Cutting off green healthy leaves is the biggest stoner myths that exists.
Nitrogen and many other nutrients are translocatable, i.e light hitting any green and growing leaf will translocate carbs and some other nutrients wherever the plant needs it. If it is a green and growing leaf it is there for a reason. There comes a time in any plants life (be it a flower, weed, or redwood tree) where the requirements of that leaf nutrient-wise, are more than that leaf can produce. i.e. the plant says "ok, leaf, you worked well for a while but now you are a bit shaded and not contributing to the overall good of this plant system. You are taking more energy to sustain than you produce for the good of the plant, no slackers, so you are outta here". And that leaf then yellows out and falls off all on it's own, after the plant has extracted whatever assimilated goodies the leaf has on board.
There is an energy cost to the plant (any plant) in photosynthesizing, converting and assimilating all the nutrients, and over millions of years I think plants have gotten pretty good at knowing what they need. MJ is just another plant.
Continue to strip off nice big green leaves, you will not increase your bottom line in any way. Sure less popcorn, but overall you will max out at less final product.
No other plant in commercial production is vandalized in this way, because it is Bullshit stoner reasoning that "light has to hit the budsites".
And that's just Bullshit, backed in no way by science.
Got an airflow / mildew issue.... then deleafing can certainly help in that situation. But it is a reactive response, one that should have been avoided in the first place. Need to tweek environment, maybe grow plants that are not dense cabbages, etc.
Anyway to me stripping leaves is like medieval bloodletting where "doctors" (actually called barbers) would drain blood from sick people trying to get rid of the poisoned blood. Sick people need all the blood they have, just as our plants need leaves.
41 years (now in 60's) of working in botany, soil science, and gardening gives me a pretty objective point of reference. And all I can say is MJ is about the easiest plant on the face of the earth to grow. For any aspiring growers, it's easy, but forget the VooDoo science, it will derail you.
