Defolianting Auto Hyperion F1?

No, never. Just remember............less leaves = less energy being made = less growth...............this is an important factor with autos and their limited life cycle.

No, every leaf it makes contributes to gas exchange, how gas can be exchanged is a direct precursor to how much photosynthesis can be performed. Every single leaf in that plant is hard-coded to initiate programmed cell death as soon as a leaf uses more energy to keep alive than it produces. Only time you want to defoliate is when you have a canopy density of at least 3 layers deep that's about as far as red and blue wavelengths will penetrate. Popcorn nugs are due to developing from primarily green light which penetrates 6 or 7 layers leaving them developmentally starving for red and blue to optimize growth.

Hi, you'll come across a lot of opinions here, I'll give you mine :) I generally use topping and defoliation on my Autoflowers. After topping, I start with LST, and for me, that also includes defoliation. And I believe I achieve very good results with it. When I didn't do this, my buds were smaller and the yield was significantly lower. I've harvested up to 170g with relatively small Autoflowers in 10 to 12 weeks. You can check out my diaries; the last one that had a nice harvest was the Ghost Train Haze with 130g after 10 - 11 weeks. An exception was the Membrana, which was only ready after 20 weeks but then yielded 240g. But overall, I personally think that defoliating the leaves that cast shadows on the buds allows them to grow better. And as a second argument, defoliation in the lower area improves air circulation.

shouldn't remove leaves unless it's incredibly over-crowded. have a good reason and its fine. should be rare.