I remember the first time in my life that I planted a Cannabis seed, I was like 20 years old, I bought some weed on the street, the bud had 1 seed, I thought that was a good idea to plant that seed but i had no clue on how to grow it.
So I picked one plastic pot, i filled it with soil that I took for free from I dont know where, and planted that seed on april outdoors on one balcony, I gave water from time to time to that plant (actually i watered it only when I remember to do it and it wasnt very often), the only "botanical" thing i knew at that time was that Cannabis grow at spring and summer and flowers at late august beginning of fall season. The plant that was regular (i didnt know there was feminized seeds available nor I knew that was possible to buy seeds, im from Spain and 20 years ago nobody listened nothing about seed companies) the seed turned out to be a female.
On October my plant was full of buds that were potent, I just realized how strong and resilient is Cannabis plant (botanical scientists say that cannabis is a pioneering plant that overgrows everything).
So that plant received only water, free soil, 1 minute of care per day, and that plant made a living for herself and gave me perfectly smoke-able stuff, everybody got stoned and happy with that weed, here we are talking about "real" free cannabis, free seed, free pot, free soil, free light (sun).
There was no lollipopping, no scrog, no LST, no Ro water, no expensive fertilizers and "additives", no flushing, no care, and specially no clue about the most basic horticulture, BUT the plant managed to give my a good amount of nice and potent buds.
Right now I'm studying a lot of horticulture and botanical books (not cannabis specific) and also i'm reading a lot how tropical biotopes works, questions arise like ¿what is the typical composition and fertility of soil in tropical forests? (the ideal environment for cannabis), ¿what are the climate conditions lets say humidity, rain frequency, wind, etc? i think that understand how is the natural environment of Cannabis can be very useful to understand the plant itself.
My approach in Cannabis growing is to give cannabis plant the proper environment, in nature there is no such things like LST, scrog, Lollipopping, deleafing, flushing (all scientists agree with that flushing in nature is actually bad and is caused because natural disasters, and no wise grower want "disasters" on his indoor or outdoor), etc.
I, ve learned a lot reading forum threats from very expert growers like Uncle Ben and others, also I,ve learned a lot form spanish pro-growers with decades of experience ,every pro has its own ways of growing and tastes (hydro, organic, indicas, sativas, etc), but one thing that I realized and it seems to be a mathematical thing, pro growers with tons of experience can grow for real free super excellent weed outdoors and indoors never rely his ways on cannabis "specific" fertilizers or "techniques" like deleafing etc, because they just understand things like scrog and deleafing are a lot of extra unnecessary work and are harmful techniques that stress weed plants and often stunt them.
Thank you Uncle Ben and the other experienced growers for sharing for free true and scientifically proven knowledge, you guys have enlighten some growers like myself.
it appears you like science, so you'll know why Shaded leaves are undesired and be pro lollipopping for certain circumstances. You also said you like the idea, or understand using defoliation to control height. Man, are you pro defoliation :/ but scared to say it