Don't let this happen to you!

Some people might remember my posts from last night and earlier today... long story short, my container was too small and I had roots growing out the drainage holes.

Well, I got a bigger container for my plant, some more soil, and some perlite for the new container.

When I pulled the plant out of my old pot, this is what I found:



Don't let this happen to you! Make sure your pot is big enough for your plant BEFORE it grows too large for it. Just because you can see what's happening above soil doesn't mean you know what's going on below soil. I thought it was fine, considering how small my plant had grown, short and bush-like, but when I pulled it out, the roots were just completely out of space.

Some online resources will have you believe that you can keep your plant small by keeping your container small... well, if your container is too small, you won't have any plant at all. Hopefully I can nurse her back to health in her new, much larger, home.

Lesson learned.

Lesson learned my friend, hope everything turns out ok! I'm sure your lady will be just fine though its good you caught it when you did.

It's not bad to let the roots fill up the pot, since you have a solid root ball = little to no transplant shock, pop er out and pop er into a bigger pot. But yeah, you don't want it to stay too rootbound too long

That doesnt even look rootbound friend.

Shivaskunk said:

That doesnt even look rootbound friend.

Click to expand...

Even if it isn't root bound, it outgrew the pot it was in. The roots were beginning to grow out the drainage hole in the bottom.

You could have grown it in there longer no worries, that's not pot bound. roots will come out the drain holes.

Those roots are fine. It did not out grow its container. Roots out the drain hole are nothing and will air prune themselves.

looks normal to me

I have had way more root bound plants than that and have had no problems at all transplanting. I acutally just pull some from the bottom and sides down to the new pot. I am sure this stresses them but they always recover just fine and expand completly to the new bigger pots. Dont stress that much on that one man. I think you will be just fine.

yea look ok to me .. just about time to repot it in my opinion .. just about to get rootbound ..


weed like to spread its roots out to the side of the container ..
actually it will do this before it begin to make any real grow above the soil ..

also why most Ppl. start em out in cups then repot em to pots a few times ..
to grow a nice root net (will help the plant take up water/nutriens doing flowering)

if you start em in the final pot they wont use 30% of the soil in the middle of the pot .. so to speak ..

start em in cups then 3 gallon then 5 gallon Etc.
so you make em build up a nice root net in each pot so you end up with a nice root net in the middle of the final pot ..

Tell that to my 18oz party cup plants which I'm sure will live until harvest 12/12 from seed is the way to go with small pots.
Water plays a key role,i water them shits everyday ( not over watering) and as mentioned before light schedule.

yea once they flower .. well after the stretch (fist 2-3 weeks of flowering) they wont grow many more roots ..

so yea your right .. depence on how long veg time you have and how soon you start 12/12 ..

and yea containor and also tempetures and plant size play a big role in how often you need to water ..

I had hugh plants in 7 gallon pots .. in flowering with high temps (+85F this summer) and I had to water every seccon day ..

now I have smaller plants in 5 gallon pots with a bit lower temps (78F) and I can go with water every 3th day ..

it is nt that worse. I have a tomatoplant in a 2,5 liter pot since februari this year, she still lives and gave me from june till now delicious cherry tomatoes.
I can upload a picture for the nonbelievers.

Check out my latest video,all small pots/containers

[video=youtube;3_ANvnkLCq0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_ANvnkLCq0&feature=plcp[/video]