You can remove fan leaves during flowering in much the same way you do during veg. Prune away large leaves that are overshadowing bud sites, as well as dead or dying fan leaves. One thing to keep in mind is that you should prune in intervals, giving at least a couple weeks between each session.
Trimming and defoliations is an important technique that can help in keeping your cannabis plant as healthy as possible. If done correctly, trimming can give the harvest from your cannabis plant a significant boost.
All the leaves of a cannabis plant are necessary for healthy growth, but the fan leaves are the largest and take in the most light, but they also cast the largest shadow when fully developed. Photosynthesis refers to the process through which plants use sunlight to synthesize nutrients from carbon dioxide and water.
Usually, growers trim the fan leaves weeks before harvest, which is a period that leads to senescence, a phase in the plant cycle when the larger leaves start fading away. It is safe to start removing these dying leaves and continue until harvest. However, the main trimming processes commence after harvest.
If you've never defoliated before, we recommend you always play it safe and stick to removing only the foliage that very obviously impedes bud production. In particular, focus on big fan leaves and interior foliage that's already covering bud sites.
Removing these fan leaves opens up light and produces better air exchange to the lower canopy. Healthy leaves at the bottom of the canopy should be kept to trap valuable light from being lost and wasted. The more quality light a flowering site receives, the larger it will grow and the faster it will mature.
Shock to the plant: Defoliating too many leaves at once can cause stress and shock to the plant, affecting its growth and health. Reduced yields: If the plant is defoliated too early or too late, it can reduce yields and the overall quality of the buds.
Capitate sessile trichomes are typically only visible with a microscope. They can be identified by their mushroom-shaped structure attached to the plant without a stalk and are often located on the underside of sugar leaves and fan leaves.
The fan leaves, as we mentioned, are the large leaves that develop during the vegetative growth phase. They function like solar panels, absorbing light and converting it into energy for the plant to grow. These leaves can also serve as emergency storage for certain nutrients like nitrogen.
For most cannabis strains, the flowering period will last about 7-9 weeks, although some sativas require even longer for their buds to mature.
So there are three different times we recommend defoliating during Flower: Right before you switch to 12/12. Once between the beginning of Flower and the 3-week mark. 3 weeks after beginning flower is the last time you'll want to defoliate.
Cannabis plants often shed older fan leaves (especially at the end of their life), which turn yellow before falling to the ground. During the flowering phase, plants divert most of their energy towards the flowers, which also tends to cause slight yellowing of the leaves.
We typically do a heavy defoliation in either Week 2 or Week 3, it just depends on how the plants look, as well as fitting into our schedule of weekly tasks at the farm. After we do our heavy defoliation, we wait a full two weeks before coming back again at the end of Week 4 or beginning of Week 5. And that is it.
Arguably the most common mistake that newbie cannabis cultivators make is stripping too many of the fan leaves from the plant. Cultivators should not prune more than 1/3 of the fan leaves on a cannabis plant in any given pruning session. Also, pruning sessions should be limited.
Some selective removal is okay but always err on the side of caution when taking off fan leaves. Remember that the natural yellowing that occurs towards the end of the cannabis life cycle are natural and a good sign that nutrients are leaching out of your plant, for cleaner burning and better tasting buds.
Nutritional Facts of Fan Leaves. Raw leaves can provide the body with an abundance of essential nutrients, including protein, fats, carbohydrates, and trace amounts of calcium, sodium, potassium, and omega-3 fatty acids.
When the plant approaches maturity, the pistils change color and take on a brown or orange hue. This is a sign that the biological functions of the plant have slowed and it is no longer seeking pollen for seed production. Guideline #2: Harvest marijuana when 70% of the pistils have turned brown or orange.
At this stage, you can observe completely mature trichomes with fully developed bulbous. Most of the ripe trichomes turn completely yellow while some of them could still be milky with a slight golden hue. You need to wait until 70% of trichomes have turned amber to get higher concentration of CBD and THC.
When trichomes are cloudy and ready for harvest, you'll likely notice that 50-70% of the white “hairs” on your buds have turned amber. Keep in mind that if you wait too long and trichomes turn amber you will lose THC potency. The key thing to look for is milky, cloudy trichomes, as they contain the highest THC levels.
You can remove fan leaves during flowering in much the same way you do during veg. Prune away large leaves that are overshadowing bud sites, as well as dead or dying fan leaves. One thing to keep in mind is that you should prune in intervals, giving at least a couple weeks between each session.
You'll want to lollipop your plants just before they begin flowering. We also recommend pruning—removing unnecessary branches—as well, although you should proceed slowly, and with a plan.
Once your plants are in the flowering stage, you will definitely need to defoliate them during or after the post-veg stretch. That is because after switching to the 12/12 light cycle, your plant will go through a tremendous growth spurt for about three weeks. We recommend defoliating your plant in Wee 2 of Flower.
A Schwazze is essentially an extreme defoliation. Where 100% of the fan leaves are removed from the plant during specific times of the flowering cycle. How can trimming and pruning a cannabis plant possibly increase its yield? It's kind of Yin and Yang if you think about it.
During week 2, the first white pistils will grow on the female cannabis plants. These fine, wispy white hairs develop at the locations where the big fan leaves meet the main stem. These white hairs are what later become the buds of the plant, called colas.
Well that concludes are look at Week 5. The plants have gotten deeper into flower, the buds are getting bigger, and the vegetative growth has slowed.