Can you get decent results in 2 gallon containers?

tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
I guess what I fear is having the pots get root bound and the plants suffering through flower. I suppose there is still time to repot the fems up into a larger size if I get any more male pre-flowers popping up from the reg seeds.
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
tstick said:
I guess what I fear is having the pots get root bound and the plants suffering through flower. I suppose there is still time to repot the fems up into a larger size if I get any more male pre-flowers popping up from the reg seeds.
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I'm not trying to stir up a big debate, but on short-life plants like these, most cannabis plants are alive less than 6 months and 1 year would be really long for cannabis, I don't think root-bound is really that big of an issue. Sure it can happen, but I've seen some huge plants grown in small pots because they were fed and watered properly.

Another key is to adapt your grow and don't try to veg for months in a little pot. If you wanna do a SOG grow, then adapt to SOG thining. Veg 2-4 times more plants for less time to fill your space. Its waaay faster, and easier to get 40 little plants to produce 1 ounce each rather then to get 4 plants to produce 10 ounces each.
 
thumper60

thumper60

Well-Known Member
Thundercat said:
I'm not trying to stir up a big debate, but on short-life plants like these, most cannabis plants are alive less than 6 months and 1 year would be really long for cannabis, I don't think root-bound is really that big of an issue. Sure it can happen, but I've seen some huge plants grown in small pots because they were fed and watered properly.

Another key is to adapt your grow and don't try to veg for months in a little pot. If you wanna do a SOG grow, then adapt to SOG thining. Veg 2-4 times more plants for less time to fill your space. Its waaay faster, and easier to get 40 little plants to produce 1 ounce each rather then to get 4 plants to produce 10 ounces each.
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Something like this these were vegged 3 weeks topped twice in 1 gal pots, Moved to 3 gal an straight to flower this room gets harvested every 70 days 4-5 # easy.IMG_0429.JPG
 
ProPheT 216

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
tstick said:
Okay so here's my dilemma...I started 8 seeds 35 days ago....One fizzled out right away...Then I was at 7 plants...I just noticed what is likely a male pre-flower on one of the remaining 7 plants...so IF it turns out to me a male, then it will also be culled. Now, I'm down to 6 plants and some of them have yet to show sex...which might lead to even fewer plants.

I initially wanted to do a kind of "Sea Of Green" concept and grow more plants -but in smaller containers. I decided on eight 2-gallon plastic garden pots in my 3 X 3 tent. I had been using 3 gallon grow bags in the past, but I could never keep the outer perimeter of the soil moist enough, so the root ball always suffered. I figured the 2 gallon plastic garden pot would keep ALL the soil evenly moist by comparison, giving me about the same actual root mass as a 3 gallon grow bag.... so that was my rationale behind the 2 gallon pot size.

BTW, I have two plants that are from feminized seed, so that's a sure thing, but all the other strains are regs -some of them are yet-to-be-determined as far as sex. Now that I'm facing potentially ending up with even fewer plants, I'm debating on either starting some more seeds to try and make up for the deficit, and repotting the females into larger containers -which would increase the yield and keep me on-schedule, but wouldn't give me the variety I'm after. I have to make a decision pretty soon.

Has anyone had a successful grow in 2 gallon size pots? Or, is that size just too small?
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So their is a general misunderstanding by the growing community when it comes down to ec strength vs ammount of times a plant is fed.

Most will raise ec not feed more often and in turn create more problems for a hungry plant. If you have a smaller pot you just need to feed more often maybe 2 or three times a day depending on how big she gets. Don't go ramping up your ec to try 2 feed like once a day or every other day.

The only thing a smaller pot will do is become root bound earlier limiting the overall size of the plant. But you can still get some nice ones in a 2 gal if you keep them eating well.
 
Billy the Mountain

Billy the Mountain

Well-Known Member
Maybe a big container would be beneficial if a marathon veg time is used, but for "typical" 30-40 day veg time, the container size is irrelevant, at least in hydro. Soil is another matter.
I used 3 gal fabric pots many times, 5 gal a few times, and now use 2 gal (1.5 gal actual) pots. Other than frequency of fertigation, there's no discernible difference in growth rate or ultimate yields.
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
Billy the Mountain said:
Maybe a big container would be beneficial if a marathon veg time is used, but for "typical" 30-40 day veg time, the container size is irrelevant, at least in hydro. Soil is another matter.
I used 3 gal fabric pots many times, 5 gal a few times, and now use 2 gal (1.5 gal actual) pots. Other than frequency of fertigation, there's no discernible difference in growth rate or ultimate yields.
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I autowater mine 5x a day. Every 4 hours lights on, 1 lights off, in a 2 gallon plastic container. I might up it to 1 fertigation every three hours, during lights on, after stretch, until she starts drinking less.
 
Billy the Mountain

Billy the Mountain

Well-Known Member
Hollatchaboy said:
I autowater mine 5x a day. Every 4 hours lights on, 1 lights off, in a 2 gallon plastic container. I might up it to 1 fertigation every three hours, during lights on, after stretch, until she starts drinking less.
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That's basically the same schedule I use in 2 gal pots as well, except I don't fertigate during darkness . I'm curious why you do another fertigation during the dark period?
Transpiration before irrigation sticks in my head.
 
