use 5 or 7.. veg 45 to 60 days.
For someone who says she uses a 3x3 tent (only 5' high) and wants 2.5 foot plants? I don't agree with that advice unless doing a single plant SCROG. I go by the old-school rule of thumb, one gallon of soil per foot of plant. Seems to work for me. The suggestions on training the plant to a more horizontal shape is very good. I do the same.
Could you explain your 100% thing? (looked around and I assume you are talking about filling up your 3 gallon with nothing but SS when you transplant into the final container. I'm assuming you mix your Super Soil at home (as do I)
By 100% Super Soil, I mean that I don't bother with the recommendation to only use Super Soil on the bottom 1/3 or 1/2 your pot. I've tried doing that and I find that a 3 gal pot just needs more to take the plant all the way to harvest with just water. Some people say this will burn the plants, but I've never seen that happen with my own plants. Yes, I mix my own Super Soil. After the crop is done, I compost it, re-amend it, "cook" it, and use it again. The soil seems to get BETTER each time.
You just transplant into the 3 gallon containers a couple weeks before flower. 3 gallons huh? I have 5 gallon smart pots. I could get 3 gallon ones if they will hold up enough juice in a 3 gallon. I don't have much height. So in a 3 gallon smart pot I could get a 3 foot plant. That's almost too big lol. I'm assuming I should get some 3 gallon pots.
If you already have 5 gal pots, they will work fine. You can fill them a few inches below the top and top fill with more Super Soil around week 3-4 if they seem to be running out of juice. Here are the disadvantages of 5 gal pots in a setup like yours (and mine), in my opinion:
- Wastes soil since a 2.5 foot plant will not use up the nutrients in 5 gal of soil.
- If you want to recycle your soil, have the nutrients depleted at the end of the grow makes it much simpler to re-amend the soil for reuse. Otherwise, you should use a soil test kit to figure out what to add.
- Extra root space will cause plants to grow taller and make it harder to control height.
- Pots are heavier. This can be a big deal in a small tent as you will find you have to take the plants out for TLC every couple weeks.
- Less space between pots makes it harder to work on your plants, harder to rotate the plants (which I do daily), and harder to slide them around in the tent.
- Larger pots are, of course, taller. I always keep this simple formula in mind: height of tent - height of pot - gap between plants and lights - height of light - gap between light and roof of tent = max plant height. In my garden, it works out like this: 6.5 foot tent - 1 foot pot - 1 foot gap - 6 inch light - 6 inch gap = 3.5 foot max plant height.
Also: Is this applicable to all planting pots: *Please note that our pots are measured in horticultural TRADE GALLONS. A trade gallon is equal to approximately .71 U.S. Liquid Gallons.* If this is true then a 5 gallon airpot would support the same amount
I'm pretty sure that is correct. The fabric airpots actually hold more soil in my experience than an equivalent plastic pot because the fabric stretches.
Lastly, with a 600 watt light in a small tent you are going to have to deal with a lot of heat. I used to use an air cooled 400 and my tent always ran 10+ degrees over ambient temp. Have a good plan for keeping your plants cool.
Editing to add one more thing: The smaller pot with soil growing will give you less yield, no doubt. It is a trade off for an easier to manage garden and less risk of the plants getting too tall.