My first grow --- veg. phase with pics

Hey everyone. This is my first grow, and my plants have been growing for about 5 weeks. For the first 2.5 weeks they had insufficient lighting so they have elongated stems. They are growing under 6 48'' T5 lighting which produces around 30,000 lumens approx, covering about 4 square feet of growing space.
I have a couple of questions and would love feedback, good or bad.

- I dont want the plants growing any taller than 1.5 feet, so what is the best method for getting them there and as bushy as possible?
- I have a baby germinated seed which is a week old, so i have to wait until this plant is ready to flower before i flower any others due to only one lighting system. With that said, Should i be trimming my larger plants right now? Should i be trimming the large healthy leaves, that are near the top of the canopy? Should I be trimming the larger leaves at the top so the new developing leaves underneath can have more light --- as my light is only from the top?
- How long do you think until i would be able to flower my current plants?
- Any other help would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks alot, and happy new year

bump... plz

they look ok man, but you should have had those plants a lot closer to the lights while they were germinating, thats what causes them to stretch for light instead of growth, the plant is trying to get itself in position for optimum light and then focus on growth. you should lower those lights to about 2 or 3 inches from the plants, and probably add some CFL lights on the sides to promote branching, look very healthythough, the plants will grow another 2 feet while flowering so you just prune to the shape/size you want, just dont prune to much at once so your plant can recover...heres my first grow, whtacha think

https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/287526-lifted-so-its-my-first.html

you can always just transplant them into a larger container, and when you do so, just make sure that you bury that stem maybe all the way up to your first set of leaves or so... this will help to shorten them up some, and it won't hurt a thing..
also, don't start cutting off anykind of leaves as the leaves are what produces food and sugars that make the plant grow.. instead, you should look into either topping or supercropping or maybe lst'ing them to help keep the hieght down some..
there are plenty of threads on here for lst or topping.. i really like uncle beans thread on topping a plant for two or four main colas, and would think that this would be a great place for you to start out and get a few good ideas of where to go from here..