Is this something to worry about?

PersonaBotanica

PersonaBotanica

Active Member
I meant to add that she's a Sunset Sherbet, 8 weeks into veg, and about to be flipped. She's planted in a 5 gallon with FFOF/Perlite. Currently I'm watering 4-4.5 liters every other day with various nutes and liquid amendments. (this particular pic I was 12 hours late, so 2.5 days since the last watering). There's some runoff every time, but not a lot. I didn't think much about it because the riser kept the plant off of the bottom of the saucer and out of the runoff. The space has a lower RH, so I didn't think it would hurt to leave the runoff in the saucer to add a touch of humidity to the tent. The rest of plant is currently very healthy and vigorous. She's the beast on the left1622391711003.png
 
ZuuTeD614

ZuuTeD614

Well-Known Member
I never knew roots could grow out of a fabric pot like that. I don't know if it's good nor bad. Roots look bright white thats a good sign. Someone should respond. I'm curious as well. I have pot lifters, but normally let me runoff just run onto the floor tray cause only 10 percent runoff of a gallon I use isn't much runoff each watering. Lol
 
Dr. Who

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
That is rather common. Not just for fabric pots either.

Don't let your plants sit IN ANY run off! You can easily get nutrient balance issues and even pH issues.

The plant "knows" there is "moisture" down there. They are stretching to get it.

By the look of the plants....They don't need it either!


I do not like fabric pots. To much wasted media space. To much root ball density in the center.
This causes too much run off and not enough use of the feed by the "umbrella" effect.

This means that you water it and the liquid simply rolls around the root ball (due to how dense it is) and runs out of the sides and bottom of the pot.

The roots are not using the un-rooted space between the roots and the pot walls... That's more then a 20% loss of useable root space.
Bigger roots equal bigger buds.

When I was resting the pots for the first maker. I told him they sucked and why. They never used anything I said in advertising and claims!

Tried soaking the hell out of a plant about to be harvested.
Waited and then chopped.
Dumped out the root ball and cut the dirt in half. The center of the root ball was bone dry.

Go from there.
 
ZuuTeD614

ZuuTeD614

Well-Known Member
Dr. Who said:
That is rather common. Not just for fabric pots either.

Don't let your plants sit IN ANY run off! You can easily get nutrient balance issues and even pH issues.

The plant "knows" there is "moisture" down there. They are stretching to get it.

By the look of the plants....They don't need it either!


I do not like fabric pots. To much wasted media space. To much root ball density in the center.
This causes too much run off and not enough use of the feed by the "umbrella" effect.

This means that you water it and the liquid simply rolls around the root ball (due to how dense it is) and runs out of the sides and bottom of the pot.

The roots are not using the un-rooted space between the roots and the pot walls... That's more then a 20% loss of useable root space.
Bigger roots equal bigger buds.

When I was resting the pots for the first maker. I told him they sucked and why. They never used anything I said in advertising and claims!

Tried soaking the hell out of a plant about to be harvested.
Waited and then chopped.
Dumped out the root ball and cut the dirt in half. The center of the root ball was bone dry.

Go from there.
Click to expand...
So you prefer plastic pots to grow in so moisture run off only from the bottom and not the sides?
 
lusidghost

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
Dr. Who said:
That is rather common. Not just for fabric pots either.

Don't let your plants sit IN ANY run off! You can easily get nutrient balance issues and even pH issues.

The plant "knows" there is "moisture" down there. They are stretching to get it.

By the look of the plants....They don't need it either!


I do not like fabric pots. To much wasted media space. To much root ball density in the center.
This causes too much run off and not enough use of the feed by the "umbrella" effect.

This means that you water it and the liquid simply rolls around the root ball (due to how dense it is) and runs out of the sides and bottom of the pot.

The roots are not using the un-rooted space between the roots and the pot walls... That's more then a 20% loss of useable root space.
Bigger roots equal bigger buds.

When I was resting the pots for the first maker. I told him they sucked and why. They never used anything I said in advertising and claims!

Tried soaking the hell out of a plant about to be harvested.
Waited and then chopped.
Dumped out the root ball and cut the dirt in half. The center of the root ball was bone dry.

Go from there.
Click to expand...
I don't know about any of this. My entire medium becomes a root mass. I have to cut the pots off and laboriously tear the coco apart.
 
lusidghost

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
I also like that roots can grow through fabric pots. I use coco cubes now, and push blank cubes against cubes with plants to allow for more of a horizontal root network to keep everything low.
 
