HELP! Too late to defoliate?

[Gjourney101]

My plant has been in 12/12 for one day. I put off defoliating because I topped her instead and she wasn't growing vertically much at first, but now she's really gaining her momentum. She's recovered from topping and is moving steadily.
There are fan leaves and smaller foliage at the bottom of the plant (the bottom 1/3)
I'm wondering if I can remove them now or if it's too late.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Is she was mine, all I'd do is spread her out an tie her down, no defoliating.

[Sudsnbuds]

It’s never too late to defoliate. I literally just finished defoliating a plant 5 weeks in flower. And defoliating is an ongoing process.

[Papapuff559]

I'm heading into week 4 of flowering and I defoliated just a couple days ago. You're still good to go

[quirk]

I remove everything under node 4 on my plants because it never amounts to enough to counter the pain in the butt it causes me in training and watering.

[Gjourney101]

Okay I just removed a good amount of the base level leaves that weren't getting any light. There are 2 large fan leaves at the very bottom (in picture) Can I remove them?

[quirk]

Damn that looks good. I wouldn't hesitate to remove bottom two.