The chainging of the saisons

From reading plenty of threads I think I know the answers here, but wanted to get insight from the hive mind. So, I guess this goes under "what do I do next" instead of "is my beer ruined?"

I brewed a saison on September 3rd; it was my first brew in about 15 years. Extract, partial boil. It's been in the primary since then. I haven't taken a gravity reading since pitching the yeast (WLP564 and WY3711), but plan to in the next day or two. OG was a smidge lower than expected (1.053 corrected v. 1.056) so I didn't top all the way up, just to about 4.5 gallons. I've wondered since whether the sample was representative or got too much of the water I'd mixed in.

Assuming ferm is finished, here are my questions:

1. Leave this in the primary another few weeks to clear and condition a bit more v. Rack secondary v. Bottle this weekend? My gut says leave.

2. When I do bottle, pitch a new saison right on the cake v. Washing the yeast? Can't quite tell if the potential off-flavors are bad enough to warrant washing and the lazy way is tempting until the temp here in SoCal drops enough/I get my second fridge set up to do a bitter.

3. When I bottle, bring this up to a full 5 gal, since 3711 tends to attenuate well enough that this could be mighty dry.

4. What do I do with this 5 gal carboy I bought as a potential secondary? Throw a few gallons of apple juice and some yeast in there and make cider?

Could go on, but my thumbs are tired. Anyone have thoughts?

1. I wouldn't bottle yet. You're not even 3 weeks in. I'd either leave it on the yeast cake for at least another 2 weeks and then I'd move it to secondary or bottle. For me, it really depends on how much I need to jostle the carboy when you're transferring to your bottling bucket. If I expect to kick up a lot of sediment, I'll move to secondary first and let it settle for a few weeks to reduce the amount of trub in the bottom of the fermentor. I think saisons need extra time to clean up some of their off-flavors.

2. Pitching onto a complete yeast cake is using way too much yeast. Yeast growth (multiplication) needs to happen in order for some of the flavors to develop.

3. I wouldn't add more water. Either 1.053 or 1.056 isn't going to make enough of a difference. 10% additional water at a late stage might make your beer taste thin - regardless of how well it attenuated.

4. I sometimes use a 5gal carboy to make 3.5-gallon batches of beer (usually w/ some yeast from a cake).

let it sit for another week or two.

I have been leaving my saisons for about 5 weeks since 3711 drops out better with some extra time for me.

Don't add extra water.

If you want to reuse the yeast either wash it or just take 1-2 cups from the fermenter, put it in a sanitized container, clean the fermenter and put the new brew in there with the saved yeast.

Use the carboy for smaller batches. I have two 5 gallon carboys, Since I rarely move anything to secondary, I have been using them for 4 gal. batches. They work great for brews that I know will need a lot of time, like a big Belgian. Using them keeps my regular fermenters freed up and does not mess up my pipeline.

Thank you both, the advice is appreciated. Now to search for something good to fill the 5 gallon with.