Confused about Defoiling

[Mcmanis]

I've read all the post about defoiling. But I'm confused on what to cut. I already lollipops. I'm in the first week of flowering. I have huge fan leaves bigger than my hand. Underneath is shadow so I know something has to go but not sure when or what to cut. Should I wait until I start seeing bud sites. Do I just cut the fan leaves or the whole leaves? I'll add pics for visual.

 

[SirSmksAlot]

From my experience I defoiliate a week before flower. Once in flower I try to only tuck the fan leaves out of the way to open up bud sites. I only remove leaves if I absolutely need to. You want to put your plants through the least amount of stress possible during flower. Your plant will stretch quite a bit in the next 3 to 4 weeks opening up the bud sites. Hope I was of some help.

 

[MBVapester]

Nice grow. That is real thick. I have defoliated during flower at least to the end of the stretch. In general if a fan leaf is blocking a bud node below it then I take it out. Hold your fingers on the stem of the leaf and if you give it a bit of a pull down you will hear a slight snap sound and it should break clean from the main stem. Looks like you are scrogging so try to tuck and get the tops spread out evenly. You don’t want to remove all the fans as they will provide food for your buds. During the stretch more fans will be produced so early on you can remove more as new ones will grow above but once the stretch is done no new ones will be made and the plant will need some so from that point it’s only tuck them out of the way.

 

[Mr.furley]

Take ten of the biggest leafs off looking down at the top of the plant like your second picture.
cut them here

So your plant looks like this from the top

wait a week and see if it needs it again.