I'm curious what your experience was in vegging the superskunks and then making the flip to 12/12. Did you wait for alternating internodes? A certain height? Or what? And then when you made the flip, how fast did they show sex, and how much did they stretch? (Sorry... I know this is probably all in your journal; just don't have time / patience to sift for it right now..).
Reason I ask is I'm getting pretty close to making the flip myself, and I know my bubblelicious will be ready in a week for sure. I know with some strains though, it's a waste of time and valuable veg / root growth to make the switch too early (ie. you don't get flowers any earlier, you just get slower veg growth until the plant is ready on its own). So, that's why I ask about your superskunk experience in particular. Thanks in advance...!
I just veg them until they are: 1) Showing multiple preflowers, and 2) are at least 16" tall. Then I flip em into 12/12. I never flower plants that have not shown sex yet, as you are correct in saying that it only prolongs the process and it also stresses the plants. I continuously pinch the faster growing top shoots on all the plants (keeping them the same height as the slower growing ones) until I put them into flower, which keeps the canopy the same height at all times (give or take a few inches). When they stretch I could LST a few of the taller branches to make a perfect canopy, but so far I've never really seen the need. When the canopy is even to within a few inches, light distribution is even and growth is more uniform.
Stretch was about 100% for the Super Skunks, the HashBerrys stretched to about 50% more of their original height.
Grow your plants until they show sex naturally, preferably under an 18/6 lighting regimen. If you do this you won't stress your plants causing hermies, your plants will start flowering earlier/faster, and you'll actually be done flowering most any indica or indica hybrid in 8 weeks flat.
Oh and Kriegs - Next time you should probably not use Miracle Grow anything, and I would start Phing my input water if I were you. They need it. There is a huge difference between 6.5 and 8.0. The harder the plants have to struggle to grow, the longer it takes to get to where you want to be. Your plants should be a lot bigger and fuller by now, and I really think the soil and the Ph is holding them back big time.
Here's a pic of my plants about 2 cycles ago exactly 30 days from seed (the canopy is uneven as hell because there were 3 different strains and multiple phenos of each at this point):