gdogfunkanswered grow question 5 years ago Actually, it is ok to defol during the flower stage. I generally do a major defol during the last week of veg and then another major defol at the end of the third week of flower. After that, I selectively defol throughout the flower stage as needed when leaves are covering buds and preventing them from getting enough light. When I defol. I am usually only taking the large fan leaves that are sticking up and over bud sites that will need lots of light. If you can tuck the leaves down around the buds, that works too, but I prefer to just trim them off since plenty of leaves will be growing back. I hope this helps!