That’s why I wait for pre-flower first. I had the same thing with a male, left a big hole in the flowering room when i finally pulled him. The only time a male has beaten me so far. I sex them first, top, clone and then wait for the branches to show alternate branching.
I keep two separate tents, and veg the plants to what I deem to be an appropriate size, considering the strain, my needs at the moment (just trying a new strain, or get a headstash of stuff I like, making seeds, etc.) and the space available in either tent.
Some plants are very vigorous and only take a few weeks to look mature (alternating nodes, preflowers) and reach a “proper” size, other for some reason stall, and rather than culling I just keep them vegging as needed (had a couple vegging for months).
What he said above ^^^^^^ @Viva_Mexico
too long lately 90 days
For me it is when all the puberty changes have stopped and it is producing uniform growth.
Then it goes under 24 hour light in case it is the type that likes to be young. Clones are then aged for varying times and flowered. Then the nicest result is noted and the main plant aged for that many days then put under 24 hour light again so it can live in one long summer’s day. Then it is a suitable mother plant and it will retain youth and vigour and produce the best result it can when flowered.
Then you can experiment with different lengths of veg time and discover the best time/benefit ratio for that plant.
For my plant in my system that is 12 days.
2 plants per EarthBox planter, I veg for 40 days before flip.
Wow! That was all over the place huh?
I top at the 4th node, let them recover, FLIP!
Hmm, trying to understand this… what is meant by aged?
Aged = Grown in a veg room.
Maybe aged : either to time the cuts for when they go into flower.
OR aged to a certain height, so when they flip them, there is enough stretch room.
When I was a box grower, I had to flip due to height a lot.
just my $.02