The Real Truth about Rootbound and Transplanting

Brick Top said:

After harvesting and I empty the old soil, down at the deeper depths and out near the farthest edges there are roots everywhere but they are so small, so thin, so fine that they look more like spider webs than roots ... but they are roots.

Click to expand...

Suggests to me that you've oversized your pots BT. I can see such a big size for a perennial, but not for an annual that lives only 3 or 4 months. Biggest pot I've used is 5 gallons, most times only 3.

Have a good weekend,
UB

Uncle Ben said:

Suggests to me that you've oversized your pots BT. I can see such a big size for a perennial, but not for an annual that lives only 3 or 4 months. Biggest pot I've used is 5 gallons, most times only 3.

Have a good weekend,
UB

Click to expand...

The smallest I use indoors are 5-gallon pots, though normally I do use 7-gallon pots. On my deck I use what I used to have ornamental bushes in and they are larger, 15-gallon and up.

They may be larger than needed, though not as large as the planet earth by any means, but I have grown some real beauties in them and have yet to have one of those beauties complain.

i came here for some real truth, and all i got was real confused haha. you go over my head brick top.

Nubby Tubbs said:

you go over my head brick top.

Click to expand...

I've been told that sort of thing much of my life.

before taking any advice from the OP...please consider reading this first....https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/423831-what-do-pistils-come-out.html#post5570448

smart and caring grower does not let the plants rootbound at all in the first place ! it is all about the watering fully, not soem sips or saps!!! water it fully, and u can keep them longer in the same container ! I usually transplant my babes 3 times through the whole cycle, and i do not go straight to BIG pots ! it is pointless !

djruiner said:

before taking any advice from the OP...please consider reading this first....https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/423831-what-do-pistils-come-out.html#post5570448

Click to expand...

please do check, so we can all see how immature djruiner is and i might be able to get some help hehe

grow space said:

I usually transplant my babes 3 times through the whole cycle, and i do not go straight to BIG pots ! it is pointless !

Click to expand...

I always start my plants out in whatever size pot I use for the entire grow, 5-gallons or 7-gallons. I used to start small and re-pot, but I haven't done that now in years. I have never had any problems and my plants grow like I live next to a nuclear power plant or something.

Brick Top said:

I always start my plants out in whatever size pot I use for the entire grow, 5-gallons or 7-gallons. I used to start small and re-pot, but I haven't done that now in years. I have never had any problems and my plants grow like I live next to a nuclear power plant or something.

Click to expand...

thats sounds pretty hussle free Brick

when i move to michigan im going to start one plant in a 5gal pot, and the other i will transplant 3 times and see what the difference in growth is, super excited =D

sounds like a nice experiment ! man i like to do it also

Zaehet Strife said:

when i move to michigan im going to start one plant in a 5gal pot, and the other i will transplant 3 times and see what the difference in growth is, super excited =D

Click to expand...

Ive done that experiment.... but I went from a 6 inch cup to a 12 inch potter

I transplant every 2 weeks... cup to 8...8 to 10....10 to 12


My conclusion is controlling root expansion controls growth rate....I got more product from transplanting 3 times

If you transplant right before you cut the lights... it will give you a better yeild than a root constricted plant

The casey jones plant that I just transplanted into a 8 needs to go into a 10

shit yea, ill prolly start in 16oz solo for 8-10 days, then switch to 1gallon for 10-14 days, then to 3gal for 14-20 days, then to 5gal for finish, and ill just let the other start and finish in the 5gallon

Originally Posted by Brick Top
I always start my plants out in whatever size pot I use for the entire grow, 5-gallons or 7-gallons. I used to start small and re-pot, but I haven't done that now in years. I have never had any problems and my plants grow like I live next to a nuclear power plant or something.

Click to expand...

grow space said:

thats sounds pretty hussle free Brick

Click to expand...

As long as you have adequate drainage you will never have any problems doing it. If you lack adequate drainage you do risk root rot problems though. It's all about having adequate drainage.

In a way it's no different than growing outdoors in the ground. The planet earth is one MASSIVE pot to grow in but if you plant in a marsh or a swamp or a bog where it is always wet you will have problems, but if you plant elsewhere, not of course including under thick growth or something where there would be a lack of sun or in some region where the climactic conditions are not at all good for growing, it doesn't matter if your tiny plants small root system has the entire planet as it's pot. The plants will grow and they will grown damn well, better than indoors.

Check out the results of this person's outdoor in the soil growing.





