Hey, feel free to post pictures of your plant so we can see and give our advice based on the plant! Many plants would benefit from defoliating, but not all
Growers definitely can over-pluck their plants and stunt growth, and that's most common with first time growers.
The idea is to take enough leaves that it causes the plant to have certain internal reactions that improves how the plant grows. If you take too many leaves, even if your plant recovers that doesn't mean the growth and yields are as good as they would have been if you've left more leaves.
I'm definitely not the most experienced grower out there, but I've defoliated hundreds of plants over several dozen indoor grows. As I've gotten to know the plants better, there are times I wish I'd defoliated more, but there's also definitely times I am certain I would have improved my yields or gotten faster vegetative growth by defoliating less.
​Each leaf produces energy from light and if you take too many the plant needs time to "re-leaf" before it really starts growing at full pace again. In late flowering it can't make new leaves anymore at all.
Sometimes after you strip the plant it stops growing and is stunted for a few days. If you overdo it in veg you only lose time because the plant can easily recover after a few days, but if you take too many leaves in flowering you lose yields. Colas that are plucked too much during the first 3 or 4 weeks don't grow as tall, so you get shorter buds. Your buds stop fattening without lots of green healthy leaves to make energy from the light.
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Even if you look at other commercial crops that use defoliation to improve yields (for example cotton) it not just a matter of removing leaves whenever,
you need to do it strategically to get that balance between the reaction you want while stunting the plant as little as possible. With cotton they've been studying for over 50 years to pinpoint exactly
when and
how much to defoliate for the best yields. They're still studying, and I think cannabis growers are too.
You'll see on this forum that there are as many "best" ways to grow as there are growers! I've shared what I believe and everyone has their own opinion - honestly with something as subjective as training, there's no way everyone will ever agree
So my advice is to post some pictures of your plants you want to defoliate so we can take a look
And welcome to the forum!
