I do remove the large fan leaves when i have a dense canopy... sometimes they get so dense 10k in light cannot penetrate... I do have a pattern... I only remove 1 per branch.... and only the large ones that are shading light from lower ... You would be amazed how fast more will shoot up and lower budsites getting bigger when removed... I didn't do a good job at thinning out this last time.... i had 5.5 pounds of popcorn bud.... If I had bent branches more, thinned out more and probably ran more verticle light I probably would not had nearly half that in wasted medication