To Trim or Not To Trim

I would like to hear opinions on if I should trim up the leaves on these plants. They are day 27 of flowering under 400 hps.

I've done a lot of reading on the boards and there just doesn't seem to be a concensus that I can find on the issue. Some folks say only take off dying leaves but then I see grow journal's with plants that have been pretty much striped of leaves and the buds are huge.... IE Fdd's indoor that he's harvesting now.

I know you elites have produced some great harvests and I'de like your advice. There are 3 plants in case you couldn't tell.... I really wish my camera was able to show the buds more, they are getting crystally and teasing me.

I have experimented quite a bit with trimming and au natural.
I had six white widow plants from clones that were started at the same time with all factors completely the same down the actually measuring the amount of water given. I trimmed leaves from three and left three to their own demise. I trimmed one at 2 weeks flowering, one at 5 weeks and one at 7 weeks. By trimming at 2 and 5 weeks, it was apparent that I slowed the flowering cycle as the two trimmed early in the flowering cycle took an additional two weeks to fully ripen where the untrimmed were nearly ready to smoke by the time the two trimmed were ready to go. The third plant was trimmed one week before flowering and I stripped everything but the small leaves directly around the buds. This plant matured at the same rate as the untrimmed but seemed to have a greater resin production and the buds were a bit chunkier than the untrimmed, especially at the sides and bottem of the plant. This go I have three ww clones starting to flower on Jan 20th. I have stripped one plant of all leaves except for the fan leaves, left one with all leaves in tact and am stripping 10 leaves per day off of the third...just to see what happens. So far they are all still the same height but the stripped plant is putting on additional buds faster than the untrimmed and slightly trimmed. The trimmed is also putting on more leaf volume at the top and very little on the bottem, where the untrimmed has leaves coming out everywhere. Not sure if any of this was helpful but on a whole, I think trimming in moderation does not seem to effect the plant too much, excessive trimming stunts the growth a bit and no trimming...well....it's the natural way to go and always the best bet. I will still remove an occasional fan leaf blocking a big bud, but on a whole, think I would prefer to leave the girls the way mom nature intended. On another note....I have done some reading on polyploidism (I think I spelled it right) which is completely stripping foilage to stress plant into producing more buds. Haven't tried this one as I can't stand the screams coming from the girls while I am ripping off their leaves...breaks my little heart...sniff...

IMHO (I'm not very experienced, You pay (as you know) to be "Elite", so being "Elite" doesn't necessarily mean wisdom). From reading around i would say that you should trim the top leaves to allow the bottom buds more light (if they are not getting enough) 400HPS is quite powerful though.... Id wait and see what others have to say.

Well being impatient by nature I went ahead and did a little hacking