To defoliate or not?

Hello!
New to growing here and am learning a lot. I’ve grown my 1st autoflower to week 5 and, in my opinion, is super healthy. I started LST training 1.5 weeks ago. Here’s a picture. My question is, as a 1st time grower with an autoflower at week 5 amd preflowering, should I consider doing some slight defoliating to expose the smaller, lower buds to light? Or should I just continue to rotate and move branches as needed? I’ve read many pros and cons. Thoughts based on my girl?
Thanks!

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I’ll tag @not2sureyet he is super with autos and I’m sure will lead u in the right direction but from me learning from them I’d say wait til week 6 that should be roughly day 42ish. Defols are a week before flip day 21 after flip day 42 after flip then if u choose like a week before chop u can defol all the big fan leaves to ripen the buds a touch and it makes trim days easier lol. To pluck a few here or there won’t hurt u one bit tho just don’t get crazy with it and do a lot to shock her. A full blown hair cut will shock someone where as a trim or light doing u may not even notice much. Lol. But back to defols day 21 and 42 ish is roughly when the plant goes into making more roots to support what’s up top so while making it’s roots should not harm the bud making and fattening process thats why those r rough times as ro not shock the plant t while making buds or fattening buds. Hope this makes sense if not Brian will clarify. Lol.

By the way hope all is well with u @not2sureyet been a while talking. Work keeps me busy except for a day here or there but it’s nice to not worry about bills they just keep getting more expensive it seems by the month tho. Lol. Hope all is well give me a ring over the weekend if u have free time. I had a cic plant from pr1 but somehow it croaked on me along with 3 other plants I don’t get what happened. pH was all good nutes were all the same between everything just the cherry ice cream and 3 others I don’t remember what they were went limp and died stayed nice green just limped over and died. Lol.

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One of the nice benefits of defoliation is opening up the canopy and alowing more air circulation this also lessons the posibilty of bud mold . Mold loves moisture.

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