Purposefully keeping plants root bound

Honey Oil Riot Squad

Well-Known Member
High Honey Oil

I keep clones in a kind of limbo by cutting back the amount of light and food so they grow very slowly until I can get around to transplanting. Went 7 months once in those small seed starter pots that have 9 little cups in the flimsy black plastic holders. These are not the 7 month old ones. Those got to about 7" tall and looked crappy but grew fine once repotted and grown properly.

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Then when I do transplant I use a bread knife to saw the bottom off the root ball and if there are roots winding around the sides I just shave down the sides to trim them all off. I do that with small clones in 2oz cups or bigger plants going into larger pots during repotting. They never seem to suffer any kind of stress and within a week there will be new roots poking out of the drain holes in the new pots. After cropping the root ball is just full of fine root hairs that bind the whole thing into a solid mass that takes a bit of work to bust up before tossing in the compost.

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:peace:
Thank you so much! Exactly what I was looking for. Looks like I will end up having to do that to loosen the root ball. Didn't know you could keep them for so long. Those 7 month old ones must have looked a little rough! Thanks for your help.
 

r.i.kid

Well-Known Member
my girls in 1 gallon pots for about 3-4 months ...they just grow slow now. I'm trying to keep them manageable till bloom. I only pull 3 out at a time 20161202_195249.jpg
 
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