Is transplanting a waste of time?

I don't think there is one right answer, I think it all depends on the method of growing. If you are growing DWC, or in the ground, or in a large enough pot where root restriction won't happen then I don't think that there is any advantage to multiple up potting, root restriction limits growth. But, if you grow where space is limited like indoors where it's not reasonable to grow in huge pots, then uppotting could help maximize the root space available.

I have checked out root balls of plants grown in pots and the roots do tend to grow thick around the main root wad(I wouldn't say tap root because pot plants don't really have one tap root) and around the edges and bottom of the pot. In plants grown in pots with root restriction, there is often a space between the root wad and the edges that isn't filled in with roots as much. I could see where continual up poting could train the roots to fill in that space more efficiently.

I still maintain that root restriction is counter to maximum growth and that growing without root restriction is the best way to increase total root mass. Plants evolved growing without root restriction, they know how to increase root mass and it's not through root restriction. But most people don't grow pot in the way that it evolved to grow.
Growing without root restriction is not practical or possible for most people. In terms of production, you can produce more pot in a given space by growing lots of smaller plants in small containers that's why people do it, and in that scenario up poting could be beneficial to maximimize root mass when growing in that method.

It comes down to how you grow.

My general opinion: It's usually easier to start seeds, or root clones, in a small amount of medium. Most of us can probably agree on that, generally. So, ONE transplant just makes early propagation a little bit easier.

Myself personally, I transplant that one time as mentioned, from solo cups into #1 plastic pots, because they save space & you can veg a plant in one for a good month or two. From there, I either transplant into a final 3gal fabric or if I need more veg time, transplant one more time into #2 plastic pots because they still save space, and are a great pot to start the LST/branch shaping process. From the #2, I'll go into a 5gal fabric.

Attempting to compare root balls between growing in pots and DWC makes no sense because the two environments are completely different. Those differences are exactly why I chose RDWC to begin with.

You've seen those pots with patterned walls described to redirect roots, yes? Their effectiveness is directly related to the boost growers see when potting up through intermediate sizes.

I go from 5 gallon pots of coco in veg to 15 gallon pots of coco 2 weeks before flower and they don't stop growing or expanding, the plants damn near grow 7 feet tall into my floor. If I grow these in the 5 gals they are pussy little plants like the ones beside them (pheno hunting). I am against small pots unless your in a small space like a grow tent or closet. My personal belief is the plant knowing it has roots to expand the plant will grow a lot more explosively. If the roots are restricted the plant might throttle down so to speak. That is total bro science from me, but the proof is in the pudding. Not transplanting into larger containers gives limited results and certainly less flower yield.

You guys can transplant if you like but my root systems do just fine in the final pot for the whole grow. 5 gal pot = 5 gal root ball

My general theory now is that if a certain approach works well for you- don’t change it. Transplanting works well for me but i start regular seeds and like to save the final pot size for females. I start in small cubes, then go to 4” square pots (like what most tomato plants are sold in at nurseries), i start 12-12 at that young stage and then when its clear which plants are female, I move them to the final pot size.
Transplanting works well in situations where space is at a premium. Final thought- autos do not transplant well.

Kola_Kreator said:

You guys can transplant if you like but my root systems do just fine in the final pot for the whole grow. 5 gal pot = 5 gal root ballView attachment 5323404

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What do the plants and colas look like?

calvin.m16 said:

What do the plants and colas look like?

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I'm don't have any pics of the full plants or colas before trim. It's all in the jars now. That pic was a blue dream. Harvested about 10 ounces. Wasn't 100 percent happy with the grow, mainly because I had 4 plants crammed into a 4 x 4 with too many branches and not enough light penetration and airflow. Will probably get 20-24 ounces from this run. Will drop the BD when I find something better, she's a bit too leafy and lacks density.

Kola_Kreator said:

I'm don't have any pics of the full plants or colas before trim. It's all in the jars now. That pic was a blue dream. Harvested about 10 ounces. Wasn't 100 percent happy with the grow, mainly because I had 4 plants crammed into a 4 x 4 with too many branches and not enough light penetration and airflow. Will probably get 20-24 ounces from this run. Will drop the BD when I find something better, she's a bit too leafy and lacks density.

