New Plants & Big Leaves -- Flowers & Fruit

[SanSoo]

I grow my seedlings in mostly shade, which seems to give them big leaves and thicker stalks, as they must work harder (my theory anyway, lol). Maybe I baby them too much during the first year. But come 2nd year when the bare stems begin to leaf again in full sun, the leaves are always much smaller as the plant seems to take on a different character. Older & wiser maybe? More Mature?

(SanSoo strokes the fingers thru his thinning gray hair.)

But this thread is about the 1st year of plant development.

Once plants begin to bud, I have experimented with pinching the big leaves off, tho some plants I left alone.

The plants of which I pinch the big leaves seem to flower & fruit faster and stronger, while the other plants wilt in the hot sun each day as they struggle to stay alive. I have lost a few, actually.

The survivors do bear fruit, but they seem to lag behind somewhat.

What are your Thoughts & Experiences?

To Pinch or not to Pinch, that is the question.

'Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles'...

Rick

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Here's a Fatalii plant that had the large lower leaves removed. You can see the new branches forming.

This one was striped of lower leaves as well and looked similar to the one above.
Sorry no earlier shot. This pic was taken 6-20-09.

And here is the same plant above on 8-14-09. I'll let you be the judge on removing lower leaves.

 

[bigt]

I pinch flowers & buds early on, at least I did this year. I never pinch vegetation unless it is turning yellow and starting to fall off anyway.

 

[Silver_Surfer]

The lower leaves I removed were huge and once their shading of the lower plant was removed a new branch formed at each node where a leaf was before. I'm sure it increased the pods this plant produced.

 

[patrick]

I removed a bunch of huge leaves from several plants this year. All of them had replacement growth that made the plants look so much fuller, led to more branches which led to more flowers and pods.