Question about growth from veg to flower

I'll just get to it, in Veg I'll let the girls get to about 2 - 3 feet under 600 watt MH. When I switch over to 12 and 12 in a fully reflective tent, no light leaks, temps stay average of 80, but they only grow about 5-6 inches taller... I go from a medium pot to a 5 gallon bucket when i move them so they have fresh soil. I have read when you move them to a larger container they will switch to growing roots. Do you think that could be the problem? This happens all any strain.

hold on bro, they stretch allot more than that. they can double in height.

There are two things you can do to improve this. Plant them all into the 5 gal containers from day 1, or, if you can't for some reason, transplant them into the 5 Gal containers a couple of weeks before you flip to flower. If you transplant them, no matter how well you do it, they need a little time to adjust to their new environment, flipping them straight to flower immediately after transplanting them is likely causing this.

No, xx, it is not like that. We don't transplant for "fresh soil." We feed them more and more as they get larger.

So, my advice is to understand feeding, work with your feed plan and take notes. I am finding so many myths in the last 2 years.

Define "problem." Never mind. These problems are many peoples' wildest dreams....we cannot forget that.

So, we cannot control the plant, only the environment. That is the very definition of Bonzai and Botany. Containers are a root environment. Too long in the environment will cause roots circling the container, instead of inner branching. We want to transplant before that. Too big a contain will stunt the root growth. Why? Too much transportable water. The roots get lazy.

I do 3 transplants in the first 3 weeks and I am done. I have a root ball, I can feed into a 30" plant in 8 weeks. BTW, I do that with 250W CFL.

Much cheaper.

So, the idea in all Botany, is to grow in small containers, and move up. The general rule of thumb is that a plant goes into a container that is only 2 inches bigger, than the last one, and before major circling happens. That keeps the roots actively branching. I use azalea cups, as the are designed for transplant.

So, if we get clear on concepts and forget about stains and gear, we can listen to the plants. We can try more food, more water, different sized containers and see what happens.

Right now I have 2 part of Blue Kush at 9 weeks old from clones. One pair I treated to early tansplants and moved them to daily feeding within 3 weeks. The others, I let sit in the 6" cups, and only casual feeding when they needed water, and got roots circling which you have cut into every 1/4 way around, so they branch.

The royal pair is 3 feet and the commoners are 2 feet tall. The stalks are 1/2" vs 1/4".

I predict the pampered yield may approach 2x of the common yield. And that is all about 2 weeks that I did not begin to feed them daily.

So, understand the concepts and do the experiments, carefully. We are investing an awful lot of time and $$, to not become deeply knowledgeable on general Botany. Then we can just forget this cannabis lore. Helps?

OK, so I start out with a 18 inch sup after clone, then after a week I go to a medium size container, after they get about 3-1/2 - 4 feet tall I would transplant them into a 5 gallon bucket and immediately put them in the tent. I am going to try to put them in the 5 gallon bucket a couple of weeks before moving them and water only at the very last possible moment to make the roots stretch looking for water, then for the first week in the tent (12/12) feed them Nitrogen in the tent (hopefully yo help growth). Sound good? Any other ideas?

Right, I am trying to find out why they are not growing double in height, as a side note I do trim the tops in order to have multiple crowns (but I do this early on).

xxSpLaTTeRzxX said:

OK, so I start out with a 18 inch sup after clone, then after a week I go to a medium size container, after they get about 3-1/2 - 4 feet tall I would transplant them into a 5 gallon bucket and immediately put them in the tent. I am going to try to put them in the 5 gallon bucket a couple of weeks before moving them and water only at the very last possible moment to make the roots stretch looking for water, then for the first week in the tent (12/12) feed them Nitrogen in the tent (hopefully yo help growth). Sound good? Any other ideas?

Click to expand...

I never go to 5 gals.

Root plug until they show roots
10oz of coco coir for a week
6" azalea pot for a week
and then 2.5 gal square rose buckets, for 14 weeks or so, then harvest,

But, if going for 5ft + plants, the next step would be the 5 gal.

The key to growth indoors is daily feeding. I learned that at Crop Circle at my MMJ clinic.

Not growing double in height? Huh??? Each week? Each month? I get 2-3" per week and that is plenty for me.

xxSpLaTTeRzxX said:

OK, so I start out with a 18 inch sup after clone, then after a week I go to a medium size container, after they get about 3-1/2 - 4 feet tall I would transplant them into a 5 gallon bucket and immediately put them in the tent. I am going to try to put them in the 5 gallon bucket a couple of weeks before moving them and water only at the very last possible moment to make the roots stretch looking for water, then for the first week in the tent (12/12) feed them Nitrogen in the tent (hopefully yo help growth). Sound good? Any other ideas?

Click to expand...

This is how I understood your initial post, you're re-potting several times (even more than I thought). Not that you can't do that but besides being a lot of work, no matter how gentle and careful you are, they need some time to re-establish when you transplant, your current plan should help, although I normally give them a good soak when I transplant, don't know if that's the right way, just old school method and it's worked fine so that's what I do, would be open to changing if there's any science behind it. If I were doing it, I'd just go from cups into whatever the final container is going to be, typically 5-7 Gal, good soaking, then let the soil dry a bit before next watering.

xxSpLaTTeRzxX said:

Right, I am trying to find out why they are not growing double in height, as a side note I do trim the tops in order to have multiple crowns (but I do this early on).

Click to expand...

Just to clarify this as I'm not sure some are understanding your initial question. I believe what you're expecting, after transplanting them and changing the lights to 12/12, is for them to "stretch" up to double in size.

Let them establish themselves in the final container (I'd give them 1 week minimum, 2 weeks better), before flipping to 12/12, don't expect all trains to "stretch" that much, they should grow but 1.25x to 2x the height when you flip them to 12/12, strain dependent.

When you flip to 12/12 the "stretch", or significant/fast growth period is typically 2-3 weeks, some strains more than others. After that there could be some growth but at that point you should have initial bud (or balls) formation and the plant will put it's energy into flowering vs vegetative growth so you won't see much more height develop.

when a plant goes into flower they stop growing roots and they stop growing vertically after about 3 weeks. next time transplant a few weeks before you switch to flower so they have time to utilize that extra soil.

Thank you all.

xxSpLaTTeRzxX said:

I'll just get to it, in Veg I'll let the girls get to about 2 - 3 feet under 600 watt MH. When I switch over to 12 and 12 in a fully reflective tent, no light leaks, temps stay average of 80, but they only grow about 5-6 inches taller... I go from a medium pot to a 5 gallon bucket when i move them so they have fresh soil. I have read when you move them to a larger container they will switch to growing roots. Do you think that could be the problem? This happens all any strain.

Click to expand...

When you transplant any plant it will push out roots at a faster rate and top growth at a slower rate until the roots are established then the top growth will grow a little faster.