You can leave the side branches and anything that doesn't get a lot of light will turn out as flarf, larf, whatever you want to call it. The tops of those side branches should push out some good size nuggets up top.
Some growers, like myself, determine which branches wont reach the canopy, and then we remove those altogether. This fattens up the main colas.
Some growers, like myself, determine which branches wont reach the canopy, and then we remove those altogether. This fattens up the main colas.