But if you keep them small you lose yield which is one if your arguments for vegging longer wasn't it?
Keeping the small does lose yield on a per plant basis. Which is why I have a dozen very small plants to make up for it. I have 1.2m2 space, I am growing in about 1m2 of that space. I can grow a single massive plant with hundreds of heads yielding say 500g and have one variety to smoke or I can grow a dozen plants, keep them small, only have a few heads on each plant and still get around 500g of weed, but in multiple varieties.
I usually let me plant veg for around 8 - 10 weeks from seed/cloning, with this batch I left them be in the veg tent for 6 months because I did a couple of runs of Autos, just to see what they were like. These plants got big and lanky. I potted them up into some fresh compost (a mix of peat, composted green waste, calcified seaweed and perlite), pruned them to a more manageable size and vegged them for a couple of weeks more to let them recover from the pruning. Then flipped them to 12/12. The visual difference is massive. I have done all of these clones at least 3 times before and none of them have ever performed this well. In veg they are fed on Blattwerk Pure, with a weekly dose of Epsom Salts. In flower they fed on Blattwerk Pure @ 50% for the first 2 weeks and then Oldtimers Plant Magic Bloom, PK 4/8 and Epsom Salts. roughly following the Oldtimers feed schedule.
They haven't harvested yet, at least another 10 - 14 days to go. Then they will need at least 6 weeks drying/curing before I even think about weighing them. It might be my imagination and I get no more than usual and it smokes just the same. Or it might be that they give me more and it'll be nicer than usual. Based purely on visual data and opinion I think the latter will be the case.
I have no scientific explanation for my improved results or any measured data to back up my claims. The only thing I can put it down to is a longer veg time.