To say I've heavily defoliated throughout veg is an understatement. I dont think its bad for regular grows and I think its absolutely necessary and beneficial to a proper scrog. Maybe I'll make a video while I do a pruning job, I find myself quite interesting as I do it. I ask myself of every leaf, branch and node as I twist the table... Are you hurting me or helping me? Without actually filming how I answer those questions as I go would be hard to actually put into words. If a fan leaf is big, its getting cut pretty much no matter what. Unless its at the very bottom of the plant and not blocking anything below it. Granted it will get cut in flower but not now. So then you have fan leaves near the screen or above the screen. If its small enough and looks like it might make it through before its too big, Ill leave it. Sometimes you'll have a branch just about at the screen and you can actually use its fan leaves to shelf it on the screen. It gets it closer to the light, and once its up and through the screen a few inches it will most likely get cut. When I move branches back under the screen, its only when they are long enough to fully make into the next square of screen and not be sitting right on the growth tips. If a branch is well above the screen and has a big fan leaf, theres a 90% chance its blocking a little branch underneath that wants to come up and join the screen party.
You know when you grow a plant normal and those little lower branches dont do much, some people cut them off! even in scrogs! Thats crazy, just give them a little light and space and they too will work their way up. Sometimes those little branches are super skinny and not very strong, Ill cut some of its fan leaves just to lighten it up a bit, you can actually see them spring up a bit as the leaves get chopped off. Im not concerned with getting a bushy fat stock to the screen, My only concern is getting a branch with a node to the screen, the rest will take care of itself. I guess Im rambling alot. People probably dont even care
Im going to make another video, possibly, I may not have another big chop session before I go into flower but we'll see.