triming the life away

This is my first hydro grow. I have decided to do 3 cycles of 3/5/10 weeks in each for my Pot Of Gold plants. First cycle will be in the clone dome (only 2-3 weeks) then move them to the veg hydro ebb and flo for 5 weeks, then to flower room where they will sit for 10 weeks. This way I can have a harvest every 5 weeks (two ebb and flow trays in flower let me do different nutes).

Anywho I just moved 6 plants out of veg into flower and left the 6 shorter ones in the veg. Now 3 of those 6 that were left in the veg are already about tall enough but I want to veg them for 5 more weeks. How much do you think I can prune away at these 3 to bush them down to the size of the other 3 (they are different ages)? I have topped plants before but never pruned to shorten them. Any expereince with shortening plants? They will have 5 weeks to recover before flowering.

I prune my mums, I had a bonsai fascination for many years, so I put those skills to use and keep my mums as bonsai's, no more then 6-9 inches tall.

Here's a simple technique I shared with a friend to keep his girls short and monster bushy outdoors: turn every shoot into 2+ shoots. At no higher then the fourth node top for the first time. After that, every branch gets pinched out or cut off after 2-3 nodes on that branch, or just below a particularly stretchy internode. The effect is a constant doubling of bud sides and a very slow gain in height.

i cut a 3 foot tall mom right in half after taking a massive number of clones off the top once... she didn't seem to give a shit at all... i also dropped several pounds of wood and fluorescent lights on her once too though... that only slowed her down for a day or so....

dude i smoked some pot of gold it was grade a for sure smelled like skunk and something else but i 4get it was awhile back.. buds were thick and very dense.. thats what the dude claimed it was who knows...