Should I pot up again?

[FatBoyVik]

Hey people ,

I have 4 plants in 12 litre pots of coco which were transplanted from 3 litre air pots about a week and a half ago.

The roots are bursting through the fabric and it looks fully rooted already, does this mean I will need to pot up?

The strain looks like it loves growing roots and tye plan is to wait at least a couple weeks to get clones and sort out a cal mag issue before flowering but that would mean around 10 weeks in these pots. Does that sound right to anybody or should I pot up?

I am sorting a dripper system out soon but it will take about a week but will aim to water 3-5 times per day.

Any input appreciated!

 

[DanKiller]

Better to show pics of your plants aswell when addressing this issue,
When you transition to flower, your root system won't grow at the same rate like veg, so, in coco by the time you finish your handling your stuff and flower, you will have a very big rootzone which is very good but will need a lot of care like watering intervals, consistent nutes and ph on point and etc..
If you got the skill and power to handle it, you can achieve amazing results using this method of rootbound high maintenance fertigation.

Another way is you can also take out the plant from it's pot like 2 weeks before you go to flower, cut 1/3 of its roots in all directions, and plant back in the same pot with new coco, preserving space and efficiency.

 

[calvin.m16]

https://store.athenaag.com/SSP%20Applications/NetSuite%20Inc.%20-%20SCS/SuiteCommerce%20Standard/athena/assets/Irrigation%20Strategy.pdf

Look into Crop steering. I wouldn't transplant before flower, I have done it before with success, but its not really necessary in fabric pots of coco. The roots will air prune through the pot. Definitely drip feed, I wouldn't put them in larger pots.

 

[cannabiscrusader]

I'm not a coco guy, but Lesley macaral is the mam
Hmmmmmmmnnnmmm


Have a tripper snipper, ya fucken druggo

 

[FatBoyVik]

OK Thanks for getting back to me quickly puts my mind at rest and will check that link out now.

Are you using Athena products at the moment?

 

[FatBoyVik]

I'm not a coco guy, but Lesley macaral is the mam
Hmmmmmmmnnnmmm
View attachment 5376931

Have a tripper snipper, ya fucken druggo

Still recovering from my last one mate

 

[coreywebster]

No , they're only poking through because it's moist enough for the tip to get that far before air pruning itself.
It's not an indication of needing to pot up, just the fabric pot working as it should

 

[cannabiscrusader]

Still recovering from my last one mate

 

[MickFoster]

You can grow a tree in an 11 ltr. pot in coco........I use 9 liter air pots without issue.
The roots are supposed to be sticking out of the fabric pots..........it air prunes the roots.

 

[calvin.m16]

OK Thanks for getting back to me quickly puts my mind at rest and will check that link out now.

Are you using Athena products at the moment?

I do not use Athena products. I only use their free handbook and resources. I've had great success following some of their guidelines on water drip irrigation.

I use Maxibloom @ 1 teaspoon per gallon in flower start to finish with water. No other additives. pH to 5.8 and if watering by hand you want to have a size pot where you can bomb them with water once a day until 20% runoff, then dont touch them for 24 hours and do the same thing every 24 hours. This is why you don't want to go to very big pots because it will throw off your dryback timing and change when you water. Ideal is once a day, or in the case of drip feed you can feed 4-6-8-10-12 times per day. It's as simple as setting it up and calculating the gallon per hour flow of each emitter and then breaking it up into several irrigation events through the lights on period.

Check out the Athena Handbook it explains crop steering and how to do it.

 

[calvin.m16]

You can grow a tree in an 11 ltr. pot in coco........I use 9 liter air pots without issue.
The roots are supposed to be sticking out of the fabric pots..........it air prunes the roots.

You can but growing trees in small pots requires several months of extra veg time than a large pot.

These 20 gallon plants in coco used to veg 8 weeks and get this large. There are no 11 liter pots growing plants that big in 8 weeks of veg. I now use smaller pots due to needing higher turnover to meet patient requirements, but this is an example of what I have grown first hand years back.

 

[FatBoyVik]

You can but growing trees in small pots requires several months of extra veg time than a large pot.

These 20 gallon plants in coco used to veg 8 weeks and get this large. There are no 11 liter pots growing plants that big in 8 weeks of veg. I now use smaller pots due to needing higher turnover to meet patient requirements, but this is an example of what I have grown first hand years back.
View attachment 5376967

That's beautiful buddy and makes sense what your saying. You think 12 litres is OK for 4 ounce plants?

 

[calvin.m16]

That's beautiful buddy and makes sense what your saying. You think 12 litres is OK for 4 ounce plants?

