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You can defoliate in flower and it improves yield especially(only) when your canopy is over crowded. Anything green is going to be photosynthetic but you need a large mass of buds before you even think of doing that.
You should also know your genetics as it would be a very good way to stress your plants and possibly throw nanners.
Absolutely no reason to do it in veg or with CFLs or whatever you're using. The reason why it works well under HID is there's an abundance of foliage for the amount of light being shined down on the canopy. so photosynthesis is driven well when your canopy is thinned as it's got the maximum (or close) amount of light exposure it would be getting with all those extra leaves sitting in the shade.
Magash, although I think CFLs suck too, you need to consider how easy they are to cool regardless of their effeciency, the bulbs have a lot more surface area so air cooling them with a fan blowing over them and trailing to an exhaust is very effective. For this reason they can be placed incredibly close to the light. Their shape makes them essentially like a radiator, they produce more heat per watt but they shed that heat well so it's not hard to control.
You also need to consider the lumens at their average distance to the plant in both scenarios. the CFLs also win hands down on the score cards for even distribution due to their shape and number of bulbs / square foot.
CFLs can compete with HID under optimal conditions which are many times harder to achieve using CFLs and require much higher plant counts and the right variety that stays very short.
Setting up a proper cabinet or tent is also going to cost heaps of money, unless you're stealing the bulbs.
FWIW, my friend did a 2x2 cab using less than ideaal 13w bulbs and crammed as many he could into there. He ended up with a QP of tight but small nugs. I guess that's a bit over .5gpw, which is probably about what the average HID grower does. I was working for a power company at the time and would be in charge of managing light control/energy savings at Costco, Walmart, etc remotely, interestingly enough you can save thousands of dollars a month at those buildings shutting off every other light or dimming them. DURRRR Anyways, my pay cheque was short 14 hours most of which was overtime so I was pretty steamed. My boss kept telling me to come into work on my days off to sort it out because I'd call him and he'd be in his car and is too stupid to use a bluetooth headset and didn't want to get pulled over. Anyways, he was always late and didn't care to sort things out and I ended up coming there 3 times before everything was said and done. I told him I want an additional 10 hours for having to come into work as per the labor board rules, he refused. I filed a complaint and he cut my hours. I had a friend working there who loved to play hookie and had a doctor friend who would right us sick notes, as they were required to get your paid sick days. We both called in sick for ALL 11 of our sick days for the year in January and they were beyond fucked. Both of us came back on the same day in good spirits, wearing matching outfits, and were canned on the spot. There was some gong show about them trying to fire us for insubordination so we wouldn't be entitled for unemployment insurance. We ended up getting it but had had to fight for it. Anyways we both stole a bunch of shit from a storage room as we were leaving including 2 huge boxes of CFLs which were all 7 and 13w. We gave my buddy all the 13w ones to use for his cabinet.
Also using the proper bulbs, ie higher than 13w per cfl and more appropriate wavelengths/color would probably increase that .5 gpw figure a bit.
It is relevant because you can't compare HID to CFL at the same distance, which means you can't say 350w of HID > 1200 CFL. Sorry I didn't quote, I'm using a browser that doesn't let me hit the quote button and redirect, so I need to c/p and write in the [ quote ] [ /quote ]
ALSO, the pictures appear to be on a work bench or something, not in a light tight area with ventilation which sets off some alarms in my head. I guess he could use the circulation fan.
I've heard good things about Revive. I've never used it, I think it came out after I ran AN.
As for the soil, you can pasteurize it next time. My friend on his first grow bought a crap ton of soil because he was scared of plant counts. He lived somewhere where he figured 3 is the number so he bought some huge ass planters I forgot the exact size and baked soil to kill everything in it. If you care about soil biology, which is beneficial to root growth and general plant health, you could inoculate it with tea or just add a bunch of worm castings.