A light defoliation wont hurt , Just dont go overboard And you'll be fine, The plant will respond well to it tooDon't really wanna pull any fan leaves off , especially when they look so healthy :/ I was under the impression that the fan leaves are like my solar panels so surely aslong as there in good health they will be creating energy for the bud sites even if it's not a leaf directly attached to one ?? Plus it's an auto so don't wanna cause to much stress or delay ... the screen may get removed yet , it's more just to help me get the canopy even then anything else lol