Hey there, so with defoliation of leaves that are in the shadow, i think a lot of us do that. It will remove things that'll drain energy from the rest of the plant or the buds. For lighting...if you don't want to purchase a panel led, you may want to buy a couple clip lights and put in a few 100 watt either cfls(twisty bulbs) or the LEDs. The more light you can provide the better off you'll be. If you buy "daylight" bulbs they're more vegetative blue white light and if you buy "soft white" they'll have more of your red flowering type light. I hope that helps some. Is there tin foil in your grow setup? If so beware of heat pockets.✌️