Indoor Plants may be too tall. Should I lollipop or defoliate?

Hey guys. I started flowering these guys after only 4 weeks and never had such tall plants. Maybe it’s because I went DWC this time and am used to slower soil veg time. Anyways these plants are about 4 feet tall except one runt that I propped up on paint cans to even the canopy. They are under a 600w HPS bulb and into 4.5 weeks of 12/12.

I’ve know that light penetration is only about 12 inches if lucky and since these plants are so tall, I doubt much of the lower leaves are going to be getting much light. If you look at the one pic showing the lower buds, you’ll see that the lower fan leaves are dark green but the popcorn buds are starting to look very pale. I’m guessing this is from lack of light?

My question is what are my options? Is it too late to lollipop the lower 1/3 completely? Or should I remove a bunch of fan leaves up top to try and allow light in? This is my 3rd grow and haven’t had such tall plants. They look cool but I’m afraid I’m going to see some real yellowing and bad things happening to the lower parts if I don’t take action. But I also don’t want to stress them too bad by defoliating or lollipopping this far into flowering.

Any tips or advice is appreciated

Live and learn. I still run into similar situations when running different strains.
Have to agree with diminishing returns on the lower foliage. I would do a good clean-up of the stuff that isn't showing any promise.

hormones from the higher growing tips of the plant flow down and inhibit growth of the lower ones

if stems start growing too high just bend them over sideways

Thanks guys. I think I will clean up all the lower growth since they won’t be receiving any light. I really should have topped and super cropped these earlier. The main stems are too woody now to bend much. Definitely will live and learn. I got so used to other strains that wasn’t expecting this with these two strains

Lollipop the lower stuff that’s what I do now. Plant produces better buds imo. I even do it on my autos

Do you think it’s ok to lollipop at 5 weeks into flower? I think I’m going to chop all the lower branches but just don’t know if it’ll cause issues at this point. Maybe it’s better than leaving it though lol

Your pants look like a strong Sativa. I would think they have another 5weeks+. I would clear everything on the bottom foot or so. All the pale green stuff that is struggling to survive in low light is taking away from bud development imo.

Could strip 2 and leave two. See how it turns out. But I have never been shy of the sissoirs and it’s has alway turned out.

May get less but what you do get will be of higher quality

Here is what I do. This is a white widow XXL auto.

Thanks! I am going to remove the lower growth tonight. The lower buds that are about 2 feet and lower below the canopy are turning light green anyway so don’t think they’ll be very productive. Just wanted to make sure it is ok to remove at this point. The plants are super healthy otherwise so think they’ll be able to take it.

Next time I will lollipop much earlier and use a better LST method to avoid this. And flower earlier if I have to lol. I guess I’m more used to indica strains that don’t stretch as much