Why bother?

How do you do it?

  • Start and end in the same pot

    Votes: 5 23.8%
  • Transplanting is so much fun

    Votes: 16 76.2%

  • Total voters
    21

Tyleb173rd

Well-Known Member
You transplant or pot up to help root development. Yeah it may seem simple to make sure your plants are getting the right amount but the consequence of overwatering is root rot and the consequence of no run off can be salt build up. Both are bad for the plant in one way or another. Personally I think there is nothing worse than root rot, in fact it doesn't even have to be rot, theres a fine balance between too damp for too long and just perfect. Just perfect means healthy roots that fill out a pot very quickly and thus quick plant growth, too damp for too long leads to lack of oxygen at the root zone and poor root growth, once your in that position its 20 times harder to recover from than it was to transplant and give yourself a chance of it not happening in the first place. The plants may never be what they could of been. Remember that above the medium (coco/soil) reflects whats going on below the medium!
All that said experience is important and lots of these little things we do to grow plants are to help the inexperienced cut down the chances of running into age old problems.
Well said, sir.
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Every time I transplant, even from the starter pots about 2oz in volume, I use a bread knife to cut the bottom half inch or so of the root ball. If there's any roots winding around the sides they get pruned too. Never a sign of stress and new roots poking out the drain holes within a week. Way more fine feeder roots spread out quickly through the root ball and it really shows up on top soon after.

RootPrune.jpg

:peace:
 

Trippyness

Well-Known Member
Main reason for transplanting many times is due to over saturated medium as well as wasted nutrients.
You dont want to drown your plants.
For me when growing in Coco I have run start to finish in 3 gallon Coco without issues but Coco is hard to overwater. Soil is whole different thing. If your careful and dont mind wasting nutrients go ahead.
As long as you transplant carefully it should be fine.
I prefer to go from party cups to final medium ( 3 gallon coco).
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I always wanted to get some of these smart pots. A forum buddy in Hawaii grew in his back yard with these.

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Funky looking things.

:peace:
 

r.i.kid

Well-Known Member
I always wanted to get some of these smart pots. A forum buddy in Hawaii grew in his back yard with these.

View attachment 3807844

Funky looking things.

:peace:
yeah air pots look funky... question old man....I have my ladies in 1 gallon smart pots I'm thinking of moving them into 7 or 10 gallon smart pots before flip. how long should I keep them in New pot before I flip? and should I go 7 or 10 gal?
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
That's a toughy. So much depends on pot size now, grow space, lighting and on and on.

General rule is more in the bottom = more on the top but how much bigger do you want your plants to get before flowering before flipping considering they will likely double in size at least.

That one in your last pic would fill a 5 gal with roots in two weeks but still have lots of space to finish flowering indoors. Got time outside then get a 100gal pot like that and watch what happens. Buddy in southern Ontario grows in 100gal smart pots with promix and AN nutes in his suburban back yard and crops pounds per plant. Here's his crop 2 weeks ago.

Airedog201602.jpg

Airedog201601.jpg
Airedog201603.jpg


In my dreams! :)

:peace:
 

r.i.kid

Well-Known Member
That's a toughy. So much depends on pot size now, grow space, lighting and on and on.

General rule is more in the bottom = more on the top but how much bigger do you want your plants to get before flowering before flipping considering they will likely double in size at least.

That one in your last pic would fill a 5 gal with roots in two weeks but still have lots of space to finish flowering indoors. Got time outside then get a 100gal pot like that and watch what happens. Buddy in southern Ontario grows in 100gal smart pots with promix and AN nutes in his suburban back yard and crops pounds per plant. Here's his crop 2 weeks ago.

View attachment 3808708

View attachment 3808709
View attachment 3808710


In my dreams! :)

:peace:
10 by 10 by 7.5 room 4 1000w lights ....I only want to flower 4 or 5 at a time.. I'm gonna go 10 gal and see if I can handle it. if not next time I'll dial down
 

r.i.kid

Well-Known Member
That's a toughy. So much depends on pot size now, grow space, lighting and on and on.

General rule is more in the bottom = more on the top but how much bigger do you want your plants to get before flowering before flipping considering they will likely double in size at least.

That one in your last pic would fill a 5 gal with roots in two weeks but still have lots of space to finish flowering indoors. Got time outside then get a 100gal pot like that and watch what happens. Buddy in southern Ontario grows in 100gal smart pots with promix and AN nutes in his suburban back yard and crops pounds per plant. Here's his crop 2 weeks ago.

View attachment 3808708

View attachment 3808709
View attachment 3808710


In my dreams! :)

:peace:
 

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Illinois Enema Bandit

Well-Known Member
I didn't read all the replys so my info may be redundant,with that said I grew in soil for 20 years before dumping all mediums & growing flood n drain with zero grow medium,not even in the net pots.

With all that said ,when I did grow soil exclusively my reasons for starting off in smaller pots & transplanting were all nutrient issues,with using oversized pots to root mass its extremely easy to overburden the soil with nutrients,using oversized pots leads to all sorts of problems like nute lock out & a much overlooked issue of having the lower portion of the soil turning into pudding that never dries out,then causes severe issues such as root rot & stem rott .
 
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