
I am not challenging, just want to understand more, especially any science that might be behind this.
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Hell of a nice first grow nothing wrong with how she turned out.
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Dr. G, I saw this post 15mins after you posted it this morning but I didn’t want to comment because I dont want you think that I’m always hijacking your threads…this here below has the right answer…but in your case you can’t just bend it over because it will snap off…
I figured that it’s been in veg for 7wks. and that main stalk is probably woody…you might have to use some pliers and squeeze the main stalk before you can bend it…it will grow like it’s been topped and the side branches will get bigger but you will still have the main top bud…it will buy some time.
I know for sure the my my current Vietnam Thunder Fuck grow will need to bent over but I can use my fingers to just pinch hard on the main stalk before I bend it down…here’s an old picture of SWC/TRON grow showing the trick on how it will look like…
My lights won’t come on until 12 noon in my tron and I might not have to bend it yet…oh hell its 12:20 now…I take a picture once get get home.
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As usual thanks for your continued help with the phototron and just your overall input and we’re gonna take it all back to the phototron Era and dominate! LoL but seriously I can’t wait for the lights to come on and I just pray 
I won’t snap it right off because you’re spot on with the veg time so yuppers she’s a thick robust stalk but I will see how things are going when I wake up
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