Having the entire planet for it's pot didn't seem to hold it back .. and it's basically the same with how I use large pots and never re-pot. Give them room from day one and never let them start to feel claustrophobic in a pot they will thank you for it.

Now thats a real tree, wow!!!


to me, it all comes down to the restrictions that i have created myself ! i have a fairly small vegg-clone box, and i cant really put them in a big container right away ! latyer on to another room, where vegging continues and later on flowering...
i have had good results and bad results in transplanting only 2 dif. containers. One was a an ak, and other widow..form a 2 l containers to 35 L containers! later on the widow was growing fairly strong, but ak had some major drainage problems, even though i prepared the two pots the same way! Sometimes it happens.

Well, an opportunity arose for me to contribute to/throw gasoline on this thread. Some folks have implied that the condition of rootboundedness doesn't exist, or at least not in hydro, or it can be overcome by modifying your cultivation practices, blah blah. Well.

I have several mother plants which have been alive in flood and drain since last July. I was breaking the branches down on this one, hoping to get it short enough to flower, but this thread and other factors helped change my mind. I'm glad they did. Let's take a look!

When they were 6 weeks old they were placed into 2 gallon pots filled with hydroton and they have remained there ever since. They grew 4 feet tall and stopped. Over time, fewer new shoots appeared, even in response to pruning. Leaves in general became a little droopy and slight signs of deficiencies appeared as well, mostly on lower leaves. Successive cuttings of clones have taken longer to root but there are a number of unrelated seasonal factors that could be at work there.

I think these roots look really crappy. There is barely any new white growth, just old tan, useless rotting mass.


















Enopugh of the horror show. This root mass is so dense, that even after soaking the root ball for hours. the mass is very difficult to break up. The water retention is enormous, leading to root suffocation and death. I flood twice a day and it is too much for this plant.

TO be fair, no one should keep a plant alive in hydro that long. Hydro is good for cropping not long-term maintenance. I'm sure someone can argue that statement with me, but it is a little like the pot-bound argument; anyone will argue anything on RIU.

Conclusion: In the specific hydroponic practise I follow, rootboundedness does indeed exert a negative effect on plant health in the long term. Generalizers may generalize; I am presenting my facts. My current plan of action is to kill the rest of my mothers; paging Dr. Freud!

shnkrmn, thank you so much for contributing to this thread like that so badass man. great pics, great info, GREAT experiment!!! +rep

shnkrmn said:

Conclusion: In the specific hydroponic practise I follow, rootboundedness does indeed exert a negative effect on plant health in the long term. Generalizers my generalize; I am presenting my facts. My currernt plan of action is to kill the rest of my mothers; paging Dr. Freud!

Click to expand...

No question about it, rootbound conditions are not good for the plant. This may come off as arrogant, but I'm not sure why this is even worthy of discussion, except to a noob that has little to no experience with plant culture. Again, there are no theories if you understand the growth cycle of a root system.

I've never done more than one upcan. From a 20 oz styro-cup (6.5" tall) or a one gallon to germ in to a final 3-5 gallon pot. It's best to sex in the final pot although it's a PITA as it requires more soil and labor.

You can work around rootbound conditions (regarding nutrient uptake efficiency) somewhat by using a complete food like Dyna-Gro. I did experiments years ago, testing various stuff on Mexican seedlings. One of the experiments was how rootbound conditions affected plant health so I applied Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro. In spite of extremely high temps both night and day, application of pesticides (to test for foliage burn) and other stuff I did to these labrats, they are still healthy at 18" tall in small 20 oz cups. Using tall pots precludes rootbound conditions somewhat.






UB

shnkrmn said:

Conclusion: In the specific hydroponic practise I follow, rootboundedness does indeed exert a negative effect on plant health in the long term. Generalizers my generalize; I am presenting my facts. My currernt plan of action is to kill the rest of my mothers; paging Dr. Freud!

Click to expand...

As I have said, in a passive hydro setup or an ebb and flow where pots or a tub are used a root-bound condition can occur in hydro growing. Using DWC where much of the roots have lots of room and are in a large open area in the water/nutrient mix it's not something you are going to see.

With your mothers, you can cut off some of the root-ball and then trim away as close to an equal percentage of leaves and branches as possible, or even more, and keep them and they will be fine. As along as you retain a close enough ratio between 'root & shoot' they will go on almost as if nothing ever happened to them. In no time at all you will have new roots and new growth so it is not like you have to 'off them' due to their current condition.

I think what makes it worthy of discussion is that this is a forum filled with noobs and graphic illustration of concepts can never be too heavy-handed. I believe your own threads bear that out.