I wanted to take the time to point out an important aspect and difference between outdoors and indoors. Many people understandably assume that the bigger the plant is, the bigger the yield. This is correct, until a certain point. What dictates the maximum potential yield is the Ñarbon assimilation, or in other words, total photosynthesis. Outdoors there is an essentially unlimited source of horizontal and verticle light. Indoors however there is not.
With artificial light sources, there is a limit on how much photosynthesis is possible and as long as light is being fully utilized, height has little effect on this. Read my article on having a light too close to learn more.
With indoor cultivation, a plants maximum potential is limited by the potential of the light source. Once a plant has reached a stage of growth where most light is being utilized, any further vegetation will add little to the overall yield. Where as outdoors, the more surface area of light captured, the higher the potential yield. Because there is always more light to capture and no real limitation other than genetics.
These are the reasons why techniques such as sea of green reduces vegetation time, as you start off with a higher initial energy and capture more light earlier on, filling the canopy quicker.
This is part of the development for my upcoming article on plant training. Why we use them, where to use them, whats best and more.