Defoliation at blooming in a late-growth auto

Leave her.. she's a bit too far along. She's a little small but any of the small amounts of foliage you take off will most likely just stunt her/shock her further and do no good for you. It's a learner plant and it happens. We generally do very little defoliation outdoors.. Some crazy old grower told us something about it attracting more pests which kind of makes sense when you think about it. We don't spray or use pesticides or anything like that, we use physical barriers to keep pests away. We spray if we have too but never before..