PersonaBotanica

PersonaBotanica

Active Member
My cloth pots seem to hold a fair amount of water, but it's consumed quickly. It's very easy to lift them and tell if they need to be watered - the difference in weight after watering is significant. I usually put in a little over a gallon (4-4.5 liters) and only get about a half cup of liquid out of the bottom. The rest is absorbed into the media and taken up by the plant. I do get a lot of runoff from the sides of the pot if I water too fast. It takes about 5 min to water slowly enough that the water doesn't just go out of the sides of the pot, but if I'm careful, all of that soaks into the media from what I can tell.

This is my first year using them for growing anything including flowers and veggies outside, so I'll get to see how they go for myself both indoors and out.
 
Dr. Who

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
ZuuTeD614 said:
So you prefer plastic pots to grow in so moisture run off only from the bottom and not the sides?
Click to expand...
First off. Hell yes! Why do I want to waste nutrient? Besides, the media dries out faster...
Why won't that root mass get any benefit of the feed/water in the center?

Why the hell are you watering to run off?
In soil, you never run to run off. Simply water/feed the same metered amount everyday. This amount is enough to get you to the next day to repeat.
Daily watering helps deliver O2 to the roots - LOTS.

Even in Coco you should only have to do a "Run Off" watering on a periodic basis.

Your pouring your expensive nutrients through there and dumping the excess. Waste of money that could be spent in better ways.
 
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Dr. Who

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
twentyeight.threefive said:
This. When grown properly.
Click to expand...
Fabric pots are built to "air prune" the roots from around the edge of the pot. Twixt about 1- 1.5 inch's....

In organic "water only" growing....... Your wasting up to and in some case's. Over 20% of your available nutrient rich soil..

If your getting rots out so far that you have to cut off the fabric pot?
Your doing something wrong. Not designed to do that.
 
twentyeight.threefive

twentyeight.threefive

Well-Known Member
Dr. Who said:
Fabric pots are built to "air prune" the roots from around the edge of the pot. Twixt about 1- 1.5 inch's....

In organic "water only" growing....... Your wasting up to and in some case's. Over 20% of your available nutrient rich soil..

If your getting rots out so far that you have to cut off the fabric pot?
Your doing something wrong. Not designed to do that.
Click to expand...
Yup. You nailed it. Definitely doing something wrong. Lmao. Coming from the guy that said this...

Dr. Who said:
I do not like fabric pots. To much wasted media space. To much root ball density in the center.
Click to expand...
My entire pot is roots. Nothing wasted there.
 
Dr. Who

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
twentyeight.threefive said:
My entire pot is roots. Nothing wasted there.
Click to expand...
Ok, sure thing kiddo..

Coming from the guy that tested them before they went public with them!

I have a cpl of super hot pepper plants in in the large 20 gallon pots they sent me.... They are around 8 to 10 years old. Older one being the ghost and the Reaper is one too. The younger ones are Bishop's hat's or cap's... The pots are falling apart with age. They now sit in nice Orientale pots for when they come inside for the winter.

Same thing is true with them.... The roots stand off from filling the last inch or so from the sides...Till the pot started to die...
 
lusidghost

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
A fabric pot will stay wet for a very long time after you chopped down the plant. You're losing most of the water through the plant, not the pot. Probably because of the 24 inch pythons, brother.
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
ZuuTeD614 said:
I never knew roots could grow out of a fabric pot like that. I don't know if it's good nor bad. Roots look bright white thats a good sign. Someone should respond. I'm curious as well. I have pot lifters, but normally let me runoff just run onto the floor tray cause only 10 percent runoff of a gallon I use isn't much runoff each watering. Lol
Click to expand...
If you grow plants in fabric pots set directly on the ground roots will grow through and into the dirt they're setting on. I grew some tomatoes in fabric pots a few years back. They stayed in the same spot. When I went to move them at the end of the season the pot was stuck to the ground from the roots growing through the bottom.

The reason the roots on the OP's pots were not air pruned was because they left runoff in the saucers which created a situation similar somewhat to DWC where the roots grew into the water.
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Dr. Who said:
First off. Hell yes! Why do I want to waste nutrient? Besides, the media dries out faster...
Why won't that root mass get any benefit of the feed/water in the center?

Why the hell are you watering to run off?
In soil, you never run to run off. Simply water/feed the same metered amount everyday. This amount is enough to get you to the next day to repeat.
Daily watering helps deliver O2 to the roots - LOTS.

Even in Coco you should only have to do a "Run Off" watering on a periodic basis.

Your pouring your expensive nutrients through there and dumping the excess. Waste of money that could be spent in better ways.
Click to expand...
I'm in total agreement with you regarding coco and runoff. It's completely unnecessary but since all the cannabis specific coco sites tell people to do it that's what they do. I've done entire grows using blumats and absolutely no runoff at all. The plants were healthy from start to finish despite never being watered until runoff. There is so much incorrect information floating around the cannabis growing scene that it's surpassing the legitimate good information.
 
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