I find there's usually a few leafs and some lower growth that does need removing, it's the version of removing 50+% of leafs purely for the sake of removing them I can't get my head around?
When you remove the leaves you get a smaller version that regrows, taking up less canopy. Plus you're opening up tons of airflow and light. I pruned almost every leaf along with the bud sites up to the tips. Then I let it all regrow, and on some of the plants tight buds formed well below the scrog. I've always defoliated lightly to moderately, and thought I may have destroyed them, but they came back furious.
This time I did the opposite. I lollipopped them, but hardly defoliated and didn't pluck any bud sites. I inspected the plants yesterday and there was tons of lime green larfy buds hiding out under the leaves. It made me concerned about bud rot, so I defoliated a bunch even though they are 7 weeks from the flip. I didn't go too hard because they are so late into flower, but next time I'm going to strip them naked.
