Sour crinkle/ mango smile 1st grow

I had to do a bit of defoliating while battling a thrips problem, didn’t seem to affect anything, if you wanna see just check my oldest Mephisto diary

Defoliation just reduces your plants capacity to make energy, thereby slowing growth. If your plant did not need those leaves, it would not have grown them in the first place! Just remember - Maximum amount of healthy green leaves = maximum energy production = maximum growth. Hope this helps, Organoman.

Try and leave as much green on as possible. If there is the odd leaf blocking light from other leaves then that could go. Removing lower stuff that's not going to see the light is also OK. Things have to be done in moderation, its so easy to think I'll remove them 4 leaves but then you find you have taken 40 leaves off, so easy to get caught up in defoliation.