pruning in the 3rd weed of blooming ?

Hello everybody, this is my first post on this forum and also my first grow. Here is my question : I have 46 clones of White Rhino (or that's what the clone guy said...) on 2 square meters under 2 400W Hps lamps, and they are in the third week of flowering. Now I think I let them in the growing phase too long because now they are 40 cm high and the room looks packed (see pic). So there is a dense canopy of leafes under which not much light goes.
Can I cut the small branches and small buds under this dense matress of leafes to concentrate the flowering on the top ones that get more light or is it too late and doing this will damage the plants ?
Thanks for all tips and advice ! :)

It could stress them a little. The only thing that could probably happen is that that it could take them longer to fully ripen, because of the missing leaf tissue.

I am a new grower as far as hydro,but growing outdoors I would not trim. All I've ever read just let them grow they be happy

Strip bottom third of plant and remove any branches that are too small. This will cause remaining branches to produce larger flowers. This should be done during first week of flowering, doing now may set back flowering time by a week or two, shouldn't be major prob. if time is not a factor.

dam eh... one week too far in ta clone...:(
can u train um ta bend like bonzai plants,>
nice pics.... that plant will streatch like a mofo. n
take forever ta finish.. bUt its good smoke.
LEaning the entire pot sideways dosent hurt them..
watch the tops for heat stress or ratt tails...
im sure ull be A ok..,...all them water leaf will simply fall off by 3 weeks or so .:)
being replaced by the bud leaf......
IMhop..they should stay..trim fingers NOT entire leaf as this will decrease BUd size.. not the amount of buds.
...keep...

magic man, what d'you mean by "rat tails"?