^ dont cut off leaves unless 75% or more are discolored or burnt. Most new growers seem to think its a good idea to prune off leaves, idk why but all they're doing is crippling the plants ability to use and absorb its light.
Theres methods used by some members myself included that basically you strip the plant of all fan leaves at around 3 week to harvest. It is called Defoliation. It will not increase the potency but it will(and it is proven)give you bigger yield. Some member even swear by defoliating at least once during the veg as well but I have not tried that yet as I believe that the veg cycle is the most important part of the plants life and that the more stress during the veg the more likely you will have problems like hermi's stunted growth and small yield. As for lightning I run my plants 24/7 during veg 12/12 during flower. I have a 600w hybrid(MH and HPS switchable ballast)so I burn the MH for veg and the HPS for flower. My MH gives me very short nodes and fat stock I am very happy with it.
in my case i kinda want to hermi one of my plants, budweiser sometimes makes the bud taste like friuty pebbeles and the benedryl pushes all the nutes to the top, but it will make the roots and some of the stem dry up really fast, so i only did about 2 or 3 days before harvesting, i got woods accros the street and a long time ago i was smokin and threw the seeds back the and a few years later i went back and found several full grown plants, they been reproducing but of corse i gotta try an indoor grow and check the differances.
That totally worked, there back in good condition now, i think the hydrogen peroxide fixed it, they have gone back to the nice pretty green and the new leaves were the 7 pointed ones, so ya know it worked just in time.