Pots too big.

[PeculiarParsnip]

Owdoo folks.

Looking at the recent plant of the month shots, it has dawned on me that I most likely am using too BIG a pot and wondering if I would get more by using smaller pots?


My current dr120 doing badly grow, those plants are in 25L pots and I potted on clones that I took from the plants from my 1st badly grown but nowhere near as bad as my 2cd grow. they was in 3.5L airpots and a pain to transplant into the plagron royal mix.. I think my errors/failures are that too big a pot and most likely overwatering.

My current veg plants for grow #3 are now in 5L round pots and was going to put them into 20L pots but now thinking, 11-15L may be better? As I can see folk using pots much much smaller than my existing pots are growing not only much better plants but yielding considerably more than my current dr120 which I am looking at 1-2 oz a plant from 2 of them and the other 2 will be lucking to see a half an oz of each, but they are picking up now I have soft water nutes, or seem to be.

I am thinking my mistakes must be the pots and the watering, the more I think about that as a possiblity the more I think it is likely.

Mucho thankio for all the help with potgate!

[Bud Lightyear]

Choose pot size to match veg time with photoperiod plants, you want full root occupancy of the medium ideally.. I used 20 litre air-pots with coco and 6 week veg from rooted clones...10 litre pot for an auto should be about right...A small root ball in a large pot just causes too much water retention, oxygen depletion and a stagnant medium..Your water/feed strategy also plays an important roll in maintaining a good water to air ratio..


Regards BL

[PeculiarParsnip]

Cheers Bud, I may be a bit dense but the veg to pot ratio goes over my head, I do understand the bit how a small rootball going into a massive pot can cause all sorts of probs and think this is an area I need to pull my socks up on!


The plants in my diary are 3 weeks old but only just potted on into 5L round pots from 1L airpots, no idea how long it will take for them to root out the new pots so say another 3 weeks then into the final pot of 20L, i think would need vegging for another 4 weeks? that would give us a ten week veg period, I have no idea how fast the plants root out the pots, never took much notice, it is just that I am seeing folk here getting cracking results from smaller pots that has me thinking I would be better off in smaller pots or ... perhaps not potting on in such a big leap, which in that case going from 5L to 15L looks the best way to go and may cut a week or two of the veg time before going into flower.

The dr120 grow, one plant is getting chopped this week, will take a good look at the root situation will be lucky to pull an ounce with that one and I also got some green algae forming on top of the pots, so a good good thorough clean of the dr120 is going to happen when all the others have finished.

[Bud Lightyear]

Cheers Bud, I may be a bit dense but the veg to pot ratio goes over my head, I do understand the bit how a small rootball going into a massive pot can cause all sorts of probs and think this is an area I need to pull my socks up on!


The plants in my diary are 3 weeks old but only just potted on into 5L round pots from 1L airpots, no idea how long it will take for them to root out the new pots so say another 3 weeks then into the final pot of 20L, i think would need vegging for another 4 weeks? that would give us a ten week veg period, I have no idea how fast the plants root out the pots, never took much notice, it is just that I am seeing folk here getting cracking results from smaller pots that has me thinking I would be better off in smaller pots or ... perhaps not potting on in such a big leap, which in that case going from 5L to 15L looks the best way to go and may cut a week or two of the veg time before going into flower.

The dr120 grow, one plant is getting chopped this week, will take a good look at the root situation will be lucky to pull an ounce with that one and I also got some green algae forming on top of the pots, so a good good thorough clean of the dr120 is going to happen when all the others have finished.

So basically...During the vegetation stage of growth the plant is concentrating all its energy into root and leaf production. When the plant goes into flower the hormones switch to flower production, the hormones that where controlling vegetation are still present but are reduced to trickle, this slows root growth to a snails pace with hardly any new roots being made...

Also worth mentioning is that when a plant produces roots they will grow outward, once they hit the side of the pot they will spiral round the inner surface of the pot they never grow back inward. This is why some folks will use the potting on procedure...By going up into successive larger pots you create a bigger denser root mass. The more roots you have the better the plant can process water & feed. (More roots = more shoots)

Now a word about Air-pots & Fabric pots...Remember what it said about roots spiralling round once they hit the inner surface of the pot ? Well all that goes out of the window with Air & Fabric pots, they cause what's called air pruning. When the root hits the hole in a Air-pot the tip of the root shrivels up which will cause that root to throw out subsidiary roots and root hairs along its length, this helps with full pot root occupancy which I touched up on before...







