Are starter pots necessary?

I feel kind of dumb asking this question but I'm on my first grow so I want to make sure I get it as right as possible. My seeds finally arrived and I am ready to start germination, I was just wondering is it absolutely necessary to plant the seeds in a smaller pot then transport when they become more mature? Or is it ok to plant the seed in pots I will use for vegitation and flowering immediately after germination? I have plenty of grow room, so space is not an issue by the way.

Thanks!

I highly suggest starting with small pots and gradually increase size. Here's why: Plants develop roots before shoots. They tend to not grow above ground until the roots touch either the sides or bottom of your container. If you gradually increase sizes then my recent and ongoing experience says your plant will get bigger faster.

Its not absolutely necessary and is a good way to learn and to get as right as possible the 1st time without problems. Then go for many pots when more experienced.

Zakola said:

Its not absolutely necessary and is a good way to learn and to get as right as possible the 1st time without problems. Then go for many pots when more experienced.

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Yeah plant directly into a 3 gallon and watch it struggle. Great experience.

It's not necessary, but you will go through a lot more water and nutrients than plants in smaller pots even though for a while you will need to water less frequently. I usually do it to save room on floor space so all the plants get good light. I'm often growing males and small mother plants and bigger pots take up too much real estate, especially for CFLs, regular floros and small HIDs like my 250 watt I use for veg.

I just got my first order from attitude i've always had clones given to me so i've never really germed before. I know how to make them pop, but should I buy a peat moss puck and place it into a dixie with FF? Or is just FF and a dixie sufficient? I planned to flush the FF before so it doesnt burn up the youngins.

hotrod, do they like they like small containers becuase of the roots system, or becuase of the moisture level?

i mean it makes sense what youre saying, and my dad agrees with you 100%. he was telling me that the plant wont grow until it reaches the sides of the container, but then i thought, in the plants native environment, the earth has no walls underground.

for that reason i think youll do fine in 3gal pots. the hard part will be watering. a big pot can hold moisture for weeks, so overwatering is easy.

i do agree with hotrod though, the plant wont enter its veg state until enough roots have been laid down. they do this the quickest in medium wet to dry soil.

go straight into the FF. itll be fine, even though it is hot. dont flush the soil, you paid premium for those extra nutes. theyll be ok, its all organic hotness

If you can or feel the need to, you can get the FF lightwarrior or similar medium for germinating and then transplant into OF once they are ready for the move. I have been using straight OF for a while now and seedlings don't burn. I have grown sativas, picky strains like BB and everything inbetween and have had no problems. The consistency is just a little heavy is all and they might prefer a lil added perlite.

Ok thanks guys. I just heard too many stories about FF burning up too early and I dont wanna waste $60 lol

There's advantages and disadvantages with no-transplant.
disadvantage- Ph problems, using the same soil for veg/flower with chemical nutrients, acids are formed in the soil making is very hard to control your Ph. Unless you have a good game plan (soil, nutrients,) your gonna have problems.
Advantage- your plant roots in its final container. There's no stop -n- go. When your roots hit the side/bottom of your container they send a chemical signal back to the plant "we're out of room" the roots system slows way down. That's one if the reasons why you'll never see a 5 foot plant growing in 1/2 gallon of soil. It doesn't have the room and it know that.

You could use "cow pots" there light paper pots. The roots grow thru the pot. When you see this you plant the whole cow pot in a bigger container. The roots don't stop growing, they have new soil, and the stress on the plant is zero since your not disturbing the plant at all.

I personally use Medical Marijuana Mix soil. It lets my veg for my 8-10 weeks with only adding water. In the flower I add "Triple phosphate, and a little dried blood"

theres usually more than one way to do something. This is your first grow, so keep it simple, don't go crazy with nutrients, over watering. Yah sure your plant might not be at its full potential, but you won't have the problems new growers have. Get your toes wet in the first grow. The second grow kick it up a notch

since this us your first grow I would transplant, with the cow pots or bigger containers.
the "Grow Bible" is a must read.
and so is "intro to Plant Biology" you want to know everything about plants read the plant biology book.

All I can add is this - Big Steve is the biggest proponent of starting small. I never was - until this last Fall. I ran out of larger containers and was forced to put some seedlings into 4" starter pots as I was out of 3 gallon. 20 plants in Root Shooters. The ones I had to put in the little 4" pots took off - all of them. I got by by transplanting in to whatever until I could get to town (live in Alaska) and used 1 gallon jugs and 2 liter soda bottles for the ones started in the 4".

In short and in the end the plants planted in small containers and gradually increased blew away the others in size and yield. Take from that what you will but I will do it no other way from now on.

Roots before shoots.

the only situation in which you would not want to transplant that ive read about is if you are growing autoflowering plants. since autoflowers only have a set amount of time there alive for, recovering from the stress of transplant can stunt there growth. with normal photoperiod cannabis strains you would want to transplant at least once

Transplant stress is way overrated. Way way overrated. I have transplanted far more than one flowering plant and never lost one or had a major setback. Additionally I routinely cut roots by slicing a knife or sharpened weed puller through the root mass. Each cut tip regenerates 2 to 4 new tips and keeps the root system active and expanding. No root cutting the last 4 to 5 weeks of the plants life.

Thanks for the advice. What would you say is a good schedule to have them on in terms of watering them? Does it vary depending on the strain? My first grow is going to be white skunk if that helps

i agree, if you transplant well, the plant will only be in shock for a couple of hours at most.

i know this becuase one of my seedlings popped out of my cup when i knocked it over. i fixed the soil, made a deep enough pilot whole with a needle for the taproot, and put her back in. shes doing fine, and just as fast as my other same gene seedling.