Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
Of the six plants I started I have three females left. There are Blue Dream, GDP and Critical Super Silver Haze. The plants are now in day 10 of flower the Indica will finish in about 7 more weeks while the sativa (CSSH) will take an additional 2 weeks to finish up. The CSSH is about 3 1/2' tall and the lights are penetrating pretty good. This is my second grow, I have learned that the solar storm can grow good sized plants with out a lot of defoliation and still produce a good harvest.
Everything is looking good, ladies are getting big! I always end up doing some minor defoliation of anything that is sickly looking after I stop the problem, so that I can be sure the problem has stopped but I don't see any problems from yours.
I'm torn on the defoliation I have done it in the past and gotten some decent buds. I'm thinkin now I want to do less and give the SS400's a chance to work. The big sativa I have in the back is growing just fine and the Indicias are very short and bushy they will get some defoliation but less than before.
As you can tell I don't remove a lot only things that are dying,some times I only remove blades of leaves and not the whole leaf.but as I said that's only so I can see if I start having issues or to check to see if they have subsided. All of your plants look to be very healthy a nice green color, everything I have put under the ss400 has turned a very dark green not really sure why. Do you like the air pots your plants are in? Have you ever tried smart pots? I'm thinking about switching to air pots if my next grow Is still in soil. Pretty sure my next grow will be Pure Jedi (Skywalker OG x Pure Kush) I am trying to allocate funds to buy an ecogrower from GH and a dehumidifier lol.
I like the air pots they supply more air to the roots and I am able to feed/water every 3 days. there is a draw back when watering you loose water out the holes if you water to fast. You have to water slowly allowing the water to soak in
I prefer to let leaves drop naturally but if merely touching them makes them fall off so be it. A tiny amount of defoliation might not hurt/help in some situations but it's rarely needed if plants aren't overcrowded, not grown too tall for the light source or diseased.
I often see people refer to leaves that they prune as "dying" but since plants can move mobile nutrients to where they're needed you should look at those leaves as food storage for the plant. Pruning them can deprive them of nutrients and whatever minimal photosynthetic energy they still produce.
PM: I think I'd skip the ecogrower but maybe that's just me.
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.