First time growing outdoors

A crappy thing from a security perspective; a neighbour informed me (not complaining), that they can smell the plants from the second they step off the bus (we leave near a bus stop). Granted, they can't tell exactly where the smell is coming from if they didn't already know we're growing, but they were just kind of awe struck how powerful it was. So I think my nose is broken between the indoor and outdoor grow; I can only smell anything when I'm a few inches from a flower, or if I just brushed up against one. A smaller lower bud was rotting at the top, so I cut it off a few nodes under. I'll need to closely watch that. I was thinking that I might still be good for a bit to not bring them under our covered deck (they're heavy to lift up the 1+ foot to the deck) for all but the heaviest of rains, but that might show it's time to rethink that. I'm unsure about the leaf yellowing; foliar feeding seemed to start making it worse, so I've stopped. I'm pulling off the leaves after they become more yellow than green. I figure others defoiliate far more severely than this is ending up. Some of the leaves have white speckles as I'm pulling them off. It really doesn't look like PWM, and the leaves that I've kept haven't seen to get worse. I think it's thrip bites becoming stark white scars as the leaf yellows. Speaking of yellowing, a lot of trees/shrubs are showing some opportunistic early leaf colouring and losing leaves, so maybe it's partly weather? As the buds are looking good, and future outdoor grows will be super soil (assuming I get a harvest (sigh, strong smell)), I've decided to not sweat this too much, and just keep defoliating as the leaves look yellow enough that I consider them more of an energy sink than a benefit.