Should I trim this lower growth? Pros and Cons.
Warhammer Photo 5 weeks in flower.
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A good rule of thumb is to defoliate only as necessary to improve airflow within the canopy. The plant otherwise needs plenty of foliage to conduct photosynthesis and manufacture the sugars the plant needs to be productive.
She’s likely done growing at this point in favor of developing and ripening flower. It should be the last haircut she gets.
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Nice job , plant look healthy I would let her ride for now.
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Thats a good looking canopy.
I wouldn’t remove anything from the lower, its not that much farther from the light.
If it was my plants, there would be practically no big fan leafs in the top, every bud site would have at least some direct line of site with the light.
Im a big fan of heavy defoliation, if its atached with a stem and not directly atached to a bud, then its gone.
Leaving a few fans on bottom so she can still communicate with me if something goes south…
But that’s just me 
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That’s a loaded question and you’ll get a wide variety of answers.
In general, I believe that before removing even one leaf, you should make sure you’ll benefit from it. Growers usually defoliate in combination with plant training techniques like, lst or topping, this makes it easier to tie the branches or even the canopy and increases airflow which will decrease your chance for WPM.
Even though It’s recommended you only defoliate in the vegetative phase or as little as during the first 1 or 2 weeks of flowering, you may still need to remove some of the really large fan leaves near the bottom to increase airflow and help light reach any lower buds.
Basically, it’s your preference and judgement. I know that’s not a definitive answer but, IMHO, if that wee my plant, I wold get some of those really big leaves out from underneath. The plant, at this stage, isn’t ‘growing’ anymore… the vegetative stage is over.
What I usually do, look up from underneath the canopy. You should not have areas of complete cover. I first try and tuck any leaves I can but, often time, leaves just need to be removed. I would make sure every bud site has non-blocked light. And don’t defoliate to much at once… spread it out over a few days.
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Thank you, all. I took a handful, just to expose the lower to the light and improve airflow.
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