how much growth to remove before flower?

about 1 week out from flower.. 10 plants have been vegging for 7 weeks now so they are pretty bushy and long. wanted to know how much growth people remove usually? my last grow I didnt remove anything and they were absolute monsters by the time they finished flowering and the buds were light, not dense at all, and alot of popcorn nugs on the bottom. i want to keep a few main nodes but im not sure how much to remove? Is removing fan leaves ok at this point ? ive attached a shitty pic in hopes it helps. the leaf in the front left corner is from a freebie autoflower thats almost done. it wasnt bushy at all and it has a few main nodes with nice dense buds because there weren't any fan leaves obstructing light.

Well this is a touchy subject, if you search defoliating then you will see the wars it has started. I will give you my take.

I do not trim anything until week 3 of flower, after a lot of stretching and bud sites start to form. Then I whack the shit out of it, if a leaf is blocking a site its gone, if it looks at me funny its gone... I don't strip them bare but be sensible. I have never had an issue, just make sure the plants are healthy and you will be fine.

I try for the bottom third. Just be sure its not a branch that is a secondary top.
I always end up with a bit of left over shit towards the bottom but it is because I`m afraid to go crazy
and stunt the plant. For me it is like anything else error on the side of caution. Sorry I could not be more help.
Maybe a guru will show up and enlighten us all.

remove fan leaves for smaller yield - GL

Po boy said:

remove fan leaves for smaller yield - GL

Click to expand...

I used to think that as well.. then I evolved as a grower. - GL

I clean up the bottom as it doesn't do shit anyway.

you ve got 10 plants? find out for yourself ... 5 groups of 2, heavily trimmed, slightly trimmed and last 2 untrimmed at all. See which one yield the best buds for you.

personally I try not to but sometimes you simply have to, I prefer to tuck the leaves under the budsites as much as I can before I chopped them but that s because I dont like to hurt my plants sometimes I feel like I have to though

Good luck!

Test the plants to see what you like. I have a few strains that produce fine with minimal pruning then I have a few sativas that have to be trimmed. It's all about what you are looking for. "To know you have to grow."

I remove lower branches gradually during veg and during the first 3-4 weeks of flowering. Remove bud sites that are not getting direct light unless you like trimming larf for and hour to get 1 fluffy gram lol.

Tuck leaves out of the way when possible but remove a fan leaf if you need to. It really does decrease yields of the area it is attached to if you remove it during bloom but if a good bud site is shaded it will go to waste so it is a tradeoff.