I fully understand the principal (and it makes sense to me) of why to defoliate, but the question is where? Yes, I get that I want to get rid of a light obstruction, but do I clip the fan leaves off the main stem and avoid cutting the fan leaves coming from the side shoots, or the other way around? Or does it not matter?
Now i have a better idea of what you’re asking lol. Yes snip some of those bigger side fan leaves to get more light penetration. And you can cut the ones from the main or side it doesn’t matter. Im a year in still learning myself lol my valley girl og
If you’re not flowering then I’d start defoliating from the bottom up. Clean up what won’t be useful during the flowering stage. Once you flip into flowering you can remove large fan leaves from areas covering bud sites.