I will relate to you my own personal experience. Initially I read up on it and posed questions and read answers and so on. I was forewarned that defoliating can be somewhat a science and can become dangerous when it comes to a variety of issues related to stress. However, I consider myself a diy Gardner for a long time, and 'green thumb'. I absolutely had to try to figure it out and with a little trial and error, I recommend removing the largest of the fan leaves. Initially, a few(2-6) cuts will do. You should wait with patience to see what results from those snips. If I didn't start defoliating It would have been lost knowledge. If your growing Autoflowers you need to pay special attention because your limited to a specific time frame. I will follow along to see if I can help =)