Queensland first grow - how long do have I have left and is this normal? Buds growing away otherbuds

Hi team

First time grower here from south east Queensland Australia (brisvegas baby). I have two questions, the first is the classic when are my girls ready and th second relates to buds growing away from the branch...first the set up!

I was given a couple of clones from a mate in November last year. They sat around for a bit as I had no where really safe to plant them, eventually I thought I'll just "grow them for a bit" to see what happened, inevitably though I became invested in these girls and began wanting to see them through to completion. So that's how I ended up with three fairly pure sativas root bound together in one pot ( a big styrafoam box from the market). They almost died in the first month (didn't think I was gona grow them so left them outside untended too), veged them for maybe a month or two, go to a bushy knee/thigh height and where thrown out the back in partial shade (the only spot in the house where three neighbours can't see and the fourth is playing the trust game with me.... let's hope they stay cool). I have an open compost so every once in a while they would receive some compost tea, sea sol, worm castings and/or tea and brown sugar/molasses/honey and have been well watered. The strain is unknown, the soil was ph balanced before planting and apart from infrequent feelings it has been sun and nature the whole way. There maybe 8-9 weeks into flower and without full sun (so not expecting giant buds) but that is a really wild guess....

So! Two questions....1- how long till completion? I've been thinking a few weeks still (maybe 3). There's maybe 40% brown hairs currently but havnt seen any real 'swell', I have a jewellers like loupe arriving soon so will check those chomes

2 - the main question though- I super cropped a little ways into flower because of height concerns, because of this some buds have started not growing into each other, but off the branch, like a bunch of mini colas....I did go searching for similar stories but found no specific references, has anyone seen this before? I'm not expecting any trouble from it (the will just do there thing an be less tight because they didn't grow in to each other), it's just I am yet to see a similar growth pattern elsewhere? Or maybe Im missing something when looking at other photos? Any help as to wether this is normal and has been experienced before would be appreciated

Thanks

And some more photos....the plant/s in it's entirety, another side branch and some more buds.

Hey mate. Yeah I would let them run another 2 weeks.

Your buds are growing normally under natural light. Thick nuggets are a result of hps lighting. Imo.

Thanks greyhairs, definatley going to be leaving for two weeks (and checking those trichomes).

In regards to light I was leaning more towards partial shade as the culprit behind the 'normal' sized buds (aswell as early life stress). I have a mate up north who grows some immaculate outdoor BUT it's literally in a rain forest, has a sub tropical perpetual 12/12 environment with full sun all day and he preps his soil very well, in return has some gigantic buds. I was under the impression you got more lumens outdoors when compared with any indoor light? Of course, and as stated, I'm very new to this so just going bye what I read (in saying all this though every properly set up grow room seems to produce giant buds so maybe your on to something). If have a room downstairs that looks very suited as a grow room so I guess I will have to find out myself next grow

Giant buds even bigger than indoor come from outdoor
Its about how much sun they are getting in your outdoor spot
I grow in a part shaded area and while the yields only feel like 2 thirds what they could be because of not as much sun as other spots its quality i want.
Ive seen buds a lot denser and bigger than the perfect grow room from outdoors plenty of times.
Its the three S for me...Soil,Sun and strain

Oh...and 3 to 4 weeks

Thank ruby!

I'll keep chasing that sun in future grows