My small garden became too packed as the plants grew quite bushy. Any ideas how to proceed?

[BrutusKajautus]

I'm on my first grow in a 2" x 4" tent and Fast Buds Lemon Pie auto strain. The plants became quite bushy and I think I have too many of them in the tent now. They've grown well but I'm worried about the lower buds and shorter colas not getting enough light.

The plants have matured at different paces, and in one plant the stage of the flowers varies.

I didn't defoliate nor prune them originally, since I read on multiple sites that I shouldn't do that with autos, especially on my first grow. Now I've already defoliated some nevertheless, removing fan leaves that were shadowing some buds. Not all of them, but I did trim it down considerably. But I don't think that's enough. So I've thought of trimming it further, but I don't know how much leaves and which leaves can I remove without hurting the photosynthesis too much.

I'll attach two picks here so you can see the issue. Do you have any ideas on what to do or how would you handle this situation?

 

[421_Butt_Naked_Ape_TNG]

Dude I think it looks grand.. as long as you're humidity is good and air circulation you shouldn't have a problem.. maybe remove some lowers that ain't getting Nuff light mabe a few bigger fans for airflow/ones that cover budsites.. you should be good the lemon pie from fb420 is a nice strain.. fb420 have some really nice stuff.. happy growing buddy and best of luck..

Ps.. if there are any leaves that overlap when you separate them if there's moisture built up remove the leaf and check environment (air flow, temp & humidity) but all in you should be good rather your tents nice and full than wasted space... especially if all else is good..

 

[421_Butt_Naked_Ape_TNG]

I'd take those to let air flow around the bud sites, and more light into the lower budsites if not removing...

 

[421_Butt_Naked_Ape_TNG]

Looks well tho bud.. hope all works out for ya on your first run
..

 

[421_Butt_Naked_Ape_TNG]

Some people pussy foot about autos too much, but defol and pruning are keys to successful harvests even with autos.. you'll notice that most of the shit that you read about before growing, especially nowdays are usually guidelines, and mostly bunk lol.. your own experiences in the tent or room will teach you more than you could ever read.. the plants are usually really good at letting you know they arnt happy but it looks like your doing a good job my friend... keep growing...

 

[BrutusKajautus]

Dude I think it looks grand.. as long as you're humidity is good and air circulation you shouldn't have a problem.. maybe remove some lowers that ain't getting Nuff light mabe a few bigger fans for airflow/ones that cover budsites.. you should be good the lemon pie from fb420 is a nice strain.. fb420 have some really nice stuff.. happy growing buddy and best of luck..

Ps.. if there are any leaves that overlap when you separate them if there's moisture built up remove the leaf and check environment (air flow, temp & humidity) but all in you should be good rather your tents nice and full than wasted space... especially if all else is good..

That's nice to hear, there's just so many colas and so many bud sites that I don't know what to do when they get different amounts of light and seem to ripen at different paces. Like should I harvest is in batches, removing the ripened ones and letting the rest to get some light still or what.

Thanks for affirmation! This makes me feel a bit better about the situation. This has been a wonderful strain, especially for a beginner like me. Grows big with little nutes and effort, and truly smells like lemon candy lol.

I still hope I could expose the bud sites better that don't get as much light. The colas you can see there go down into the canopy and there are bud sites there. But I don't even know how much that would affect their ripening. I've been told that's crucial and not getting enough light is detrimental. Maybe I'm overthinking it and I should just chill and wait for the nature to do it's thing.

 

[BrutusKajautus]

Some people pussy foot about autos too much, but defol and pruning are keys to successful harvests even with autos.. you'll notice that most of the shit that you read about before growing, especially nowdays are usually guidelines, and mostly bunk lol.. your own experiences in the tent or room will teach you more than you could ever read.. the plants are usually really good at letting you know they arnt happy but it looks like your doing a good job my friend... keep growing...

Oh man thanks for being so supportive. Makes me wanna cry, it's not usual to find places online where people are genuinely nice.

I've began to notice what you're saying. I'm starting to feel like there's an amount of info online that's actually the same recycled info thay has became gospel through citogenesis.

There are aome new shoots popping up still, even though they're in late flower. Maybe I'll go thrpugh the canopy and remove some that have no hope, but I'm not sure if those do any harm as long as the air is moving.

 

[BrutusKajautus]

I'd take those to let air flow around the bud sites, and more light into the lower budsites if not removing...

Thanks! I was planning to go through it today once more to see if I can still trim it down further. I'm not sure if I should temove some sugar leaves also that shadow the buds, dunno how those plants work, like do they need the sugar leaves to ripen the buds.