First grow! | Sugar Black Rose

You can keep it however small you like.. 1x1 being about the smallest I’d do.. You’re just restricting your ability to take a decent quantity of cuts at anytime. Depends what your end game is. If you’re trying to take a few dozen cuts all at once.. this won’t work. But if you want a clone or two here and there it’s fine. You will, however, have to continually prune and keep it cut down to size. Ultimately, I’d recommend a bit larger size. I run 8-12 in a 4x8 and it works well. I can take a dozen or so clones from any one at a time. Keeping moms just takes a little different shift in maintenance / mentality compared to vegging out plants for flower. I run low lights on them and keep containers smaller so they grow slower. Nutrients at a minimum. But it’s a fine line because you want them healthy enough to take clones.

If you get rid of the chonkers that are blocking light to inner nodes, you'll start developing a nice even canopy. Also, if you haven't topped it yet, I suggest you do so soon. That's another way to make the inner and lower branches try to catch up to the top of the plant and add even more to the top canopy. As far as flipping to flower goes, that's up to you. If you do what I suggested, top and defoliate, you'll want to wait a few weeks to a month before you flip them into flower. I hope this helps.

I'd chop them off, personally. But, I like to really lollipop my plants. Take a look at my outdoor grow. I'm ScrOGing and removed almost all of the foliage underneath the canopy, along with all the branches that weren't going to make it close to the canopy. Not a single one of my plants were stressed to the point of turning into a hermaphrodite and they are all making fat nugs. I hope this helps.