Question about using pots that are too big at start???

[HopefulNewb]

<--- very new to everything, sorry if it seems dumb...


Sorta overkill but if you only had like 5 gallon pots and started with pure coco or 80% coco/ 20 perilite what would the negatives be?

Say you have two baby plants started in these giant buckets, should you feed every/other day? as it seems they are very moist just a little below top level.... using kiss, and for first two weeks, giving half/dose they seem great, but concerned about how much to water till a lot floods out,,, how often?

Should you worry about root rot at lower levels, and how to avoid that? seems like bottom part drains well but drains a lot, is that overfeeding?

 

[fonzee]

1. You would waste a LOT of nutrients at the start.
2. Your plants will grow faster.
3. You would use up more space and waste materials if males \ hermies \ weak females show up.

As for watering, just water LIGHTLY for the first week since they look functioning.
Roots should go straight down at first.
Do it every 1-3 days, depending on how coarse your coco is (which translates to how much water it holds) and then keep it pretty much the same, just water until there's a runoff.

If you water more with the same nutrient strength you'r not overfeeding as the levels of nutrients stay the same.
In straight coco or with added perlite watering daily doesn't do any damage to the plants. (It does to your pocket)

 

[ThePizzaMan]

It will just take longer for your plant to establish itself in the pot. It is always wiser to start small....and pot up.

 

[Lazyman]

A former member, Dongle69, weighed in on this back when I got started. She says that plants need time to take up the pot space with root space, and they grow much faster when they are allowed to "max out" the pot space a couple times before the flip to 12/12.

Basically, don't do it.

 

[toastfighter2]

If anything, at least let them get started in those red party cups(AKA keg cups). They are super cheap, mostly reusable, and you end up with a lot more space to work with, then you could start a couple more seeds, and actually have good chances of finding a set of good females to flower out. I have been experimenting with something I call "double cupping", in which I take a smaller cup(the 12oz size), and poke a bunch of holes in it, almost like a net cup. This gets filled with medium, and then goes into a larger cup(16oz size), which gets filled with water so it almost touches the bottom of the small cup. Here is a pic of one that I let get a little too far ahead of itself(also befor disovering that the smaller cups fit inside the big cup the same way as this pot did/does)

 

[DHF]

Yeah...Lazyman`s spot on......but.....

Yeah...Lazyman`s spot on......but.....

The biggest problem with putting small plants in big containers is the excess moisture/wetness in so much media where there`s never a "drying out" period to promote root growth , allow em ta get bigger , and not stunt from "over-watering" syndrome...........

Starting small and allowing the drying sequence allows the plants to explode in said container till they`re up-potted into a container that`ll allow em ta max out by end of stretch when no more roots are being built.....

Putting a fully rooted cut/decent sized seedling in for instance a # 5 smartpot would most surely cause damping off IME from too much juice in the surrounding media as Dongle knew about undoubtedly from first hand fuckups like I learned over the yrs.......

Guaranteed......Up-pot as they get closeta rootbound regardless of your setup.........Happens fast in a dialed coco system........not so fast in dirt that I`ve seen.....

Good luck...DHF.............

 

[B. Friendly]

slowly water them in. I water for a few seconds in the beginning or I do one circle around the plant. Then the next week as the plant can handle it, I'll do a few more seconds or 2 circles around the plant... and so on and so on, just keep adding more water as the plant grows and can handle it.
It will take a couple grows before you get the hang of how your room and girls dry out.

5 gallon pots would be for a 6 month grow, like a few month veg cuz you're growing tree's

I use 2gallon pots for a 3-4 week veg, and 2-2.5 foot girls.

more girls is way better than a few monsters. I have grown monsters in the same room as a hundred little girls and the little girls produced way more in a much shorter time.

 

[Lazyman]

for kicks, a few runs ago, i took 20 plants that were the same size, strain, age (Jackpot, SSHXAfghani) that were all in 2G smarpots, and at the flip, put 7 of them into 5g smartpots, the other 13 I left in the 2g pots.

At harvest, the 7 plants combined outweighed all 13 of the 2g pots combined, by about 100g. They looked pretty much the same throughout flower, but the bigger pots gave me much bigger buds.

I don't know how much of that was the larger pots, or how much was the fresh soil at the flip, but I know I went out and bought a couple hundred 5g smartpots after that.

 

[ThePizzaMan]

Yeah, bigger pots do equal bigger buds. I am growing rez's SFV kush X Chemdog...and surprisingly it can grow in a SOG (pole like) fashion, but I flowered out my mother a few months ago in a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket...and holy fuck. Buds the size of Wiffle balls. This is why you see large growers using garbage cans as pots....it really does increase your yield. Linear relationship I would imagine.

 

[CFL_Grow]

for kicks, a few runs ago, i took 20 plants that were the same size, strain, age (Jackpot, SSHXAfghani) that were all in 2G smarpots, and at the flip, put 7 of them into 5g smartpots, the other 13 I left in the 2g pots.

At harvest, the 7 plants combined outweighed all 13 of the 2g pots combined, by about 100g. They looked pretty much the same throughout flower, but the bigger pots gave me much bigger buds.

