Do I have too much leaf growth?

This is an unknown strain from CA. I was told it was a medical quality strain. I started veg with a lot of CFLs, grown in dirt with PH adjusted water. Now shes under a 400w MH for flowering at 14 dark 10 light. Started at 12/12 for 3 weeks then switched to 14/10. I already cut some large fan leaves off but I am scared to go too far. I feel like the plant should have a lot less leaves because the lower half of the plant receives very little light. I think there are way too many leaves on her so I'm asking for your help and opinions.

BTW the buds are much smaller than they look in the pics.

That is a very healthy flowering plant with no yellows. Not bad considering its rootbound.

This kind of thing is swings and roundabouts really. You can trim leaves off to offer light access to lower leaves, but it can be argued that by giving energy to the lower part of the plant you'd be taking it from the top part of the plant. Leaves are important but you can certainly trim if you want to. Most people tend to just trim off all of the popcorn buds and such on the bottom of the plant so that all of the energy is focused on large buds at the top. It is entirely upto you what you do, always a good thing to experiment, then you can know from experience what you prefer to do. As it is it's a healthy looking plant.

For future reference though, ANY strain of cannabis can be called a medical strain. If the weed helps someone in any small way, and given the sham medical cannabis is, let's say something as simple as sleep "deprivation" then it has medical value to that person and is as such of medical quality.

just let it finish on her own .. she knows how ..

remove yellow leaves as they begin to apper at the bottom .. and cut any Nitrogen now and up the P. in your nutriens ..
dont remove healthy fan leaves .. if any bottom grow then remove bud sites (bottom 1/4) so the plant use all its energy on the top buds who get enough light ..

Lemon..how can you tell its root bound?

I got the strain from a friend that made a trip to CA and met up with a guy who had a surplus of seeds that he grew. I know that one strain I have is some sort of Cheese variation. Maybe LA Cheese idk looks very similar to my plant. It really s*cks having a nice plant and not knowing what it is! lol

I think I am going to remove some of the lower branches. I am going to see if my friend can come over and help me with the trimming too, seeing as how he has several successful grows already.

you should have used your cfl's as supplemental lighting to get some light to those bottom branches....now you know .

A good point above. Everything is a learning curve and learning for yourself is the best way to do it. Personally i would say for this grow, stuff your mate, your plant looks great. Keep it as it is till harvest and take notes or remember how it turned out, and then grow the same plant next time and have him help you trim it up etc, then you can directly compare your experience between the two ways of growing the plant out

Thanks for the help guys! I am using my CFLs in a seperate area for vegging or else I would be using them for side lighting. My plan was to harvest my first crop and then build a big grow box for more space. I am growing in a utility closet in my basement right now and there isn't much room for side lighting anyways. I am still trying to get some clones to root so I have this strain to grow again..