What's more efficient? 4 clones veg then flower? Or 12 clones 100% flower?

[bjjislife]

Hey guys. I'm a newbie grower and I've been doing a lot of reading and research on growing, trying to learn as much as possible. I've noticed on some cannabis growers IG pages that there are a lot of people running what looks like a larger number throwing them into flower from the start. Whats interesting is that it looks like they get a pretty damn good yield by doing this. It looks like they always grow on giant main bud with a few small buds on the sides.

I'm currently running 4 plants in a 4x4 grow tent, and with the topping and training trying to get them to fill in the tent as much as possible I got to thinking, about those pics I saw on IG. While I'm using electricity and time veging and training, is it more efficient and simpler to just throw say, 8 more plants in there for a total of 12, and just kick them into flower to get the same result from topping and training 4.

Has anyone actually compared these 2 methods?

 

[Weaselcracker]

Edit- ok I just noticed your title and see that it clearly says clones - not seeds- which kind of totally negates everything I wrote below.... Shit. Hmmm... delete it? Wtf I'll just leave it there.
As far as putting clones directly into 12-12 , I haven't had much luck. They really do start flowering right always and don't have time to grow a good root system first. You have to use tiny little containers if you're growing in soil or soilless - or you'll be overwatering them all the time. Returns in my case were minuscule and I really don't see much good about growing this way. Vegging for at least a few weeks seems advisable.
The reason I did it was to produce tiny flowering plants to pollinate for seeds.



---------previous post when I thought you we're talking about growing from seed--------

What you are talking about is usually referred to as growing '12/12 from seed'. Here's a recent thread where it's been discussed a bit. 12/12 seed

Plants from seed will not immediately flower in a 12/12 lighting schedule. They'll grow for 3 -5 weeks to reach sexual maturity before beginnnig to flower. But because they're getting less daylight per day than the more common 18/6 veg lighting schedule, they'll be smaller when they do. Understand what I mean?

I've had good results with it- but what keeps me from doing it mainly is that I like to be able to veg plants long enough to get some clones from them in case I find something special. Also I'd rather grow a few large plants than a lot of small ones.
There are a bunch of pros and cons to the method- most are probably fairly obvious . You'll also hear the occasional person, who may or may not have tried it, completely freak out about how it's a terrible idea to grow 12/12 from seed. It's not a terrible idea. It might be a very good idea, depending on... a lot of things.