Pot Size for a 3.5 foot Plant?

I'm about to start my second grow. On my first one the plants finished at about 3.5 feet after flowering. I used 3 gallon smart pots. Is this the proper pot size or can I go down to 2 gallons instead?

I would stick with the 3 or even go up to 5. It gives the roots more space to grow allowing for a healthier plant.

There's pros & cons for both 3gal and 5gal at that size. Main con with the smaller pots is having to water more often. I did a pheno hunt through some of my seeds and ran 9x 2gal a few months back, nice plants and yield but by the end I was watering almost daily which can be a pain in the ass...

I concur. 3-5 sounds about right. 2 will be fine like the guy said you may have to water more often.

T.C. Bosby said:

I'm about to start my second grow. On my first one the plants finished at about 3.5 feet after flowering. I used 3 gallon smart pots. Is this the proper pot size or can I go down to 2 gallons instead?

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Yeah I would go up to 5 gal.

Lots of growers go by months of cycle. 3 months to grow and flower. 3 gallon pot.

Personally I use #3 nursery pots which are closer to 2.5 gallons in actual capacity. I veg about 30 days total but transplant up from cups to #1 pot then flower in the 3 when I see roots at the bottom.

Even with a longer flowering 10 to 12 weeker the only thing is they get hungry more cause the soil is depleted. Watering doesn't get much shorter than 2 to 3 days between so I don't waste soil on bigger pots yet. But I do have height restriction. So the plants are bent over. But they bush out way bigger than you would think and yeild well in the smaller pots.

I do indoor I veg for a month, then bud for 2-3 months depends on strain.

Do you find your final pot full of roots all through? Or more to the outside edges of the pot?
And I am assuming from your suggestion you use 5 gallons?

Yeah roots go all the way thru.. right now I use 5 gal pots.

I don't think I could get the pot filled enough as when I went down in size to help with height restriction in my room my yield never went down.

But that was quite some time ago so maybe I should try again. Nothing wrong with happier bigger plants for a few gallons of soil added.

What light do you veg with? I only use T5 fluorescents now. More intense light may be a factor.

I started out with halide then HPS and 5's. But when I went to a perpetual grow I got the T5 lamps and liked the results. But halide would probably grow a bigger plant with bigger roots.

MichiganMedGrower said:

What light do you veg with? I only use T5 fluorescents now. More intense light may be a factor.

I started out with halide then HPS and 5's. But when I went to a perpetual grow I got the T5 lamps and liked the results. But halide would probably grow a bigger plant with bigger roots.

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Yeah I use a metal halide 1000 watts with a hps 1000 I think that's the best way to go, forsure bigger plant

I use a pair of 600 HPS to flower. I think it takes a week for the T5grown veg to get used to them. But it is my system for now.

Sometimes I throw a seed in flower from the start. I get pretty similar results as the t5 30 day veg. Guess the HPS makes up for the extra hours.

Bet if I used a 400 HPS for veg I could fill those pots up. So it all as usual depends on all factors.

Meow......
I just cut 2 in 5 gal SmartPots and have 2 currently in week 6 of flower in 2 gal.
Got about the same total weight using 2, 3 or 5 gal SmartPots.
Agreed i water more but cost effecient due to less medium used.
Thinking of a nute regiment to increase bulk though.
Veg time was 4 weeks and with stretch sitting at about 4 -5 ft tall .
T5s in veg until week 3 ish then about 2-3 under 90 w of LED then flip to flower.
I use LEDs so the monster growth isnt there like a 1000w but have been crazy terpene development with 600 watts of LED.

Use the one litre per week of the plants life span rule. example 4 week veg and 8-9 flower = 12-13 litre
You are using smart pots, the idea of which been to improve root mass and thus increase plant mass and yield. So go higher rather than lower.