>>>Some advice

I am looking for a bit of advice and opinions. Its in reference to how much foliage to take off to permit more light in and under the canopy. light creates weight right?
I have heard that it best to leave some leaves as the leaves create the energy.
Ok so how many? I have alot of leaves in the areaof 9" across(diameter) multiplyed by 40+ plants thats alot of shade in the room. i am having a hard time drying the soil out. i need to get better air flow underneath. I have fans runing too.
I have removed some of the lower main branches last week.(I just flipped today to flower stage.)i did that because mainly the plants are healthy and its easier to water.
So I was wondring how much should i remove?
Should I take a few more lower leaves and branches?
Should I remove just some of the big leaves.
none at all?
I have been trying to find the answer, but i guess it might be a preference.

here are a few pics.

Right now, for u NONE. I am never a proponent for removing/cutting leaves, ever in general & for good reason. Regardless of what some say, they dont make ur plants grow better, dont save energy, or use up stored food, etc. that ur buds could be using. Leaves r there for a very good reason, to help with the uptake of nutrients & receive light to help process this out to create those fantastic buds u seek. Having said that, ur grow is large, & is going to get crowded QUICK. Now it is going to be work nor or later...& yes more later to remove them, but the problem is ur light will probably never penetrate the good lower most portion of ur plants, so after they r off & running (maybe 3 weeks in) u could opt to remove the stems, leaves, etc. of anything the light doesn't touch or penetrate to. But u dont have too, for the reason i aforementioned, & it saves u a lot of work to opt to simply do nothing but let nature take its course with ur provided artificial light...of course

If ur worried about more circulation, run more floor box fans in there &/or get them right up next to ur pots & don't worry, u r not going to have to worry about that problem for very long..... "can't get soil to dry out."

I don't think you need to remove too much foliage. Those plants aren't especially bushy and the stretch period is going to "thin" them out a little au natural.

My rule is that if the stem of the leaf from stalk to chlorophyll is longer than the leaf itself then I'll pull them off. Just makes the plant too wide in a space like that when it is more about bud sites than pushing one specific plant harder than another.

I say clean up the bottom of the plant as much as you please to keep good air circulation around the root zone and base of the plant. Anything that is healthy and taking in light and not blocking a large budsite (with several of its own leaves) you should definitely be keeping.

In a room like that I might take a fistful of leaves total. Try to be a discretionary as you can. It is better to start pruning early, and develop a bush. The growth is slower, and you add a little more veg time, but with a combination of training and defoliation and time you could have that same canopy size with 1/4 of the plants. Defoliating later in life when the plants are not conditioned for it can be very stressful. In nature a plant loses a leaf from time to time, so that is acceptable because you plants can handle a pluck of like 1/200th of the total leaf mass, but don't go wild on them. I don't think they'd thank you for it.

that's a can of worms right there....lolz

personally, i just clip off leaves that are gonna end up dragging in the dirt.
the leaves also pull water out of soil and blows it into the air basically
they also help the plant regulate temp, and serve as waste ports so i try to save as many as i can.
LST em would be my vote.

don't trust your eyes to figure out how much light there is below, since leaves bounce the color green and lets the rest through it'll look darker than it really is.
we happen to see green really well and have this regrettable autoexposure filter built into the brain...tricky

Yeah i have heard so many different ideas. i will post the pics of my last run and you can see what i was told to do. It panned out ok, it was my first run and pulled 3 3/4lbs on 2-1000w and a 600w with 23 plants. So i know i can do better.
I just want to get rid of some of the foliage early and at the right time. i just flipped to 12/12 today.
what you guys think about taking leaves now. I think its best, like Snow said.
I need to make some airway under the canopy. i water like every 4-6 days cause the air isnt getting to the dirt. (5gallon- ocean forest)

trim up the bottom 1/3 or so for better air movement and overall health and mold prevention

Damn bro +rep for the passion and optimism. Those plants look phenominal and I'd be grateful to get a haul like that but you're all "I know I can do better". Lolll, respect.

Hell yeah, that set up is killer dude. I'm jealous. I've read that trimming fan leaves off of plants is bad for them and shouldn't be done except for dead or dying leaves. But, if you look up anything on Supercropping they're all for it. Who knows? I personally remove all leafs that are larger than a grown man's hand before putting them into flowering.

Well i just went through my first cycle of flower. i have to water. but the light just went out, so i think I will do it when they come back on. I have to take a few off, for sure. Its gonna be so hard to water if i dont anyway, cause i will be snapping leaves off with the watering wand anyway.
As for doing better....lol... you have to understand, i am low man on the totum pole and my friends dont fuk aroiund. So i have to do better so i dont get laughed at. You know, they like to mess with me. But asfter reading some of the stuff on this site i think its because i did so well on my first run. Its kinda like a hazing you know.
I planned on taking off a couple of the real low baby shoots and some of the huge leaves that are blocking alot of light. i dont want to do what i did last time.I want to see the diffence in wieght. I average almost 2 1/2 ounce per plant last run. i think i can get twice that this time. i would like to se no less than a q.p. per plant, but we'll see.