I had to trim. I'm hoping for several grams of popcorn from the bottom of my stalks, and those buds were getting no light whatsoever, I realize this will help to harvest them early, but I don't want to harvest early unless the buds are ready, I'd rather have them swell up and mature with the rest.. At any rate, I trimmed all 3 plants, and the pineapple benefited the most from it, I'm afraid the bubbles were going to use those leaves for nutrients, so I might have actually hurt my harvest a little bit.

I'll keep this thread updated with my final findings on these plants