You are over thinking it…at the end of the day they are still resilient weeds. There is nothing smarter than trimming off buds that aren’t going to amount to anything, or even a “light defoliation” will not hurt. If your plants are healthy they will recover just as quickly.
My autos, for example, almost always start flowering on week 4 - 5 from seed. I defoliate at least twice during flower if necessary.
Don’t be scared to try different things. I have tried almost everything that people say to do “BRO-SCIENCE” and most of it doesn’t matter. Even to a degree temps, etc. don’t matter. Don’t let anyone tell you there is only a certain anything that you must do because it is crap.
I don’t flush…they are plants which should be fed up until death. I still have white ash.
I don’t put them in darkness for 3 days for more trichome production…also crap imo… I get plenty without it and never could tell a difference.
I don’t use a fan in my dry closet…it was drying too fast…no fan and air exchange is me opening the door every once and awhile but my dries last 7 days now instead of 3 and my terpene loss is minimal now
My avg temp is 88 degrees in my tent during day and 68-70 at night, humidity is 50 -78 depending on the time of year…none of this has affected anything as far as I can tell. Besides my plants turning purple on bigger temp shifts.
I don’t water to run off, I don’t check ppm, I don’t check par, I do a style called No training. I germinate my seeds in water…not soil or paper towels. PH is very important, more than anything I have found but I only grow in soil.
And this is my opinion and what works for me after 20 grows and 60 autos…just starting photos
That is the 4th week in Veg