I am just new to posting things to this site .... So you can either disregard what i say or take it on board , either way , iam not to worried . I think there are pros and cons of both defoliating and not defoliating. I have predominantly grown indoors throughout my 15 years of growing up until 8 months ago i had never heard of defoliation. But as soon as i did , i gave it a try ... and i must admit , yes it does make your bottom buds tighter and more mature , on the other hand it does make your leaders reduce in size some what , i havent found that it has any affect on the quality at all. at the end of the day which ever method you choose given that you feed , ventilate and keep them damn mites at bay , the only difference is bud size , yield from what i have found is pretty much identical , all you are doing is shifting the growth from what you would have had at the top of the plant to further down your plant . So in my opinion , just go with whatever method you like , its all a learning curve .