Listen, I'm like the KING of defoliation..........my first 6 crops under LED's I defoliated the crap out of them and pulled leaves thru the entire grow. The veg growth under these white lights is amazing. I'm actually running an experiment and am resisting the urge to remove a bunch. This is also a strain that's not leafy......yeah, right. LOL I did remove 8 of the largest sun leaves the first 2 weeks of flowering though, so keep that in mind. Everything is super healthy, no runts which is nice. I will begin doing a flush every 3rd watering now, so there's no salt buildup too.......