From what I've researched the top of the plant gets a lot of the plants resources. You can see a similar thing in nature the majority of growth is at the top of the plants and trees. It makes sense for pollination to have many pistils high up the plant to capture pollen.
the fan leafs are huge on most plants. The surface area of one fan leaf is probly 2x or 3x more than the tri-leaflets that surround the buds on most plants. They do serve there purpose for a majority of flowering until they become yellow and start falling off allowing more light to reach the buds.
when I first started growing I went trim happy on a plant it wasn't good. Ever since then I've never really messed with trimming in flower. I trim lower branches and sucker branches in veg, but I never really mess with trimming once she goes in flower.
Thanks
I understand apical dominance in growth stages. In flowering, do the flowers draw their energy from fan leaves on the plant or do they directly convert light into energy via photosynthesis themselves?
Does the proximity of a fan leaf determine which flower it will "support"? So if I cut a fan leaf on a branch, will the flower on that branch suffer or will it manifest as an overall reduction in flowering?
Would flowers grow just the same if you covered them all with opaque material and only left the fan leaves to absorb light?
Why do the lowest leaves on a plant start to die off as the plant gets larger?
Why does "LST" work? You are exposing lower shoots to light and they grow up like main branches. Seems like more light to a particular area equals more growth. If I cut a fan leaf off to expose a growth shoot to direct light, that shoot grows faster. Why?
When taking cuttings, it is often advised to leave little leaf material so the plant can focus on growing roots. So you are sacrificing one growth aspect for another. Kind of like cutting fan leaves that are blocking light from growth shoots.
If the leaves fall off during flowering so the buds can get more light, why not help them along a bit? A plants goal in nature isnt to have "big buds". it is to get pollinated and produce seeds. It is trying to grow bigger than the others so it has a better chance.
The questions are somewhat rhetorical. Just trying to get some questioning happening.
To me, it makes sense to prune. Not defoliate the entire plant, but selectively prune to expose the areas with most potential to maximum available light. Also to promote good air circulation.