IC, when do you like to do your defoliating and cleaning up the undersides?
thanks!
I shoot for under pruning on day 14 of flower and fan leafing on day 21.
Just FYI, and NOT to be argumentative (trolls need not respond), when you eventually "see the light" )) and switch to vertical lighting, ie, bare bulbs, you will have the same size buds on the bottom as you do on the top, with no lollypopping or defoliating necessary, + a 40% or more increase in available light. Also, quite a bit of light passes right through leaves, so although they may appear to be blocking all the light, some is getting through. That is a small point, but bare bulbs make a HUGE difference. Ready for some bud porn now........ Defoliating reduces trimming later, though, so i like it in that respect. All strains react differently to it though.
I definitely hear ya. While I won't switch over exclusively to vertical (all my lamps are being replaced next run with DE fixtures), I am thinking of reconfiguring slightly and dropping some 600W bare bulbs in conjunction with the DE fixtures. I defoliate for several reasons, and won't ever stop. I've run tons of back to back experiments and have all the hard numbers locked away in excel to show the benefits. One major one, as you pointed out, is for trimming purposes. My people dry trim everything and can routinely do 2-3 lbs / day because my final product is so easy to trim.