Can i Defoliate a little 1 week into flowering

[Shankemdirty]

So i had to wait till a autoflower finished so these fem seeds had about a 2 and a half to 3 month veg now they have been beasts from the start they are almost hitting 4 feet while mainlined i lollipopped them but they pushing strong i know you defoliate near week 3 they have been flowering for 8 days already stretched like crazy so am i able to defoliate the bushy parts a little bit early?

They are in a 48x48x80 tent and was hard to get them out one bent a little :O but i plan on putting supports up cause i am expecting some heavy bud sights.

 

[Shankemdirty]

Kinda Nervous with how tall they are stretching i got about 20 inches from the light left but looks like they already stretched decently is the past 8 days so hopefully they slow down.

 

[UndergroundFarmer]

When photos have to wait more than four weeks to flower, they usually don't waste much time starting the flowering! I would only take the lower twigs that have no chance of making decent bud and possibly the fan leaves at the first nodes of the branches you're keeping. She looks healthy enough, go easy with the snips and just remove what won't get enough light. After that, leave her alone and let her decide which leaves she doesn't need.

 

[ChadWestport]

The popular train of though is that a little defoliation through the stretch period is alright to do. I usually recommend to tuck leaves instead of snip them if you can. They are the solar panels but you do also need to have good airflow within the plant, so it's a balance but you should be good to take a few off as of now.

 

[Shankemdirty]

I am mainly worried about the middle of the canopy as i also had to put up support sticks so it is all pushed up more towards the middle and there is fan leaves on top of fan leaves i added a fan on the bottom shooting up at the middle canopy so it does have good airflow.

 

[ChadWestport]

Yeah, fan leaves on fan leaves is bad. You'll notice the upper one will sweat on the bottom one and now there not only is water on your leaves, there is a humid microclimate in the canopy, which can lead to PM