Brown is not normal, they should be snowy white or close to it. In my thread I was a week into flowering and Zandor said if I wanted to play with one to cut the roots back so they don't hang in the water. This was to make the stem stronger and fatter. I have a drip system, the first 4 or 5 leaves on top drooped and I have pretty much lost those leaves. They turned a little yellow with brown spots and real dry like paper. Pic's are in my thread ( how's my girls ). This however has not damaged the plant it's keeping up with the others I just trimmed must of those leaves off and the stem is getting thicker. It's should yeild a little more than normal. It seems some strains do better than others in this case. Being so late in the flower stage I can not say what effect this would have but I would think that you could trim a good bit off just leave as much in the water as possible. I would wait for Zandor or one of the other guru's to advise on this. I will update pic's tomarrow.