Kushash

Kushash

Well-Known Member
tstick said:
Okay so here's my dilemma...I started 8 seeds 35 days ago....One fizzled out right away...Then I was at 7 plants...I just noticed what is likely a male pre-flower on one of the remaining 7 plants...so IF it turns out to me a male, then it will also be culled. Now, I'm down to 6 plants and some of them have yet to show sex...which might lead to even fewer plants.

I initially wanted to do a kind of "Sea Of Green" concept and grow more plants -but in smaller containers. I decided on eight 2-gallon plastic garden pots in my 3 X 3 tent. I had been using 3 gallon grow bags in the past, but I could never keep the outer perimeter of the soil moist enough, so the root ball always suffered. I figured the 2 gallon plastic garden pot would keep ALL the soil evenly moist by comparison, giving me about the same actual root mass as a 3 gallon grow bag.... so that was my rationale behind the 2 gallon pot size.

BTW, I have two plants that are from feminized seed, so that's a sure thing, but all the other strains are regs -some of them are yet-to-be-determined as far as sex. Now that I'm facing potentially ending up with even fewer plants, I'm debating on either starting some more seeds to try and make up for the deficit, and repotting the females into larger containers -which would increase the yield and keep me on-schedule, but wouldn't give me the variety I'm after. I have to make a decision pretty soon.

Has anyone had a successful grow in 2 gallon size pots? Or, is that size just too small?
Click to expand...
Mulch or a cover crop like clover can help with the moisture issues when using the grow bags.
 
tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
Kushash said:
Mulch or a cover crop like clover can help with the moisture issues when using the grow bags.
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The main issue with the grow bags drying out was that I noticed the SIDES of the bags were drying out and not staying wet very long -even a day after watering. So, when I eventually harvested the plants and took the root ball out of the bag, it was about the same size as a root ball grown in a 2-gallon plastic garden pot. The roots just had not been able to flourish around the entire inner perimeter of the bags. That's part of the rationale of why I went back to using the standard, plastic garden pots this time.

I'm getting ready to cull a couple plants that are showing male pre-flowers, but I am going to take note of the condition of the roots when I un-pot them and see if they look healthier than the ones from the previous grow I did using the 3-gallon bags. If they do, then I'm going to stick with the garden pots from here on.

*Just as a side-note: I used a couple of grow bags outside in my regular vegetable garden, for potatoes, this last season, and I had the same issue...only the center of the soil inside the bags was staying moist. There were a few potatoes in there, but not many.

I guess my style of growing is better matched with plastic garden pots and not so much grow bags.
 
chuckeye

chuckeye

Well-Known Member
tstick said:
Okay so here's my dilemma...I started 8 seeds 35 days ago....One fizzled out right away...Then I was at 7 plants...I just noticed what is likely a male pre-flower on one of the remaining 7 plants...so IF it turns out to me a male, then it will also be culled. Now, I'm down to 6 plants and some of them have yet to show sex...which might lead to even fewer plants.

I initially wanted to do a kind of "Sea Of Green" concept and grow more plants -but in smaller containers. I decided on eight 2-gallon plastic garden pots in my 3 X 3 tent. I had been using 3 gallon grow bags in the past, but I could never keep the outer perimeter of the soil moist enough, so the root ball always suffered. I figured the 2 gallon plastic garden pot would keep ALL the soil evenly moist by comparison, giving me about the same actual root mass as a 3 gallon grow bag.... so that was my rationale behind the 2 gallon pot size.

BTW, I have two plants that are from feminized seed, so that's a sure thing, but all the other strains are regs -some of them are yet-to-be-determined as far as sex. Now that I'm facing potentially ending up with even fewer plants, I'm debating on either starting some more seeds to try and make up for the deficit, and repotting the females into larger containers -which would increase the yield and keep me on-schedule, but wouldn't give me the variety I'm after. I have to make a decision pretty soon.

Has anyone had a successful grow in 2 gallon size pots? Or, is that size just too small?
Click to expand...
Maybe you need to reconsider what medium you're using ;)

This is a 2 gallon plastic pot with ProMix HP, feed is AN, light is 600w MH/HPS, Early Miss Auto. Yield was 13.2 oz.

Betty three 16 Jan 2021 web.jpg

Cheers
 
B

bluegill

Well-Known Member
I always do 5 gallon buckets DWC, but I have a few young plants in 2 gallons. Lemme tell you, I have one plant that's already way too large for a 2 gallon bucket. Not sure about coco or soil - always done DWC. In flower, my plants drink like 1 gallon a day, so less than 5 gallons would be unmaintainable.
 
amneziaHaze

amneziaHaze

Well-Known Member
I had a plant in 7L (dwc) and at the end of flower i had to give it 2L every day.and that was only 60w light
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
bluegill said:
I always do 5 gallon buckets DWC, but I have a few young plants in 2 gallons. Lemme tell you, I have one plant that's already way too large for a 2 gallon bucket. Not sure about coco or soil - always done DWC. In flower, my plants drink like 1 gallon a day, so less than 5 gallons would be unmaintainable.
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I did mine in a 4 gallon bucket, with ~2 gallons of nutrient solution. Drank 2 gallons a day, so I did a refill in the morning and one evening. Plant was a monster.

Screenshot_20231023_180900_Gallery.jpg
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