Yes 12 liter are like 3 gallon pots if I'm not mistaken. I have grown 8 ounce plants in 5 gallons with 4 weeks veg. I now am on a perpetual grow where I am planting clones and chopping flowers down every 30 days on the dot. 5 gals are a little big even for 4 weeks veg. I would use 3 gallons for 4-6 weeks veg. So yeah 12 liter from what I researched is basically 3 gallons. Obviously I'm assuming your growing in Coco if your using small pots.

 

[Billy the Mountain]

With a 30-40 day veg time, I've noticed no difference in plant size or yields between 5, 3, and 2 gallon pots using coco coir.
I've migrated to exclusively to "2" gal (1.5gal in reality) fabric pots for obvious reasons.
The only difference in practice is the frequency of fertigation.

Slightly off-topic, but a good example of pot size vs. plant size. A few pepper plants grown in 1 gal coco:

 

[MickFoster]

You can but growing trees in small pots requires several months of extra veg time than a large pot.

I disagree. I veg for 4 weeks in 2 gallon pots and my average yield is 5 oz. per plant.

 

[Beeswings]

I disagree. I veg for 4 weeks in 2 gallon pots and my average yield is 5 oz. per plant.

Yeah "several months" of extra veg time is outrageous, I bet he meant to say several weeks...

 

[calvin.m16]

I disagree. I veg for 4 weeks in 2 gallon pots and my average yield is 5 oz. per plant.

How tall and wide roughly do the plants get into flower in only 2 gals? I have two 4'x16' rows of plants in flower and figure it will take at least 40 1 gals to fill the canopy on both sides with 4 weeks veg in a 4 by 4 type row. What stops me from doing really small pots is I'm growing in a decently sized area and don't really want to invest all the money into tables, I almost prefer sticking to slightly larger pots like 5 gals and doing a 2 by 2 row of plants with 4 per light. Still very interested though because I know for annual yields and perpetual growing you have to stick to the smallest pots possible to be economical and use crop steering to your advantage.

I've kinda slowly went from 20 gallons of coco (10 weeks veg) > 15 gallons (9 weeks veg) 10 gallons (8 weeks veg) > 5 gallons (4 weeks veg) and am at the point of almost going to 1 gallons and just having a very rapid perpetual going where I harvest 1 x 4x8 flood table every 2 weeks with 4 tables total.

 

[calvin.m16]

Yeah "several months" of extra veg time is outrageous, I bet he meant to say several weeks...

It is outrageous but to get a 5 gallon size plant in a solo cup you need to veg for 12-16 weeks. Look up any of the threads with those grows. The "Monster" ones are always vegged for like 3 months. Larger pots require less veg time to grow huge. Anything less than 4 weeks veg a 5 gallon is overkill with coco though, I just have had to use larger pots due to plant count laws etc. More smaller plants is definitely ideal but sometimes you need to do large pots because 12 5 gal isn't going to yield what 12 10 gallon will yield in most cases.

 

[MickFoster]

How tall and wide roughly do the plants get into flower in only 2 gals? I

These are 27 days from sprout........the day before I switched to flower.

8 weeks of 12/12

 

[calvin.m16]

These are 27 days from sprout........the day before I switched to flower.
View attachment 5377121
8 weeks of 12/12
View attachment 5377122

Very nice! Are you using pure hydroton? I recall you use Maxi?

I settled on 5 gals and have a 20 day cycle that goes like this.
clone (14-20 days) > 1 gal (20 days) > 5 gal (20 days) > Flower

It's perfect for having a perpetual 12 plant per month harvest cycle. I have the room to make it happen, it does cost a lot of extra money in electricity running a large veg and clone room but in the end it's worth it having monthly harvests like clockwork. I also have to keep clones going constantly so I have enough 1 gallons to move to 5 gallons on time. Definitely a learning curve because I need to be 2 weeks ahead of the flowering room at all times in veg.

So I'm vegging for almost 6 weeks altogether which is an improvement over my previous crops where I would harvest 8-9 weeks at a time in 10 gal pots. I was going to go from clone to 1 or 3 gallon but I just realized for my setup it's too small and would require me to go WAY over my plant count limit AND invest over a grand into 4x8 trays and tray stands. I'll stick to the water b gone and ezpz runoff trays and just double them up. 2 by 2 rows of 12 plants on each side.

2 by 2 rows of 5 gals should give me a better canopy footprint than 1 by 1 10 gals. Then an inevitable increase in annual yields when I harvest every 30-40 days instead of every 60-80 days.