when is it too late to defoliate your plants?

Only defoliate to improve air flow. Tuck leaves in that are blocking light. If you do need to defoliate, try to do it before any stretch in flower has finished... You may have 5 weeks in flower you can defoliate. Different for autos though...Maybe only 3 weeks. I hope this helps, good luck

I don't think its going to get much use out of it. To me the purpose of defoliation is to increase light penetration and air flow to bud sites during the beginning of flowering sometimes mid flower by removing large fan leaves that block that light and air. Doing it that late into flower just before harvest seems pointless and would only place the plant under undue stress. I feel it would use its limited resources towards other things like repair/nanners or new leaf growth vs focusing on the buds themselves. Combine all that with some peoples practice of flushing. Just seems like a bad idea.