Regards BL

[Bogsmokefarm]

So basically...During the vegetation stage of growth the plant is concentrating all its energy into root and leaf production. When the plant goes into flower the hormones switch to flower production, the hormones that where controlling vegetation are still present but are reduced to trickle, this slows root growth to a snails pace with hardly any new roots being made...

Also worth mentioning is that when a plant produces roots they will grow outward, once they hit the side of the pot they will spiral round the inner surface of the pot they never grow back inward. This is why some folks will use the potting on procedure...By going up into successive larger pots you create a bigger denser root mass. The more roots you have the better the plant can prosses water & feed. (More roots = more shoots)

Now a word about Air-pots & Fabric pots...Remember what it said about roots spiralling round once they hit the inner surface of the pot ? Well all that goes out of the window with Air & Fabric pots, they cause what's call air pruning. When the root hits the hole in a Air-pot the tip of the root shrivels up which will cause that root to throw out subsidiary roots and root hairs along its length, this helps with full pot root occupancy which I touched up on before...







Regards BL

Hey BL
Didn't wanna hi jack this post but seems like you no your stuff wen it comes to pot lol I'm sad I no but I'm gonna not be growing for awhile as having to move but hey new adventure I say but I want to do somthing a bit diffrent wen I start up again I wanna grow train bend the hell out of a monster Bush I did a post about a 50l airpot been told don't need that big but I just like going against the grain kinda guy I am so what's your thoughts on

hydrococo 60 40
50L air pot

Under a 300w atts thinking of the zeus 465w I no you don't need that much wattage but I rather turn it down and have someing with a bit of guts to it wen needed

Saying that I'm open to suggestions as I'm reading blue spec is best for veg not even thinking about flowering power yet as I intend to veg this one for some time I wanna treat it like a oil painting just take my time I'm going for size structure more then smoke this is just a project I wanna try so please pardon me if any of my facts are wrong
But with out going on about it blah blah blah for the life of me I can't think of the big light saving bulbs that they do in blue spec CFS no thqt ain't it sure wen I click send it will come to me so looking for them bits lol I just type without thinking no way am I not gonna send this now but guessing I'm best starting a thread can see this growing in to somthing pmsl


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[Bud Lightyear]

Hey BL
Didn't wanna hi jack this post but seems like you no your stuff wen it comes to pot lol I'm sad I no but I'm gonna not be growing for awhile as having to move but hey new adventure I say but I want to do somthing a bit diffrent wen I start up again I wanna grow train bend the hell out of a monster Bush I did a post about a 50l airpot been told don't need that big but I just like going against the grain kinda guy I am so what's your thoughts on

hydrococo 60 40
50L air pot

Under a 300w atts thinking of the zeus 465w I no you don't need that much wattage but I rather turn it down and have someing with a bit of guts to it wen needed

Saying that I'm open to suggestions as I'm reading blue spec is best for veg not even thinking about flowering power yet as I intend to veg this one for some time I wanna treat it like a oil painting just take my time I'm going for size structure more then smoke this is just a project I wanna try so please pardon me if any of my facts are wrong
But with out going on about it blah blah blah for the life of me I can't think of the big light saving bulbs that they do in blue spec CFS no thqt ain't it sure wen I click send it will come to me so looking for them bits lol I just type without thinking no way am I not gonna send this now but guessing I'm best starting a thread can see this growing in to somthing pmsl


Sent from my SM-A202F using Tapatalk

50l is too big for a conventional grow but if you want to grow a monster and don't mind 10~12 weeks of veg it will be fine...Mind you, you would get similar results in a 30 litre pot with pure coco or compost...Remember the 40% of volume took up by the clay balls is 40% less root occupancy potential. The clays offer no value to a good quality coco in my opinion (Canna Coco Pro Plus)....They may be beneficial for aeration and drainage in compost but not for coco...Economically its not really viable when you consider 2 plants in 15~20 litre pots will yield around the same shaving 5~6 weeks off the grow cycle.

In any case I say go for it. It's all about experimentation and see what works for you and have fun in the process



Regards BL

[Bogsmokefarm]

50l is too big for a conventional grow but if you want to grow a monster and don't mind 10~12 weeks of veg it will be fine...Mind you, you would get similar results in a 30 litre pot with pure coco or compost...Remember the 40% of volume took up by the clay balls is 40% less root occupancy potential. The clays offer no value to a good quality coco in my opinion (Canna Coco Pro Plus)....They may be beneficial for aeration and drainage in compost but not for coco...Economically its not really viable when you consider 2 plants in 15~20 litre pots will yield around the same shaving 5~6 weeks off the grow cycle.

In any case I say go for it. It's all about experimentation and see what works for you and have fun in the process



Regards BL

Not sure swot to do will be awhile till then so loads of time to plan

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