I'm hesitant to defoliate since this is my fi...

I wouldn't defoliate an auto.

Dial back the feeding a bit if you are experiencing some clawing, try 1.2 EC for now. When defoliating the idea is to remove leaves that are blocking light from other leaves, sometimes you have 5 leaves on top of each other and only the top one will get light; when in doubt do it gently, a few leaves at a time and don't do it until the 3d week of flowering, when the stretch is done.

I agree with both below. I know many companies recommend being as gentle to the autos as possible as their timer is set and ticking away. I think LST, is a good idea definitely, and then if there are big leaves still in the way after that...then pluck as few as you need to, they need as many leaves as they can get to feed and fatten the buds, however if they're blocking a budsite like they said below, I would surely remove at least those. Autos are amazing...but from what I understand, many things there's either not time for them to bounce back, or correct an error. The plants look beautiful and strong though, great job with these fast ladies.

With my autos I defoliate by looking down on the plant and removing any leaves that are blocking bud sites. I typically need to do this twice, once near the end of veg and again about 1/2 way into flowering. I let the Plant dictate how many leaves are removed based on how many leaves are blocking bud sites. Hope this helps. Good luck!