Can I cut off these leaves?
I am worried that this is an autoflowering plant and it will be an additional stress for it. But it also seems to me that it is spending some effort to keep these leaves alive and it would be better if it spent this effort on the buds.
I remove dead leaves you will find with larger canpoy alot of leaves dont get light so they do die off if you dont remove them they will become a place where little bugs can hide and they will also give off ethonol I think it is. people do use them as mulh but these people are using living soil methods which is the only really use for dead fan leaves. Best of luck :)
I remove any leaves that are half dead or more and I chop any that are covering bud sites ..if you are worried about stressing the plant try to cut only 1 or 2 leaves every day or 2 .. Goodluck and happy growing ✌️