Defoliate?

I would not defoliate plants that size.......in fact I would not ever recommend defoliation! Can not see the point of installing a net on these plants.

I would tuck leaves for now to expose the budsites. After you have installed the scrog net and let the plant start to grow through it, then i would defoliate once the plant is settled into the scrog a bit. That way you wont be wasting leaves and will know which ones will be in the way for the plants final form. Defoliating before is possible but i would wait until you have it where you want it to be in the scrog. Best of

I usually say no, but there may be a few overly congested spots on a couple plants. If you have too many future colas tightly packed, thin it out. that might be enough on its own. LEaves are good. Leaves are multifunctional organs. STrive to keep as many as possible. Never go out of your way to remove them. Better training and planning can avoid it altogether and should be an easily reached goal. depending on how big you grow the plants, that stuff may be totally useless if it'll just be lolipopped later. just remove it when it's 1-2 nodes rather than several of wasted resources. Also agree that you need to flip soon to avoid overcrowding that tent. You have at least 4 weeks of solid vege growth after flip. that's primarily why it can double or triple in size.

I'd defoliate a bit first, especially anything blocking inner growth or airflow low down. Then throw the SCROG net on and start tucking as they stretch. You don’t need to strip everything,just clear the base and open it up. After they hit the net, you’ll defol again anyway once they settle into the screen and start stacking. It’s a two-phase process, not all at once. Looking healthy,should fill that tent up nice.

Not sure how Tall you tent is but You could just flip them to flower here soon. Also I suggest definitely some but very little the plant is still small I’d say don’t even waste your time with a net you already have most the tent full with plants alrea