Akward Transplant.. Need advice *ASAP*

Ok so I looked at some photos of my first grow comparing it to this one. My first grow doubled its size every week, and this new plant has doubled its size in just nearly a month. Seems to be growing very slow and im blaming it on the soil.

Check out these pictures, one of the first day i planted it on February 14 and one today on March 6. Although I broke the top of the stem a couple days ago it still wasnt much bigger. It should be a lot bigger after growing nearly a month. I also have a picture of the 5 gallon pot it is in now and the one I want to transfer to, the smaller one sitting underneath it.

**So I guess my question is what/how is the the safest way to pull this clone out of the 5 gallon pot without hurting/shocking it too much? I dont know how the roots look.. Id like to do this today so some advice asap would be nice. Thanks in advance

really.. no input..

This digital camera I'm using does not take great close-ups at all, Its really hard to get a closer picture than what you see here without it being blurry. Im gonna try to get some better photos to show what I mean but there is A LOT of growth inbetween each of the main nodes. Like new shoots growing up, not just more fan leaves but like actual colas, could it be that this plant is just a short grower or could the cloner have done something before it was in my hands to make it grow like this? I'll try to take some better closer photos to show what I'm talking about.. I'd like some kind of input or how-to before I make my decision. I can search all day but I'd like some expert advice within the hour on this exact situation if possible.. C'mon RIU.. Later

Why are you transplanting backwards? Are you trying to give it better soil? What kind of soil are you using?

heywhatsthatsmell said:

Why are you transplanting backwards? Are you trying to give it better soil? What kind of soil are you using?

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lol, because cleaning out the 5 gallon of all the bad soil would just make a mess right now.. but I guess i could. Yes thinking about going with another soil. Im using HYPONEX right now and it has a lot of bark in it, damn near all bark.. In the pictures I posted thats almost 1 month of growth.. And it just seems slow. My first grow I used Miracle Grow and my plant grew MUCH MUCH more than this one. Theres no way this clone is even close to growing out this pot thats why im a little weiry on exactly how to pull it out, and get rid of most of the hyponex..

Well I would say you have two options because I agree that soil looks like crap. I think ive seen it before its all sand and mulch. The first option...hack it down and start over with good soil. Thats what I would recommend. The other option is going to be messy no matter what. To replace the soil flip it over and take the dirt ball out. knock as much off as you can I doubt the roots are all through that pot. Then run the root ball under moving water to wash the last of the dirt off. Then you should have all of the bare roots and can put it in better soil. I did this once with a runt and then put it in a bubbleponics system. it stressed it, but if your careful it shouldnt be to bad.

heywhatsthatsmell said:

Well I would say you have two options because I agree that soil looks like crap. I think ive seen it before its all sand and mulch. The first option...hack it down and start over with good soil. Thats what I would recommend. The other option is going to be messy no matter what. To replace the soil flip it over and take the dirt ball out. knock as much off as you can I doubt the roots are all through that pot. Then run the root ball under moving water to wash the last of the dirt off. Then you should have all of the bare roots and can put it in better soil. I did this once with a runt and then put it in a bubbleponics system. it stressed it, but if your careful it shouldnt be to bad.

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Thankyou, you answered my question.. +REP but eeeh it sounds risky, anything else I can do to help it be resilient and stay alive if I decide to completely get rid of this soil?

Yeah I understand why your doing this but in the future you want to start em in smaller pots because otherwise your gonna use a lot more water than you need, and a lot more soil than you want. I would just get one of those small shovels and get it down the sides of the pot and push up. Like HWTS said, the roots aren't that deep in all likelyhood and you should be able to pull up the root mass and a bunch of extra soil. The soil will fall off just give it some small shakes. Than transplant gently and give some transplant aid.

You could shock the plant, you could kill the plant or you could keep the plant in the soil you already have and start some other ones in the meantime. The thing is I have a 5 gallon bucket I transplanted my one month old plants into, and I watered a week ago and the soil was still moist. I have had problems with plants becoming rootbound later in life though and I want big plants this time so that's why i went with these.

I don't think you should try to completely get rid of the old soil. You cannot wash the soil off the roots without destroying the microscopic, and very delicate root hairs that do all the uptake of water and nutrients. That will severely stress or even kill the plant. I would remove the soil in one piece and shave off the old soil until you reach the outer extent of the root ball and plant the root ball in the new soil. The new roots will take advantage of the new soil and still have the micro hairs to help in the growing. You may have to use the larger pot depending on how large the root ball is.

I think you have a humidity problem is all that's wrong. Make a lid for your planter to help your soil from evaporating. Don't keep your lights so close until she's growing vigorously. Try this before you do a drastic and risky transplant.

cannatari said:

I think you have a humidity problem is all that's wrong. Make a lid for your planter to help your soil from evaporating. Don't keep your lights so close until she's growing vigorously. Try this before you do a drastic and risky transplant.

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well damn I hope she lives! I went on with the transplant and also bought 2 new clones as well. To my suprise the tahoe og is actually a very small growing plant (go figure) the roots were all the way to the bottom of the pot and I lost quite a bit of the roots.. check out my new thread, I have pics.. planted all of them including the tahoe og using fox farm ocean forest soil...we'll see what happens I feel good about it though. Thanks for the responses

https://www.rollitup.org/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=49

did these plants ever survive? And did you wash the roots completely clean of soil?

thexception said:

did these plants ever survive? And did you wash the roots completely clean of soil?

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He hasn't been on this site since May of last year.

I saw the last post on this thread, was hoping, ah well, thanks