Best methods for keeping your plants short and stout?

Hi, I'm growing some plants of random genetics (5 day old seedlings right now) and don't want them to get too tall because my grow box is pretty small. I'm wondering what the best methods to encourage them to be short are. I plan to LST them and place a few bulbs (I'm using CFLs all through) around the sides of the plants to try and entice the plants to become bushy and short.

Is there anything else I can do that isn't too bad for the plants? What if I used a 2 liter ice-cream container as my final soil pot? Would a small pot make the roots stay small so the plants don't get too long, or will the roots just grow as usual and then get root-lock or whatever?

Thanks for any help.

you can always super crop them or as they get bigger you can tie them down and try to get a plant pot instead of and ice cream container the reason so that light doesn't leak to the roots now that can cause you problems just put them in a 2 gal.I grew a 3 foot plant in there and had no problems.and since you going to lst them as long as you get the veg time you need and them flip em.

Thanks, never came across the term 'super crop' before but it looks good to do if the plants start getting too big. You think that a small pot will just produce a small plant, though? That is what I want but people often talk about root damage from small pots... Ideally my plants wouldn't get any taller than 50cm max as I'm CFLing in a small box buut I don't want to stunt growth to the point it reduces the budding abilities.

put some nails or screws all around the top outside of your growing container, you can use those as support for string. You can also use zip ties ( which I use for my tomatoes )

I wouldn't worry too much about the plants getting rootbound. Do a quick search for party cup grows and you'll see why. A plant can grow full cycle in 16 or 24oz cups. If you use 2 gallon pots and LST the plant around the rims you'll be fine.