Yeah, those look like buds!
Been giving her alternating Lucas Formula and CalMag RO water. She was getting burned again and I measured the EC at 3.4 in the res. Flushed and brought it to a more reasonable 2.0 EC.
The buds are forming very nicely and are absolutely everywhere on the plant. I trimmed a bunch of shaded stuff and defoliated frequently throughout it's lifecycle but it's still a sticky mess in there.
Chopping off ripe colas isn't that bad of an idea tbh, never thought about it, but that'd leave the lower popcorn more time to ripen; good thinking! 👊😁