Dividing and enlarging a shared hole

Well I have definitely learned a hell of a lot since I began my first grow this year, it is nowhere near complete and I already have a laundry list of thing I'm going to do differently next year.

For me, my biggest problem this year has been location. I did a bad job of visualizing how the foliage was going to fill in, and as a result had to dig up and move the majority of my plants. No big deal I guess, just hassle.

There is however one hole, with two plants growing in it that I haven't had to mess with, at least until now. When I put the plants in the hole at eight inches high it looked like there was plenty of room for both of them. I LST'd since the beginning in two opposite directions, so it doesn't really look crowded but now the stems are both an inch thick and I'm sure they have a substantial root mass. The hole is ~3x2.5ft with ~22in between the two stalks

I'm starting to get really worried that they will get bound together and start to choke each other out for nutes, water, etc., so my plan is to take a 1/32-1/16 thick, 18x32 or so piece of sheet metal and drive it down into the soil approximately halfway between the stalks, then dig out another foot in each direction on either side of the hole and expand and make deeper the hole. Hopefully the piece of metal will sever whatever roots are wandering around next door without too much damage to the plants and turn any new roots around and towards fresh soil. It's basically red clay all around the holes so I'm pretty sure it won't hurt to dig around the perimiter.

Thoughts? Will it solve my problem? Any better ideas? Thanks in advance and sorry if this was a little long-winded I have a tendancy to do that.

i think you are risking more damage to both plants.

if they look good and healthy soo far let them go.. that could just cause more problems. some people have tight areas outdoors and crowd way too much and still do ok. your situation doesnt seem too bad at all.

smokintreez said:

if they look good and healthy soo far let them go.. that could just cause more problems. some people have tight areas outdoors and crowd way too much and still do ok. your situation doesnt seem too bad at all.

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That is definitely an option, I have seen less fortunate grows than my own produce alright yields. However, right now, If I stick my hand in the dirt halfway between the plants at about 10 inches down I hit roots. They aren't very dense and give pretty easily but they are definitely coming from both sides. I think right now I have to decide whether or not I need to do something. I figure now if I do it it will be with minimal damage and the extra space earned will be very well worth it when it comes harvest time. I still have around a month of veg left and this problem is only going to get worse.

Now if I do all this bullshit and they both turn out to be males....

Does anyone think the roots will have any problem growing to where the good soil is?

How about this, for those who think dividing the hole could be more harm than its worth, how about just enlarging it?

are they closer than these plants? that pic was june 6 and in the short time since then they are getting crowded also, but they seem like they will still finish ok.

if u were going to do anything enlarging it would be better. u usally dont want to mess with them at all once they are in the ground. that should be thier perm. home

try posting a picture if u can... Im sure that would help because there are alot of really experienced guys here at riu

if i were u I wouldnt worry as much or be sticking my hand 10 inches down to hit roots anyway. my plants usally seem to do better when i dont think of problems to fix

smokintreez said:

are they closer than these plants? that pic was june 6 and in the short time since then they are getting crowded also, but they seem like they will still finish ok.

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Probably, but not by too much, maybe a few inches. They don't look as crowded because of the LSTing but I'd say they are maybe six inches or so closer. I know in nature plants roots are always all entangled with whatever is growing with them so I guess I don't see this anymore as a necessity, more like something I might be able to do to increase yield.

I think maybe just expanding the hole will help for now, I was getting ready to run with that sheet metal idea but I think I'll hold off now.

smokintreez said:

if i were u I wouldnt worry as much or be sticking my hand 10 inches down to hit roots anyway. my plants usally seem to do better when i dont think of problems to fix

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Q-q-q-quad post!

Dude if you saw the single hole with sloping sides with the two big ass stalks coming out of it you would be thinking like me too. If it were 2-3ft deep and went straight down from the edges it would probably be alright, but I can't remember how much of a slope the sides of the hole has. It looks crowded from the top so I can only imagine how it looks underneath.

I think you are trying to fix something that is not broken. Left on their own, they will be fine. I have seen great grows that were very tight on space. Weeds adapt to their situation and this is a weed. Relax - they will be fine. You are over thinking this. Good luck on your grow. Because they are outside, you are already way ahead of the game.

Little Tommy said:

I think you are trying to fix something that is not broken. Left on their own, they will be fine. I have seen great grows that were very tight on space. Weeds adapt to their situation and this is a weed. Relax - they will be fine. You are over thinking this. Good luck on your grow. Because they are outside, you are already way ahead of the game.

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Thanks man, you are probably right, in fact I'm pretty sure that you are definitely right in that it isn't going to be a huge problem. It won't kill them or anything like that, but I did see it possibly stunting their growth.

I just went out and dug a 1x2.5 trench around the perimeter of the hole. After I got down about eight inches I saw that the original hole did indeed have a sharp slope inwards as it went down. I probably only planned on putting one plant in the hole when I dug it, which was a month or so before I planted anything. I followed the slant as I went down so the top of the trench is a foot or so wide but the bottom is really closer to two. I got basically underneath about half of each root ball, where the ground got too tight to brush away with my hand and tendrils were hanging down and filled with 70/30 peat/perlite from a nearby hole that had to be aborted.

I feel pretty good about the 'operation' and I think any problems I might have had are definitely solved now. When I thought of this yesterday, I was like, "When you're growing in a pot and it outgrows the pot you have to get a new one, but if it's in a hole why can't you just make it bigger?" I think if you do as much digging with your hands as you do a shovel to be real careful with the roots than you can expand a hole with good results. I know I just like doubled each plants available root space which I cannot see being a bad thing.

good jod then, and good luck with your results !

smokintreez said:

good jod then, and good luck with your results !

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grassy ass