Can overcrowding diminish side bud growth??

Im growing 7 female plants- (Flying Dutchman's pot of gold 3 weeks into flowering) in a 4' x 4' space with a 1000w MH, the plants have continued to grow and are overcrowding each other........... will the yield be decreased significantly and is there anything I can do to improve the light to the bottom without hurting the plants health......(trimming fan leaves or tying branches upwards?)

The fact that your using a 1000W in a small space like that, I'm sure your getting pretty good penetration through the canopy.
to really be able to tell you if your overcrowded, you'll need to post a pic of the situation. every situation is unique!

good question and i am curious to see the responses. seems like ultranyte said the 1000watter will penetrate the canopy pretty well, i am thinking.

you can always trim to increase airflow and less crowdedness

Heres some pictures of whats going on......the top of the plants are doing great but there is absolutely no bud production on the bottom half of the plants the light is plenty strong i just dont think its penetrating enough, would trimming the branches decrease the yield?....any opinions would be appreciated, also any estimates of yield would be nice....thanks

I made the mistake of pruning my girls on the second week of flowering, I recon its set me back at least a week, im jus over 4 weeks into 12/12 and my buds are fairly small. ( i think they r great but my mate whos just finished growing the same strain says they look small)

You would get better results with a HPS light instead of the MH for flowering.

you s/b fine I have the same size space and light with 50girls underneath the light

thanks for the feedback, this is the first grow that I have tried with any substantial amount of effort (just fucked around with CFL's and bagseed) as for the MH over the HPS that was purely an economic decision i would love to have a switchable ballast, Bamm Bamm how do you have 50 in there? Im assuming its sea of green, If you could explain that in some more detail (# of mothers in how big of a room, how often do you pull clones,types of lights, how much do you yield etc?) thanks alot guys

Check out my sig theres lots of info in there.. I presently don't have any mothers here but I do have some at caligrowns=)

Hey, I use 1000HPS and I have the same issue about light penitration. These HPS create such a bushy plant that about half my plants struggle for light unless my plants are space 2-3feet apart.
You will not have a large deminisioning in returns JUST quality will be hinderd.. Some will argue this but most people have no idea since they cannot accually base there observation of there own to entrily correct. Every grow is not the same, little details stand in the way to mimic the exact same crop. Uncontrolled examples are the clones you get or take, eaither or, the next generation clones is older then the more vigerous one before..
Only trim the leaves that receive little to no light... Dont trim more then 20% of your plant at one time, and remeber the fan leaves are used to generate food inexchanging between roots and leaves. 4plants under 1000W is good, dont go less, but maybe go into a 5X5 or 6X6 to allow more plant speration... Otherwise keep doing what your doing, partly its the type of light your usisng that cause this sort of problem aswell... Long internode spacing when introduce into flowing.. HPS is great for curing any plant growth issue or odd internode spacing i found. good luck

Trimming the leaves isnt an issue and can be a good idea later in the flowering stage... just dont hinder the plant by trimming off the fan leaves too early in the cycle

im using a 400w MH right now too and having the same prob my grow area is 2x2x6 so its alittle smaller but i have 4 42w warm cfls on all sides of my four plants and that seems to help a bit. something to thing about

Those girls sure are leafy, but I did notice you don't have anything up on the walls to reflect all the light back onto the plant, your wasting alot of light!
put up some mylar all around the plants and you will see a difference, reflected light from a 1000W is still very strong.

lollipop =]