merdamerda
Member
Will a plant vegged for 4 months in a 20 gallon pot be the same size as a plant that was vegged in a 100 gallon pot?
Plant size vs pot size
- Thread starter merdamerda
- Start date
Mearle Gates
Active Member
Depends on the strain, wouldn't you say?
merdamerda
Member
I don't think it is as much strain dependent as it is pot size.
Mearle Gates
Active Member
It's complicated. As they say. 10 gallons of fertile soil may be plenty sufficient with 100 gallons being totally excess. Or frequency of watering - how far the roots have to search for their next drink, a small pot dries quicker. And let's not even mention the cost of bags of organic soil to fill a 100 gallon pot. Assuming soil is used of course. I've seen some enormous hydroponic plants grown in tiny pots.
malicifice
Well-Known Member
It becomes a giant stupid waste. Might as well go out side. It's like using 10 different thousand watt bulbs, sure you can do it but there is this thing that is cheap as fuck called the sun.
merdamerda
Member
What if I'm using 100 gallons of fertile soil? I'm going to be using recycled organic soil. For the watering I'm probably going to be using blumats so the pot never really dries. The cost will of everything will be covered on first harvest. I'm trying to see what size pot is optimal for a 4 month veg. My goal is a 7-8 feet plant around 4 feet in diameter. Lighting for that is covered. Some of the people using soil beds with 400+ gallons of soil are growing nice sized plants but with multiple plants in them.
merdamerda
Member
While I do have a medical license to grow, I don't live in a place where I can just grow outdoors without anyone seeing it.
Squidbilly
Well-Known Member
Yes contianer size is directly related to how big a plant grows, dont' matter the strain. Keep a plant in a party cup and it will never get much wider then the party cup. I find plants tend to stretch in either direction as far as their containers-of course this is with NO training. 6 plants in 5gallon containers will out grow my tent but not in 3.5 gallon containers-that's with the same length veg. Container size dictates the potential for growth. If you use too big of a container and don't veg long enough to fill the medium, your wasting space. But yes, container size is directly related to how big a plant CAN grow
Squidbilly
Well-Known Member
1gal for every month of growth is plenty for indoors, the size plant you are talking about isn't really practical to grow indoors and would take a pretty long veg under HID lamps, not fluros. Are you gonna have a tree under thousands of watts of HID indoors with supplemental side lighting? That is a monster-you could have multiple harvests and yeild way more doing smaller plants by the time you harvest a plant like that once. I would reconsider your plan.
Squidbilly
Well-Known Member
And if you used blumats you would really have a hard time filling that much medium. You would need some proper wet/dry cycles to let the roots search for water.
I would recommend doing more plants in 3-5gallon containers and vegging for 1-2months, training them to stay as short as possible-a 1000w HID only penetrates ABOUT 3 maybe 4 feet, with each inch further from the light getting less and less intense.
The only way I would suggest growing a tree like you describe is in a green house or outside where it's feasible.
Besides not being practical or efficient, what if something happens to your one plant that you spent 4+ months vegging? It's also hard to find insects/problems/nanners/etc. on such a big plant. That's not gonna be fun spraying each week, assuming you do preventative pest control...and if you don't, then it would be a miracle to make it to harvest-pest free for 6-9months. I've never been that lucky in an unsealed room.
I would recommend doing more plants in 3-5gallon containers and vegging for 1-2months, training them to stay as short as possible-a 1000w HID only penetrates ABOUT 3 maybe 4 feet, with each inch further from the light getting less and less intense.
The only way I would suggest growing a tree like you describe is in a green house or outside where it's feasible.
Besides not being practical or efficient, what if something happens to your one plant that you spent 4+ months vegging? It's also hard to find insects/problems/nanners/etc. on such a big plant. That's not gonna be fun spraying each week, assuming you do preventative pest control...and if you don't, then it would be a miracle to make it to harvest-pest free for 6-9months. I've never been that lucky in an unsealed room.
sensimilla86
Active Member
there are a few people on here doing multiple plants in a bed that route of a few smaller plants I would see what they have going on and what kinda yields they r receiving but ya indoors with that plant size wit out the right lighting would turn into a waste of space compared to a few plants with even canopies and one overhead hps
merdamerda
Member
I'm growing using vertical bulbs so plants can get tall and lights will be hitting all sides of the plants with the way the lights are arranged. I'm limited to 12 plants and want to make the most out of it. Its either 4 plants in flower with 8 in veg (4 of which are 2 months apart) or 6 in veg and 6 in flower. I will either harvest 4 plants that vegged for 4 months or 6 plants that were in veg for 2 months. I will still get 6 harvests per year, I'm just not sure which would be the better route to go. Any suggestions?
Squidbilly
Well-Known Member
hmm....that's a tough call. Your probably going to yield about the same either way, so it's more about what works best for you and your space. I prefer smaller plants, they are easier to move and treat if any problems arise. One thing that is often over looked by newer growers is pest/pest management. It's much easier to treat a smaller plant, and with only 4 in flower, if one needs to be culled for some reason(pests, hermi, virus?), that's a 25% decrease in yeild, if you do 6 and have a problem with one that's only like 16% of your yield. I would do the 6 over 4, but once you start to do it you'll realize what works best for you and your situation. Just some things to think about.
merdamerda
Member
If I want to grow the biggest possible plant I can with 4 months veg time, what size pot is overkill? Can I grow a bigger plant using a 50 gallon pot over a 20 gallon pot in 4 months time? I have heard when it comes to soil growing, bigger pots lead to bigger plants. Not sure when is too much.
Squidbilly
Well-Known Member
Yea, bigger pots=bigger plants, or more accurately Bigger roots=bigger plants- as long as you can fill the medium. I have never grown in anything bigger then a 25 gallon. and that was a mother I kept for over two years-and many say 1 gallon for each month the plant would be alive is perfect. So 4 month veg, 2 month flower-that's only 6 gallons. I think that is a little small, I would go with a 10 or 15 if I was planning a 4 month veg. I think you'll have a hard time filling anything bigger then a 20-25gal in 4 months, but you won't know until you try.
merdamerda
Member
I vegged a plant in a 20 gal smart pot for around 4-5 months and after harvest the root ball was nowhere near root bound. I used synthetic nutes in coco and veg was mainly under some cfls so thats a little different. I guess I will have to get different sized smart pots and see if I can benefit from using larger pots.
Squidbilly
Well-Known Member
If you didn't fill the 20 why would you go larger, lol.
I'm an idiot, what I should be telling you is start small, and transplant up every time you see roots coming out of the bottom. That way you don't go too big, and you'll have an idea of how quickly you can fill the medium and what size container you should be using for your style of grow.
merdamerda
Member
Reason I want to go larger is because I read that bigger pots make bigger plants. I'm a greedy sob so naturally I would want to use the biggest size pot I can. The grow I did before was half assed so I didn't really take that into consideration. I've read some outdoor grow journals and guys are using 300+ gallon smart pots growing huge plants I doubt a smaller 100 gal pot will be able to grow. Thats why I"m having trouble deciding which size to choose. I'm looking to get 2 lbs per plant using vertical lighting so I will need every advantage I can get.