I don't know how much of that was the larger pots, or how much was the fresh soil at the flip, but I know I went out and bought a couple hundred 5g smartpots after that.

Haha, damn.

Glad i transplanted my ladies into 5's at the flip Didn't know if it would be a waste or not but a few extra bucks its worth the shot !

 

[DHF]

Root`s make shoots.......

Root`s make shoots.......

A perfect example of giving "sideways" root growth till end of stretch where rootgrowth explosion means the most.....

Once stretch is over , the more roots ta suck juice and swell colas the better........period.....

Excellent experiment Lazyman.......Proof`s in tha puddin fer up-pottin til end of stretch......in ANY medium evidently.........

And yeah......GroBro of mine showed me the diff tween SP`s and plastic containers 3 yrs ago.....Nuther wise bidness decision LM.........

Peace...DHF...........

 

[Lazyman]

Thanks DHF, I've been in Smartpots for about 2 years now and love em, I use 2g for veg and 5g for flower. 7g for moms. I'm sure that the fresh nutes in the soil had a lot to do with the increased yield off the larger pots, but I wish i could say how much!

I guess the experiment to do would be to transplant the 2g's into 5g's and 7-10g's and see which ones yield better, since they would both have fresh nutes and lots more room.

Working on a new setup for another garage grow, will be .5-1g pots in veg, and 2g pots of coco in flood and drain tables again. I have the genetics to do a better SOG now, so I'm gonna run 10 600w lights in 3X6 tables and harvest 5 lights a month, both rooms in tents, aircooled. Should be good for 4-5# a month, all SSH or G13Xhaze, maybe alternating.

 

[HopefulNewb]

ty everyone, this is a first time thing, and learning as I go, all healthy , thought this way I wouldn't have chance to ruin plant/roots in transplanting. Will let them maybe go a day longer without feeding because it's moist below surface day after even.... just a tent 4 big pots and a 400hps enhanced spectrum bulb...

One is looking really great after popping, other 3 catching up...

One I thought was sick because one leaf was a bit smaller but turned out it just hadn't fallen all the way yet.

 

[ShroomDr]

This pic should have been transplanted weeks ago. Its a terrible example. The roots on the outside of this cup, would be enough roots to transplant (If they were inside the cup). I always thought that one of the benefits of coco was the fact you could 'overpot'

Ive never done soil, but as far as coco goes, i normally go from CLEAR 16oz cups, to 2 or 3Gal smartpots, then 5Gal bucket.

Ive gone beercups to 5Gal buckets no problem. If you want them to take off quicker, dont overwater, and tilt them afterwards to reduce the perched water table.

 

[toastfighter2]

^^I did say that one got away from me, but that is the only pic that I had handy. Normally I pot the up right as those roots would start to "fish bone" to avoid an damaging them pulling them out.

 

[B. Friendly]

Yeah, bigger pots do equal bigger buds. I am growing rez's SFV kush X Chemdog...and surprisingly it can grow in a SOG (pole like) fashion, but I flowered out my mother a few months ago in a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket...and holy fuck. Buds the size of Wiffle balls. This is why you see large growers using garbage cans as pots....it really does increase your yield. Linear relationship I would imagine.

all things being equal no way.

I would challenge any monster grower to stadium style face off any day.

more plants, quicker veg time...

I am not talking 2:1 ratio like 7 big pots to 13 little pots.

if i had 5 gallon pots in a 4x8 room you'd only fit like 6-8, and in the same room on stadiums I can fit 50 2gallon pots.

no comparison, the stadium would out produce the large pots no problem.

to get real trees it takes an extended veg as well...

did this in a room once to convince myself.

 

[DHF]

Hey B Friendly....All things bein equal in that you`re correct about plant numbers dictating yield over bigger and "less" plants with extended veg time ta get em there before the flip , the stadium setup with smaller plants moving up and away from the vertical bare bulb light source is a flawed system at best from what I`ve seen for many yrs since Northern Farmer and couple others at diff weedsites first showed it .......I mean production wise.....not that it won`t produce........but....

Coli grows are what started the max plants around stacked lights per grow , per cycle , per yr for max results as you`re talkin bout , but.....

I`ve yet to see a stadium style setup approach 1 gpw from end to end , as to where straight walls with shelves /racks setups like Heath`s vertical runs in angled racks/shelves broke 1 .35 gpw`s the first time he ran it with 87 fully rooted seedplants and clones using 2-600`s side by side for a total of 4 lbs plus with 1200 watts......

Diminishing lumens sideways for the upper shelves further and further away from the lights is like tryin to get the outside perimeter of a horizontal table ta grow as much nuggage as the sweet spot directly under the reflectors.......just ain`t gonna happen....

Wanna talk Vertical and GPW`s ?.......Here ta help........but stadiums need too many bulbs to provide proper watts per sq ft for minimum yields per light IME from what I`ve seen over the yrs...........

We`re talkin "Zero Veg" against "Zero Veg".......right ?.......

Peace.....DHF.............