I thought I should share some thoughts on the defoliation experiment. But, I want to mention that the only reason I did the experiment was because of a link that Popcorn900 posted in another thread about it. Some of you may not know but Popcorn passed away about a week ago. He had been battling cancer, his brother made a post to his thread.
RIP Brother
Not sure where to start here. Do I think that defoliating will increase overall yield... No, but I do think it will cause the buds lower on the plant to produce more resin/mature faster. In my case the lower buds didn't get noticeably larger just stickier (they still went into the trim bag and not the curing jars). This is only the second time growing JB for me but last time it did not hermie and this time it produced 2 male flowers (one was found during trimming). So, if genetics are not stable or are unknown, I wouldn't risk it. I also think it slows the plant down, not as much as some claim but slower. So, if someone had a long time to veg and limited space for flowering I do think defoliation could be used as a sort of training technique with a stable strain. And, I can admit that there could very well be setups that would benefit and might yield more (with additional veg time). But, imo the vast majority of the time defoliation will not increase yield imo.
Some other positives are that airflow is greatly improved through the canopy, and it is much easier to spray the leaves for pest control.
Because of what I learned about defoliation on this grow I will be more likely to pluck a "marginal" leaf here or there but by no means will I be aiming to defoliate again anytime soon.
I should also add that just defoliating the JB the 3 times I did was time intensive. Doesn't seem like it would take that long but it does, especially with a bush like the JB was. It is hard for me to see the cost in time VS the "reward" being worth it especially if one had to defoliate every plant in the tent.
Obviously, this was not a scientific study and I am not trying to pretend this settles anything. I only did it for my own benefit because I was curious and wanted to learn first hand. Just sharing my opinion based on my experience, others are entitled to their opinion...
Peace