Purposefully keeping plants root bound

Hello all,
I'm wondering if this method I am using will be an issue in time. So I only have one small tent and I take clones of my plants during flower in a separate VERY SMALL little clone propagater I made. it's got room for 8 plants IN SOLO CUPS (even though I am not going to run all of them). There is no room to transplant. The clones are under 4 23--watt daylight fluorescents and are already rooted and growing well in solo cups now. Ive done this method before but this time my clones suprisingly rooted 2 weeks faster than the last time I did this. So I am still growing flowering plants in my main tent waiting to harvest while these things just get very root bound in their solo cups.

My question is is this a problem in the long run? There is really no room to transplant and no room for the pants to get bigger anyways in the propagator in the mean time so all I can really do is wait until my main tent is open, and then transplant. But at that point my plants will be heavily root bound, even tho i'm sure I can keep them alive. Will this be an issue when I transplant? I have this weird fear that the plants will become so root bound that they will have trouble spreading their roots out once finally transplanted bc they will be so packed together in one solo cup sized wad. Is that a thing? Or will they be fine once I transplant?

How long is this time to the big space?

Dr. Who said:

How long is this time to the big space?

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They are starting to get a little root bond now, not too bad yet but within this week they will probably stop growing much I'm guessing. I will have one plant that needs to go a bit longer in there so the tent will be open in about 2 weeks now. So let's say they will remain root bound for about one and a half weeks.

that sounds like a problem I have RN, thanks for posting

I have the same problem. Or, at least I thought... There is a thread here where people are participating in a contest where the goal is growing to term in a solo cup. The top finishers are pulling a zip and there seems to be almost no dirt left in the cup because they are so root bound. The plants grow larger than I thought they would and the herb looks good too. So, I'm beginning to think that it doesn't effect the plants like we think.

I have seen some plants that Farmhouse Genetics grew 16oz solo cups for a 4 week veg then flowered in 1gallons. They looked quite nice once done for what its worth.

Keep them as healthy as possible until transplant. Then when transplanting be sure to score the root ball about a 1/4 inch deep along the sides 4 times and score an X a the bottom. Be sure to use a clean, sharp blade when doing this. You should be fine.

and adding beneficial bacteria

Alexander Supertramp said:

Keep them as healthy as possible until transplant. Then when transplanting be sure to score the root ball about a 1/4 inch deep along the sides 4 times and score an X a the bottom. Be sure to use a clean, sharp blade when doing this. You should be fine.

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I had not heard of doing this and would be terrified to try it. Wouldn't cutting through the root mass like that cause a huge amount of stress?

Not near what you think. We've been programmed to believe these plants are made of glass.

USE ROOT PRONING FABRIC POTS or in ur case buy some more solo cups and make holes in em so they look like net pots...youll get a great root mass and much better harvest.....

Rootbound = bad

Castel said:

I had not heard of doing this and would be terrified to try it. Wouldn't cutting through the root mass like that cause a huge amount of stress?

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Container growing 101. http://www.finegardening.com/how-repot-container-plants

Alexander Supertramp said:

Keep them as healthy as possible until transplant. Then when transplanting be sure to score the root ball about a 1/4 inch deep along the sides 4 times and score an X a the bottom. Be sure to use a clean, sharp blade when doing this. You should be fine.

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This thread is kinda blowing up lol... I think some people may have gotten a bit off track and not realized I will be transplanting EVENTUALLY here. ...that solo cup contest is interesting though! LOL. I do have some things to comment on that, but imma get this sorted out first...

As to this response... I'm not sure what you mean by scoring the root bound sides 1/4 inch. And the X thing... Can you expand on what you mean by that?

As to the solo cup thing... I have actually kind of tried this experiment for kicks, and now I have to share.

I always end up with extra clones bc I purposefully take extra in case I lose some. So then I end up with a whole bunch of extra plants to get rid of (I just put em all in solo cups after rooting and choose my favs from the monster cropping). So I give some away, but then I like to keep one or two extra still juuuuuuust in case I lose a plant in veg somehow, so at the very least I can keep my genetics.
But anyways, I filled up my tent my last grow and thought it would be a shame to just toss my extras after so long... so I decided to do this experiment with a plant all the way to the end of flower in a solo cup and stuck it in the side of my tent. YA know, just for kicks. To my amazement, the thing actually got HUGE after so long in there. I mean not as big as the others, but in comparison to that cup it was just kinda crazy big. I'd say 3 feet tall. (BTW I'm a coco grower so this is technically hydroponic - might explain some stuff).

The problem I ran into in time though, is number 1 all the bottom leaves die and you only have any green on the very top of the plant.
And number 2: the root mass gets so huge in that cup that it sucks up water WAY too fast. I mean I had to water this thing like twice a day to keep the coco wet. After a while when the big plants were sucking a lot of water too I just got sick of watering the thing. I'd have to make new water just for that pathetic thing lol and it was just not worth it. It was interesting, but noooot ideal. I just let it die about halfway through flower bc I got so sick of taking care of it. And that was that. (since you brought it up). haha.

Growing in coco is not "technically hydroponic" .. Get what you mean by that though

kermit2692 said:

Growing in coco is not "technically hydroponic" .. Get what you mean by that though

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Really? I thought any inert medium is considered hydroponic. I've also heard many people say only a DWC is hydroponic but then I read that coco is technically considered hydro somewhere online while doing research but purhaps that was misinformation. Oh well, like you said people get it lol.

Honey Oil Riot Squad said:

This thread is kinda blowing up lol... I think some people may have gotten a bit off track and not realized I will be transplanting EVENTUALLY here. ...that solo cup contest is interesting though! LOL. I do have some things to comment on that, but imma get this sorted out first...

As to this response... I'm not sure what you mean by scoring the root bound sides 1/4 inch. And the X thing... Can you expand on what you mean by that?

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For that little amount of time to up pot.....Just keep them well feed and then transplant. You'll be fine!

kermit2692 said:

Growing in coco is not "technically hydroponic" .. Get what you mean by that though

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Soilless media growing IS considered "hydro" growing! You use hydro pH values too.

Root pruning = Bonsai which would suit your confined space still get good buds

High Honey Oil

I keep clones in a kind of limbo by cutting back the amount of light and food so they grow very slowly until I can get around to transplanting. Went 7 months once in those small seed starter pots that have 9 little cups in the flimsy black plastic holders. These are not the 7 month old ones. Those got to about 7" tall and looked crappy but grew fine once repotted and grown properly.



Then when I do transplant I use a bread knife to saw the bottom off the root ball and if there are roots winding around the sides I just shave down the sides to trim them all off. I do that with small clones in 2oz cups or bigger plants going into larger pots during repotting. They never seem to suffer any kind of stress and within a week there will be new roots poking out of the drain holes in the new pots. After cropping the root ball is just full of fine root hairs that bind the whole thing into a solid mass that takes a bit of work to bust up before tossing in the compost.

Dr. Who said:

For that little amount of time to up pot.....Just keep them well feed and then transplant. You'll be fine!




Soilless media growing IS considered "hydro" growing! You use hydro pH values too.

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Alonzey!