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Hey if I had a 4x4 I would be doing 5 gals too. The space, equipment and environment greatly dictates the pot size. I'm working in a roughly 20x20' room with 7 ft ceilings.

Chapl said:

My general theory now is that if a certain approach works well for you- don’t change it. Transplanting works well for me but i start regular seeds and like to save the final pot size for females. I start in small cubes, then go to 4” square pots (like what most tomato plants are sold in at nurseries), i start 12-12 at that young stage and then when its clear which plants are female, I move them to the final pot size.
Transplanting works well in situations where space is at a premium. Final thought- autos do not transplant well.

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I run a lot of regs too. But instead of seperate small pots I'll put 2 or 3 plants into one big pot. Clone all of them and cull any males after I flip. It's definitely a case of what works for each grower. I run top fed auto watering so a larger number of smaller pots would mean a lot more work setting up feed lines for each pot and then I would have to reconfigure the set up after transplant.

Kola_Kreator said:

I run a lot of regs too. But instead of seperate small pots I'll put 2 or 3 plants into one big pot. Clone all of them and cull any males after I flip. It's definitely a case of what works for each grower. I run top fed auto watering so a larger number of smaller pots would mean a lot more work setting up feed lines for each pot and then I would have to reconfigure the set up after transplant.

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Which pump are you using and what type of drip lines for 4 x 5 gal pots? I'm about to go all drip on my 12 plant grow, I plan to start doing perpetual where I move 6 plants every month from veg to flower 12 plants in bloom 6 plants flower if that makes sense. I just ran a system for a buddy all netafim, ecosub 420 leader pumps and 3/4" pvc to all the main distribution lines to each table. I'm thinking for my setup I'm going to do 6 0.5 gph drippers per pot with 15 gal pots and go back to m3 soil where I'll just be drip feeding water. Burned out on mixing up nutrients and would like to go back to organics.

Also here all organic goes for more at the farmers market if you know what I'm sayin,

calvin.m16 said:

Hey if I had a 4x4 I would be doing 5 gals too. The space, equipment and environment greatly dictates the pot size. I'm working in a roughly 20x20' room with 7 ft ceilings.

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Nice one. Being limited to a tent is a pain to deal with if your plants get too big. And there's just no room to trial out all the genetics I want to pop.

I am in the middle of moving from my 4 x 4 into a fully sealed 20 x 15 garage. I'll use about 10 X 7 of that for flower and I'll veg in a 5 X 8 tent.

calvin.m16 said:

Which pump are you using and what type of drip lines for 4 x 5 gal pots? I'm about to go all drip on my 12 plant grow, I plan to start doing perpetual where I move 6 plants every month from veg to flower 12 plants in bloom 6 plants flower if that makes sense. I just ran a system for a buddy all netafim, ecosub 420 leader pumps and 3/4" pvc to all the main distribution lines to each table. I'm thinking for my setup I'm going to do 6 0.5 gph drippers per pot with 15 gals and go back to m3 soil where I'll just be drip feeding water. Burned out on mixing up nutrients and would like to go back to organics.

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I run a dedicated line pump and feed ring for each plant. It's the best way to make sure every plant is getting enough, I always had trouble running all the plants off 1 pump, was difficult to push even pressure and volume to all stations. Plus if you have a dedicated pump for each plant you can dial up or down to suit how much each one is drinking. In my new setup I'll run a separate timer and run off collection for each plant too

Kola_Kreator said:

I run a dedicated line pump and feed ring for each plant. It's the best way to make sure every plant is getting enough, I always had trouble running all the plants off 1 pump, was difficult to push even pressure and volume to all stations. Plus if you have a dedicated pump for each plant you can dial up or down to suit how much each one is drinking. In my new setup I'll run a separate timer and run off collection for each plant too

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I ran over 100 drippers from Netafim their 0.3 gal per hour ones, each one I tested perfectly dripped. I would look into the drippers that use diaphrams so you can get a more precise result without needing so many pieces. With the drippers you can plug some of the emitters by flipping the emitter over and plugging the line if one is getting too much water.

Dedicated pumps sounds like a pain in the ass.

