Athosanswered grow question 5 years ago You seem to be confusing two things. Defoliating is to remove leaves to, supposedly, improving yield. The technique have its adepts and detractors. What you are talking about is lollipoping, where you remove the lower bud sites, so the plant can focus on the top buds. What you need to keep in mind is that yield is dependent on the amount of light, if you remove the lower bud sites, you will have less, but bigger buds, but roughly the same yield of a plant that did not get the same treatment, but instead has a multitude of smaller buds. Personally I prefer to remove those lower buds, it makes harvesting and manicuring a lot faster and easier.