Defoliation in flower

Check mine out.Mine are big plants though.Do they really need it?You can see mine after defoliation and they're still stacked with leaves because 1 is full indica and the others are 80% so the leaves really are on top of each other so the plant growers much better with some light in there.I wouldn't touch them after 1wk of flower.Depending on strain and light which effects the shape in a huge way they'll carry on stretching for 2wks so in theory 2wks but I wouldn't stress them that much.Check out the strain to see if its capable of holding itself up in full flower,they usualy say.My last ones all flopped over which is why I haven't got a decent picture of the room finished.

If there really is a "best time", it's after the stretch but really you should approach defoliation as a case by case, as needed kind of basis vs a set timetable. Some plants require little to no defoliation and others you'll find yourself picking every couple weeks on. Whether or not you wanna/should SCROG not only depends on your available headroom but also the strength of the light you use as well. Little sense growing a 2 meter tall plant under a 100w light, it's gonna likely be stretchy and very little if the plant will be in the desired sweet spot in your light's output range. SCROGing allows you to keep more budsites in that zone. If you're running really high watt lights it's less of a concern as the depth of penitration increases.

A week before flip. Take 10% or so of major fan leaves off until you're happy. Then after the stretch & pre flower is over (the plant stops its upwards stretch) you can then open up bud sites if you want, make sure to keep a few sets of main fans up and down each node. (Stem). But do in small amounts. Photos can take 3-5 weeks to fatten