Pot Sizes? Does it Make a Difference?

So, I've been running soil for some time now. I typically use 5 gallon buckets for each of my plants. Traditionally, I let each plant veg for a few weeks before moving them into flowering. Recently, I've decided to try more of a SOG method with soil. I'm taking my clones, rooting them and within a matter of days they are moved into flowering.

Since I only had my 5 gallon pots to begin with I started in this manner. From what I can tell my 5 gallon pots are going to end up being larger plants than my 1 gallon plants. However, I can get a lot more 1 gallon plants under the lights as opposed to 5 gallon pots. For obvious reasons. I imagine the reason for my 5 gallon plants growing larger is due to the area they have to develop roots. Understanding this would probably be the case I've been looking for a solution. It stands to reason that my issue is not vertical space as much as floor space, so I need pots that still have more area for roots to grow but actually have a small diameter (tall skinny pots). In my search I came across this site for pots.

http://www.stuewe.com/products/treepots.html.

Am i correct in my assumption that a larger pot volume wise should allow the plant to grow larger, hence bigger buds? Also, would it stand to reason that a smaller diameter plant would allow me to run my plants closer together in more of a SOG format? Has anyone else tried this technique with success? Does anyone else have a better supplier for pots of this type?

Thanks in advance for any info

shinedog said:

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Am i correct in my assumption that a larger pot volume wise should allow the plant to grow larger, hence bigger buds? Also, would it stand to reason that a smaller diameter plant would allow me to run my plants closer together in more of a SOG format? Has anyone else tried this technique with success? Does anyone else have a better supplier for pots of this type?

Thanks in advance for any info

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Yes you are correct the bigger the pot the bigger your roots will grow and ultimately lead to a bigger plant.But if you want a sog type grow then yes you can flower alot more in 1 gallon pots and kind of balance out yield.

I wouldn't push it in the 1 gals, they may end up root bound, maybe 2 or 3 gal.
Rule of thumb is a gal per month of their planned life cycle. Pots should be based on flowering time. I use the 5 gallon tall pots with 10 inch saucers to fit more in a room

peilo said:

I wouldn't push it in the 1 gals, they may end up root bound, maybe 2 or 3 gal.
Rule of thumb is a gal per month of their planned life cycle. Pots should be based on flowering time. I use the 5 gallon tall pots with 10 inch saucers to fit more in a room

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are you sure?You can flower in 1 gallon pots easily.You just have to give them short veg time.Plenty of people do this.The rule of thumb is 1 gallon a foot.

Interesting find! I'd go with at least the 3.17 gallon or those 8 gallon(2 biggest) but they are 9 and 11 inches wide... What is a normal 5 gallon 12 inches?


TPOT5

Thanks for the responses.
I'm assuming it's only based on volume in terms of root area. So, theoretically this should work and allow more plants in one area. I think I will give it a try.
@N!pples: Yes, I think the 5 gallon buckets are around 12 inches. I'm afraid an 8 gallon pot might be overkill in terms of soil use. I'm wondering if there would be a greater yield in an 8 week cycle over a 3 gallon.

I would say yes, then just shorten the veg time you are used to and pack as many of the Tpot5's as possible! Good find brotha!

2.5 gals are what oyu want do a 2 week veg then flower

I have a perpetual grow, I just finished a 6 month cycle using clones in a SOG style using 1 gallon buckets.
Im just took a short break after moving and just about ready to start again. I have clones rooted, mother plants and some seedlings of 2 new strains to be added to my grow.

It works fine in a SOG grow using small buckets....I know some will talk about plants being rootbound, there's a lot of disagreement about the whole matter. My plants were only vegged for 2 weeks after rooting. At harvest they had nice root systems and would appear to be rootbound, but after giving the rootball a nice shake there was plenty of room for more roots to grow in the soil.

Im about to start flowering the first batch on the perpetual grow after my break . Im gonna be doing larger plants in 3 gallon buckets going to a 4 week veg on the clones, I want to know firsthand whats gonna give me a larger yield. Plus the idea of taking care of/harvesting fewer large plants seems appealing to me

I did a few SOG grows using those small 4" square pots (I would guess to be 1/4 gallon at most if that) and I did 16 plants at a time in the closet. I kept my plants very small though. They were finished and harvested just under 8". This was done because I was using T5s to grow with. They did amazingly well. I use 5 gallon buckets for my other closet under the 300W LED.

Here is the really cool thing with plants and container size though. It's not always the size of the pot that counts, but the width as well. The plant will only grow as wide as the roots stretch. So if you have a really shallow pot that is wide lets say a 2 gallon pot that is 12" wide vs a pot that is tall and narrow (lets say a 2 gallon pot at a 6" diameter) The wide pot will have a more bushy plant and the narrow pot will have a skinner plant.

Bottom line though, the more room roots have to grow the better.
Good luck

Bigger the roots, bigger the shoots. I am currently using 50 litre tubs, getting good sized girls.

I use 65 gallon smart pots = 6x6 heavy weighted plants with 20 ears of corn for my late start.
Next year its 300 gallon smart pots. I'm told people use those helicopter water bags but it could just be hillbilly legend.
Neighbor uses pots big as a VW bug that he built from plywood and he gets 13 footers.

I cant see a single reason not to use smart pots other then the high price and black color.

I tried a 65 gallon smartpot last year. But my roots did NOT actually fill it by a long way, so a bit of a waste. Reverted to my 50 litre tubs, which are nicely full of root by harvest time.

Agreed, the plant will only grow as wide as the roots stretch but the roots do bunch and curl in the pots/buckets they are in..They dont just stop when they hit the wall of the pot. So in my opinion, whether it be height or width the more square space the roots have to grow the better.

The bigger ther better!

N!pples said:

Agreed, the plant will only grow as wide as the roots stretch but the roots do bunch and curl in the pots/buckets they are in..They dont just stop when they hit the wall of the pot. So in my opinion, whether it be height or width the more square space the roots have to grow the better.

The bigger ther better!

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Absolutly, my plants were crazy root bound by the end of the grows. My plants were tiny when finished though. I was getting 1 - 1.5 oz per eight plants under sunblaster T5 with phillip T5HO flowering (2700k) bulbs. I had to water everyday or they would dryout. It is very doable, but the worst part I think is the maintence required to be constantly watering plants. With the bigger pots much longer between waterings, much less overall work and more time to enjoy the garden.

did your sides get hot? Mine did and I put a shit ton of straw around. I had to neem spray the hay for bugs but after that the roots came out of the smart pot and into the hay about one inch!
I wanted to water the hay but.....

My buddy does a SOG perpetual harvest and he uses the 3gal (they might be 2.5gal) BUT he was using the smaller 1gal and wasnt to happy with the size or the actual amount at harvest so thats when he moved up to the 2.5-3gal. Hes been doing it for around 7-8 years now and hasnt changed a thing since exept now hes trying to build some areoponics to do more in even less space.
BigBudE

I've seen 500 gram plus indoor plants in 25 gallon pots. Oregon medical style. Go BIG!