Root mass, how important is it?

smokajoe

Well-Known Member
Hey RIU right now I have some plants vegging in a flood and drain system, the roots on these plants are quite small, lots of roots but no ball.....anyways I was wondering A) How far into flower will the roots develop? Is this detrimental? Could well feed flood and drain with small mass of roots produce just as well as a well fed DWC plant?
 

lax123

Well-Known Member
Im noob, but i think i read that those roots wont stop growing, just slower in flower. If I imagine root mass as "stomach volume", how much could you eat and grow big with only a tiny tiny stomach
 

smokajoe

Well-Known Member
Fair enough, I just dont get it, I cover my medium and add the rockwool into slots on my tray and it should be dark by the roots, due to the cover, but the roots never seem to peak passed the rockwool, once placed in dwc they go full force!
 

smokajoe

Well-Known Member
no I know its bigger roots bigger plants, but im confused in the sense that I have pulled good results from Ebb and flow, and those plants compared to dwc never gain much root mass, so my question is-which is more important a giant stomach, or a smaller well fed stomach, like is there a wall in which root mass becomes irrelevant?

And by detrimental I mean would it be wise to veg a complete week in the DWC instead of vegging in ebb and flow *small root mass* then placing into dwc buckets and the roots explode!
 

little butch

Active Member
My general rule, which works well for me is , when you have the third set of leaves going, put it in the dwc and leave it alone. Adjust your water levels to coax the ladies to the water level. Put some veggies in the ebb & flow? You will get a better crop with a dwc bucket full of roots. Peace & be kind.
 

smokajoe

Well-Known Member
My general rule, which works well for me is , when you have the third set of leaves going, put it in the dwc and leave it alone. Adjust your water levels to coax the ladies to the water level. Put some veggies in the ebb & flow? You will get a better crop with a dwc bucket full of roots. Peace & be kind.
fair enough, I definitely think I will try that when I have more room, however I do think that from here on in I will definitely give them a week of vegetative growth in the buckets to get the root mass started while in veg.
 

smokajoe

Well-Known Member
Lol at greentrolls reply.
yep too bad most people read that then the consideration of root mass and where it peaks out, or if it does peak out. I know root mass relates to bigger plants....But as stated I have had good yield on plants that had almost no root mass, except outside their rockwool cube.
 
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