Fill your pots.

I’m just going to throw this out there for what it’s worth. I see a lot of pictures posted on RIU that show pots that are no where near full. What is up with that? I can understand soil settling over time, What I’m talking about is plants that were planted with a lot of space in the pot below the rim.
A couple of points. First, yield is directly related to root mass. If you have a 12” tall pot and only fill to 9“ that’s a 25% reduction which will be reflected in yield simply by the reduction in root mass.

But not filling pots completely creates another problem that effects yields and causes other problems. Think of the soil like a sponge. If you float a sponge in water and pick it up flat, it hold a lot of water. A very high percentage of the pore spaces are filled with water. Now if you put it on end, water drains out allowing air to fill more of the pore spaces. So a shallowly filled pot is going to have a higher percentage of pore space filled with water after a full watering than a deep pot. Put simply: It is easier to drowned a plant in a shallow pot than a deep pot. Roots need oxygen to grow. The less oxygen the slower the growth the less the yield.

Anyway just for what it’s worth.

I try to leave about 2 inches from the rim in my 15 gals. I need a little room to water since I use a pump that puts out water pretty fast, but I hear ya it's kinda a waste of space.

I seen a lot of that but never thought to nit pick anyone’s particular grow , but did know of a method
I never personally tried ( lazy or forgotten to do for experimenting ) but now that you opened this thread it reminded me of it.

( Take the following with a grain of salt ) ..... I do think there is some potential in this “ trick “.

It was done with grow bags , bagged medium ( promix, FFOF, Hf , whatever ) . Don’t know if it will work with coco ( but I know somebody will try it .... lol ).

Half fill with medium.... sow seed as normal .

Seedling will stretch ...... “ not from “ lack of light BUT because it’s in it’s ROOTING stage. And can only throw shallow roots. So Once it has at least thrown a set of leaves , a very light scuff to stalk with razor ( just like a clone ) ...... dust with I3B root powder and pack top soil to fill to proper height. Light watering.

It would supposedly allow the stalk to heavily root out laterally ......

I haven’t done it so I cannot confirm or deny anything about this.

But getting back to your question .... “ to me “ I think maybe they are planning to wait to fill when transplanting....

That is a very good idea

I think, over time, even without a scuff, the buried stem material will start to produce roots. It has to.
We've all buried a seedling up to it's neck haven't we?

I have taken notice on the occasions I underfilled a pot, and given myself demerits for it.
Sometimes the transplants soil level is misjudged, from a hasty eyeballing.

Budzbuddha said:

I seen a lot of that but never thought to nit pick anyone’s particular grow , but did know of a method
I never personally tried ( lazy or forgotten to do for experimenting ) but now that you opened this thread it reminded me of it.

( Take the following with a grain of salt ) ..... I do think there is some potential in this “ trick “.

It was done with grow bags , bagged medium ( promix, FFOF, Hf , whatever ) . Don’t know if it will work with coco ( but I know somebody will try it .... lol ).

Half fill with medium.... sow seed as normal .

Seedling will stretch ...... “ not from “ lack of light BUT because it’s in it’s ROOTING stage. And can only throw shallow roots. So Once it has at least thrown a set of leaves , a very light scuff to stalk with razor ( just like a clone ) ...... dust with I3B root powder and pack top soil to fill to proper height. Light watering.

It would supposedly allow the stalk to heavily root out laterally ......

I haven’t done it so I cannot confirm or deny anything about this.

But getting back to your question .... “ to me “ I think maybe they are planning to wait to fill when transplanting....

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Sound like an interesting experiment. I don't think you need to scuff the stock, but I would think it would help if your gentle about it.

Merlin1147 said:

I’m just going to throw this out there for what it’s worth. I see a lot of pictures posted on RIU that show pots that are no where near full. What is up with that? I can understand soil settling over time, What I’m talking about is plants that were planted with a lot of space in the pot below the rim.
A couple of points. First, yield is directly related to root mass. If you have a 12” tall pot and only fill to 9“ that’s a 25% reduction which will be reflected in yield simply by the reduction in root mass.

But not filling pots completely creates another problem that effects yields and causes other problems. Think of the soil like a sponge. If you float a sponge in water and pick it up flat, it hold a lot of water. A very high percentage of the pore spaces are filled with water. Now if you put it on end, water drains out allowing air to fill more of the pore spaces. So a shallowly filled pot is going to have a higher percentage of pore space filled with water after a full watering than a deep pot. Put simply: It is easier to drowned a plant in a shallow pot than a deep pot. Roots need oxygen to grow. The less oxygen the slower the growth the less the yield.

Anyway just for what it’s worth.

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Pretty much disagree. I dont think your sponge analogy translates to the soil very well.
I do agree mostly that more soil means more rooms means more fruits, however that's not always a rule. I commonly have some under filled pots because my soil is so fluffy that if it's too dry when I fill my pot and add my transplant then water all the sudden my 5gal bucket is only 1/2 full. Never really seems to make much differance imo... yield is always about the same and the overall root mass is about the same it's just more dense in the pot with less soil. The only downside is that it can dry out faster.

Overall I dont think it's worth fussing over

I fill mine pretty close to the top but it still settles down a couple inches lower than I want it after some time.

I'll get some fresh mix ready then pull the plant out, saw off a couple inches of the bottom of the rootball to get rid of the stringy roots if any then toss a bunch of fresh mix in the bottom and set her back down and water in good. During flower is fine too.