If youre growing outside it certainly makes a big difference. This grow i moved a couple from 5g to 10g. Can you tell which ones without looking at the pots?

I have a 3 foot plant in a 2x2 rockwool cube rn. It's all about watering and the plant getting what it needs regularly. Even in dwc most people are overfeeding because the plant has access to it all right away and it's such a large volume of water in the res. So a full strength feed stays full strength way longer than a full strength feed poured onto coco or rw where only a fraction of the water stays and the plants can eat and begin to drop ec making eating easier.

Dwc also eats fast and after you smack.your plant with a high ec if your waiting a week to redo your res they are probably starving for the last 2 days.

Let's review. In dwc First 2 days are at a high ec, ec finally drops and plants smash for 3 days, now you only have certian nutrients left in the water or you only have water for the last 2 days.

Coco or rw they are getting a proper feed every time of a nutrient solution they can manage quickly and then want more again.

ProPheT 216 said:

I have a 3 foot plant in a 2x2 rockwool cube rn. It's all about watering and the plant getting what it needs regularly. Even in dwc most people are overfeeding because the plant has access to it all right away and it's such a large volume of water in the res. So a full strength feed stays full strength way longer than a full strength feed poured onto coco or rw where only a fraction of the water stays and the plants can eat and begin to drop ec making eating easier.

Dwc also eats fast and after you smack.your plant with a high ec if your waiting a week to redo your res they are probably starving for the last 2 days.

Let's review. In dwc First 2 days are at a high ec, ec finally drops and plants smash for 3 days, now you only have certian nutrients left in the water or you only have water for the last 2 days.

Coco or rw they are getting a proper feed every time of a nutrient solution they can manage quickly and then want more again.

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Makes sense, I'm switching back to super soil so I won't need to worry about feeding anything but water. With drip feed that will be a true dream for both the plants and me. I do biweekly recharge teas with lots of guanos and other NPK sources then just drip feed plain water the rest of the time. Things will change going back to soil, they need dryback for this particular mix to not get clumpy/compacted.

calvin.m16 said:

Makes sense, I'm switching back to super soil so I won't need to worry about feeding anything but water. With drip feed that will be a true dream for both the plants and me. I do biweekly recharge teas with lots of guanos and other NPK sources then just drip feed plain water the rest of the time. Things will change going back to soil, they need dryback for this particular mix to not get clumpy/compacted.

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I've thought a lot about switching to a super soil for that same reason of it being a lot easier not have to mix up nutes. But I like the growth rates and yields I get I Coco too much to risk losing out. Your not concerned about getting less yield in soil than you would in Coco?

Kola_Kreator said:

I've thought a lot about switching to a super soil for that same reason of it being a lot easier not have to mix up nutes. But I like the growth rates and yields I get I Coco too much to risk losing out. Your not concerned about getting less yield in soil than you would in Coco?

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I will be using 20 gallon pots of Michigan Made Mix basically a bag per pot and that will carry them through veg and the first quarter of flower, within the first 2 weeks of flower I like to mix up a tea with the compost "papa's perfect poop" and Real Growers Recharge and drench each pot with it. Then I will do another similar feed a couple weeks later into bloom, full strength. That will carry it to the end. All of my current genetics are ready to chop in 60-65 days of 12/12.

My point is, if you dont feed the papa's perfect poop additive or some other guano based additive with microbes you may have problems with low yield. I have had M3 carry plants from start to finish using RO water in 5 gal pots believe it or not. They did start fading early in flower but it still was a good run.

The only reason I switched over to coco was chasing higher yields but at this point I'm burned out on mixing nutrients and would rather just buy soil and water it than buy coco, nutrients, pH adjusters, meters etc..

Kola_Kreator said:

You guys can transplant if you like but my root systems do just fine in the final pot for the whole grow. 5 gal pot = 5 gal root ballView attachment 5323404

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I thought you said you grow in fabric pots?

Your argument is therefore invalid.

You asked why people pot up, I gave you some of the reasons why, which are crossed over from actual gardeners.

Cloth pots or anything that air prunes are relatively new and give a totally different root structure to hard pots. But there's still reasons to start a seed ir clone in a smaller pot to give it the highest chance of surviving or the least chance of issues.