Is it okay to trim over time?

I got behind on trimming during veg and they went into 12/12 with no defoliation. I did my best to wait until after stretch to take anything off, but I did take a few leaves off the bottoms to open it up to help with watering. After 3 weeks in 12/12 I did a decent defoil and pruned the lower branches. But for the past 2 weeks I've been clipping off fan leaves here and there when I notice they're blocking bud sites. Tonight it all just looked so bushy so I took prob 15-20 more leaves off each plant.

My question is, is cutting leaves off like that throughout flower, instead of just at one time, causing stress that will effect anything? I would kind of think it would be better to clip off a few leaves here and there vs taking a bunch off at once.

Here's some pics of them from before the defoil tonight.

I like to do a cleaning up at day 1 and day 21 if I'm able. I'll continue taking really large fan leaves throughout the flower cycle if they're causing issues and I've never seen it hurt the plant. You should be fine as long as you go slowly in mid to late flower. Nice looking plants by the way.

I wouldn’t trim a thing if they were mine

Is it a Union tent?

I use bamboo shish kabobs sticks with wire wrapped around them to stake down the branches to open up the plant and spread it out.

greentree420 said:

I use bamboo shish kabobs sticks with wire wrapped around them to stake down the branches to open up the plant and spread it out.
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Kinky

Grandpapy said:

Is it a Union tent?

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No, spider farmer.

greentree420 said:

I use bamboo shish kabobs sticks with wire wrapped around them to stake down the branches to open up the plant and spread it out.
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You stick the bamboo in the soil?

I personally try not to defoliate after day 21 of flowering. I will try tucking leaves but if
I absolutely need to remove a few to open up lower bud sites, I will.

By taking leaves from your plant you can still have good healthy crops but think of it this way for a minute, leaves produce the sugars aka food the plants need to grow and what does eating way more sugar/food than you need to, do to humans? It makes them fatter than someone who eats less sugar/food. So in my opinion, leaving leaves on the plant supplies more food/sugar to the plants so they can grow more and bigger flowers. I like fat girls in my grow room, no skinny chicks.

Don't overthink it.

Clean up lowers as necessary, and there's nothing wrong with plucking a fan leaf here and there, but don't go overboard.