Not a big deal.

OldMedUser said:

I fill mine pretty close to the top but it still settles down a couple inches lower than I want it after some time.

I'll get some fresh mix ready then pull the plant out, saw off a couple inches of the bottom of the rootball to get rid of the stringy roots if any then toss a bunch of fresh mix in the bottom and set her back down and water in good. During flower is fine too.

Not a big deal.

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wow thus seems to be a lot of unnecessary stress for the plant esspecily in flower this would have to be a big no no for me.

You cant fill a fabric pot to the rim. Itd be a bloody fuckin mess every time you water

Keeprollinup said:

wow thus seems to be a lot of unnecessary stress for the plant esspecily in flower this would have to be a big no no for me.

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I slice off the rootball every time I repot and never see anything but rapid growth. Pots get filled with fine feeder roots from top to bottom which work a lot better than thick ones laying on the bottom. I don't think it stresses the plants at all. The sides get shaved of long roots too.

@OldMedUser I May not always agree with your methods but I sure like you style brother. Show that plant who’s the boss.

Merlin1147 said:

@OldMedUser I May not always agree with your methods but I sure like you style brother. Show that plant who’s the boss.

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I ain't taking no shit from a damn plant for sure.

I start beating them up shortly after they pop out of the ground. I smack them around so they build strong stalks as they come up. They look all beat up after but in a few hours are standing tall again.

I tell ya if stress caused hermies all my plants would be hermies. lol

OldMedUser said:

I slice off the rootball every time I repot and never see anything but rapid growth. Pots get filled with fine feeder roots from top to bottom which work a lot better than thick ones laying on the bottom. I don't think it stresses the plants at all. The sides get shaved of long roots too.

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well fuck. just goes to show that these bitches can take some shit. fair play

OldMedUser said:

I ain't taking no shit from a damn plant for sure.

I start beating them up shortly after they pop out of the ground. I smack them around so they build strong stalks as they come up. They look all beat up after but in a few hours are standing tall again.

I tell ya if stress caused hermies all my plants would be hermies. lol

Click to expand...

That smells like a good thread. You should post before and after pics, an also up pot once more just to identify differences. Im in full support of this, i often repot while the plants somewhat heavy, (ripping a few roots along the way) never look back never have problems lol

Keeprollinup said:

well fuck. just goes to show that these bitches can take some shit. fair play

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I honestly don't know what transplant stress is. I've never had anything but happy plants the day after repotting. I tend to let the plants get a little rootbound before moving them to bigger pots and many years back noticed that the roots were mainly in the bottom half of the 5gal pots after cropping. Almost nothing in the top half.

I had read about repotting mother plants and whoever it was said to take the plant out of the pot and cut the rootball down to about a third and put it back in the same pot with fresh soil. I had a mom that was about four years old and getting scruffy looking so tried it. Lo and behold it perked right up and started putting out massive new growth right away. Tried that but less removal of soil on a few rootbound plants and the same thing so do it every time now.

Might need to shove a bamboo stake in there to hold it upright for the first week but by then there are roots poking out the drain holes and the stake can be removed. The largest pots I use are #5 nursery pots that hold about 4gal/16L and they hold together really well with the web of fine roots all through them. Have to stomp the crap out of them when putting them in the compost pile.

Thinking of trying out some fabric pots or even better those smart pots. I think I'd prefer the rigidity of the plastic in those and would have to set them up on something to drain.

grilledcheese101 said:

That smells like a good thread. You should post before and after pics, an also up pot once more just to identify differences. Im in full support of this, i often repot while the plants somewhat heavy, (ripping a few roots along the way) never look back never have problems lol

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Before and after pics of what? The root pruning or the slapping around of da bitches?

I've revegged DWC and cut all the roots off to an inch below the pots and they explode with new roots.

I had this mom in a 2L pot and made a net pot out of another one then cut a third of the rootball off with some folded up snow fence on the bottom of the pot so the soilless wasn't at the bottom and the roots just grew so fast it amazed me. Single plant DWC Scrog that gave up 8oz of bud and the same in sugar leaves and popcorn.

The cut on Mar. 29



In the tub same date.






6 days after putting into the tub. Apr. 4


3 days later on the 7th. I tag all my pics with the date.



Was already a tall plant with four main branches that had to be bent over and tied down to the screen and this was on the 11th and it was growing fast by then. Filled that screen up twice over before flipping to flower. When a branch grew to the edge would let it go for a few inches then bend it around and start it back across and also tie down the side branches as they grew out. I would put in pieces of that copper wire so I had something to tie the growing tops to as they went across a gap. No weaving at all.



I was planning to reveg that one but it went hermie bad about week 9 of a 12 week flower. Kali Mist.

I feed

OldMedUser said:

Thinking of trying out some fabric pots or even better those smart pots. I think I'd prefer the rigidity of the plastic in those and would have to set them up on something to drain.

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Flood tray and bbq grates lol. I been running 5 gal air pots and still get predominantly bottom bounded roots, and gonne try root pruning on my clones next month

Wtf were u feeding them? Holy shit lol

So many soils are using that fungus that I cant remember the name of off the top of my head that basically makes watering a pain in the ass. Water just runs right off the top and doesn't want to soak in, so my last few batches I have left a few inches just to hold the water and allow it to slowly penetrate the soil.