When you grow a plant til 8 weeks, then put it on 12's, it may begin to flower in as little as three days, generally under a week. (Though the amount of light and lenghth of light period before 12's is also a factor, as is the spectrum.) When you grow to 6 weeks, it can take up to 14 days to start flowering. At 5 weeks, it takes as much as 3 weeks! Not much of a time saver, eh?! I remember some fellow equating it to trying to turn a 12 year old into Marylin Monroe. I recommend growing for 7-8 weeks of veg to produce 3x the bud sites and spend maybe a week in 12's before the buds start to form. If you have a severe height restriction, simply pinch or train it to fit the area, but let her mature some, and you'll be much happier, I know. I've spent the last 6 years experimenting with whatever I heard asked on the forums. Some of my plants have been Bonsai'd, others trained into simple topiary designs, to keep all the plant within the prime influence of the light, as much as chicken wire, plastic bagties, and 10 thumbs were able. It has been more fun, and tremendously theraputic! Just the earth girl throwing in her $0.02... {;~)
High ya'll! Clones, nomatter what height, are the same maturity as the mother, so they are great to flower short-form. they have a greater density of bud sites than a seedling of the same height. I do my cloning by the air-layer method (http://www.cannabis.com/ezine under growing 101 by Uncle Ben.) By the process of girdling and airlayering, the rooting clones stay on the mother until rooty enough to make it on their own. No worry about a separate environment, and it is easy to tell when you have a rootball, without actually disturbing the fragile structure, by using clear plastic to hold the rooting medium around the branch. Once your arrangement is secure, you wrap some sun blocking material around it, use a syringe to keep the medium moist, and wait up to two weeks before you peek. The entire branch can be cloned, and can be planted looking like a full grown plant with many nodes and lots of foliage. It works for me! L8R,M8S! That gabby old earth girl...