So as you can see in the pics, the plants are real...

hey Bill Bradley, yeah man what may seem like a bit of leaf prunnen to you is actually HST to your girls. I mean you're rippen out a part of that plant. There's really very little logic behind defoliation - leaves absorb light much better than flowers that's why flowers make leaves actually. The plant basically absorbs light and photons then uses some plant magic to distribute that magic evenly across the plant, meaning that it doesn't really matter which side of the plant the light hits most, what matters is absorbing that light. So the more surface area your plant has the better and more energy it's getting. Defoliate - sure, but overdoing it will just stunt your grow or push back your harvest date. Looks fine now, let it bush out, just train the colas so they 're nice and straight, and enjoy the show ! good luck ! 🚀