Hi everyone, this is my first "legit" grow. My plants are about a week in to veg. and growing at a good rate. I am using red plastic (beer pong )cups. So my question is how long should I wait to transplant and how do i do it? I can't really find any good info about it but I did read I can just cut the bottom of the cup out, rather then removing the soil from the cup, is their a downside of doing this?? Should I go straight to 5 gallon pots or will 3 gallons do? Thanks!!

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yea i would cut the cups at the top and slowly pull them apart cause once you start it, its easy to tear all the way down, if it were me i would go ahead and put them in 5 gal they way you know forsure you giving plant enough room for roots and all plus would suck to have to transplant from 3 gal to 5 gal. lol just my opinion though. when, i would wait til 3rd or 4th leaf set.

cool, should i water or keep the soil dry?Thanks!

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wow deja view

heres take two

1. use a container of same size as your sprout container to make a roughly same sized crater in your new pot.
2. use a toothpick, slide around inside of cup to loosen soil from the sides.
3. place hand over top of cup, palm down, with sprout sticking out between your middle two fingers.
4. turn upside down.
5. gently remove cup.
6. if rootbound, manhandle slightly to loosen the root network
7. place in preformed crater
8. gently fill gap with soil, add soil untill surface is 1/8th inch higher than it was
9. water gently to allow dirt to fill in crevices, water around the edge slowly at first to wash loose dirt towards center
10. this step is optional, i use superthrive for root recovery, actually works good on clone shock, fert damage recovery. (does not live up to its hype, but it is usefull)

i am limited by space, and use smaller containers to keep vertical growth stunted.
so i transplant when the roots start to poke out the drain holes, thats a good sign they need more room.

if you just cut off the bottom and plant the cup it makes your roots have to work a bit harder to start radiating outward.
but other than a minor hiccup in growth ultimately it wont make much difference.

as too container size that all depends on how big you plan on going.
indoor, outdoor. and such. a one gallon pot will support a little over 3 feet. a 3 gallon pot should put you up to like6-7+.
but like i said i dwarf mine

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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt

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you keep the soil dry when transplanting. then water the new home

Newb101, I am going to go ahead and cry foul on that advice. Jn811, you just commented on my plant. Listen to me.

Soak your cup, soak your new soil. Wet wet wet, water pouring out the drainage holes. To the point where regular soil would be mud (but not yours because you have good drainage!)

The roots you see don't actually do anything. Water and nutes are absorbed by roots on a much smaller level. Thousands of root hairs span outwards in every direction from your visible roots. This is where the plants drink and absorb nutes using something called proton pumps. The in depth science of it is pretty sweet but I digress.

Wet sticky soil will hold roots and root hairs more immobile than dry soil. Plants suffer transplant shock not because they're in a new pot or new soil, they haven't grown roots into it yet so why should it suffer immediately if that was the case? Transplant shock occurs because shearing motion of your dirt severs roots hairs, small roots and disrupts the plant's underground structure.

Transplanting is more simple than anyone makes it out to be. Two rules.
#1. Your plant has the same mass above ground as below, if there wouldn't be enough room in the pot for that, transplant.
#2. Do your best to keep the soil from shearing off roots, this is why you see so many cautions for transplanting gently.

Good luck.

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Grizzly and Smokey be friends my friends

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Grizzly thats good advice

YA i'M GOING WITH GRIZZLY ON THIS ONE HE KNOWS WHAT HES TALKING BOUT! THANKS!!!

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cut holes in the bottom and then leave the bottom of the cups in water so get another cup and have water in that one and put the cup with the holes at the bottom inside that one and wait until you see roots coming out the holes and etc then you can skip the cup and transplant it into a 2 gallon pot wo just put them in 2 gallon pots right now and make sure you leave it open at the bottom otherwise its just going to out grow the pot and come out the bottom if its covered and then you need to re transplant which sucks bro

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stranger... stranger, now thats a weapon

So grizzly, is it not ok to just cut the bottom of the cup out and put the cup into a bigger pot? Will the roots just grow out the bottom or is it better to just get rid of the cup? Thanks again!

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