New Grower What do leaves do?

[GMan]

A hypothetical question.

So you're girl is coming close to the finish line. You've cut out all your nutes, flushing with ph water.

Now the leaves are showing major signs of deficiency, dying and falling off.

The question is, are they needed anymore? What purpose are they serving? Would a severe pruning at this point, to allow light to the lower bud sites cause any problems? Or would the stress be detrimental?

 

[Balarama]

Leaves store stuff which gets used by the plant as food, thus leaves change colors and fade.
I think defoliation makes sense only if plants are fed properly, during flushing a plant would starve before if defoliated.

 

[Renaissance Redneck]

At this point, GMan, your gal is using up all her stored energy. That's a good thing.
That close to harvest, I'd just let her do her thing. Any benfit of extra light would be offset by the shock of pruning.
My 2 cents....

 

[GMan]

My thinking was, if the leaves are decaying all the energy in those leaves has been used, so are they needed?

 

[wheredaweedat]

@GMan - no. they aren't needed, and a lot of the ones that are showing def. signs, if you just give them the slightest tug, they should come right off....at least in my case(s) anyways. Others will just fall off naturally, some never fall off.
IMO, being so close to finishing, gently tugging at the leaves isn't necessarily going to hurt your plant, because they were on their way to falling off anyways, you know?

also a win win - less to trim off at harvest, and more light to lower bud sites as she finishes completely.

Again - this is all IMO and what i personally have done.

 

[Renaissance Redneck]

IMO, being so close to finishing, gently tugging at the leaves isn't necessarily going to hurt your plant, because they were on their way to falling off anyways, you know?
also a win win - less to trim off at harvest, and more light to lower bud sites as she finishes completely.

Exellent point, wheredaweed!:thumbs:
Yep, I also remove the ones that are just barely hanging on. I was just saying no need to go nuts with a pair of scissors and a machete!

 

[Epic Genetics]

light does not feed the "buds" light together with leaves do , and at the end the stored sugars etc the plants NEED are in those leaves , dont pull off any leaves if they still have even a slight green to them , the plants will discard them on their own

if a leaf is obviously dead then thats an exception , but if it doesnt want to come off without an actual tug its not ready to come off

we feed the roots , they together with the sun feed the plant , we NEED leaves right up till the end for that last ditch growth explosion when the buds really fatten up , most people never see that explosion because plants appear ready before that actually happens

keep your leaves and if you think your plant is done give it 10 days - 2 weeks longer , you will be amazed

peace

 

[toke]

A wise ol bird once said "most people never see that explosion because plants appear ready before that actually happens" :thumbs:word that shit bob.:tiphat:

toke:Sharing One:

 

[Renaissance Redneck]

word that shit bob.

I'm hep to that jive!!

 

[hippy]

that's a good question. a bit ago I came home to find that my son had MAJORLY trimmed a plant that was 2 weeks from going into the flowering tent and I thought it was ruined. much to my surprise it ended up being the most productive of the 4, but then again it wasn't an auto.if you have more then 1 plant why not just try it on one and see how t goes? i would just pull the big fan leaves tho .

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that's a good question. a bit ago I came home to find that my son had MAJORLY trimmed a plant that was 2 weeks from going into the flowering tent and I thought it was ruined. much to my surprise it ended up being the most productive of the 4, but then again it wasn't an auto.if you have more then 1 plant why not just try it on one and see how t goes? i would just pull the big fan leaves tho .