I know if you use a small pot, eventually your plant will stop growing unless you transplant it to a larger pot, so I'm wondering if that's a healthy way to limit the size of a plant? If I'm growing in a small area and need to make sure my plant doesn't outgrow the space, is this an effective way to do that, or will it make the plant less healthy or affect bud production? is there a better way to do it?
Root stunting isnt the best idea just to control a plants height. It could result in gender problems and yellowing leaves. If you need less height, move lights a little closer and top the plant.
try 1 gallon smart pots...they redirect the root growth so you dont deal with rootbound and i would suggest short veg time ...strain...is no. 1 factor in height....look at something short with short flower time..or autos like budda red dwarf
straight out of the grow bible by jorge cervantez "paint the inside of the containers with two coats of Griffin's Spin-Out. Roots grow to within a fraction of an inch of the copper" this gives you a really dense rootball...roots naturally grow down but when you use paint the inside of the container with this stuff it forces the roots to explore within the confines of the container for moisture thanks to the repelling force of the "spin-out" copper stuff. good luck
The best way to control the height is to train the plant and control when you put it into flower. It's really pretty simple, honestly. LST, topping, FIM'ing all work to control the height of a plant. I always flip the lights at just under half of what I hope to reach in plant height - for instance if I want a 24" plant, I'll probably flip to 12/12 around 8-10" - better too short than too tall.