Smallest size pot for growing tropical landraces?

RenaissanceBrah · Jan 13, 2021

I'm hoping to get into breeding and want to run smaller pots, to have more plants and more easily move them around.

I was going to run the 3 gallon grassroots fabric pots (which are really 2.7 gallons).

Would that be OK? Or is there another ideal (smaller) size pot I should run?

Not sure if the fact I'd be growing landraces (mostly Mexican, but in the future SE Asian and African) makes a difference.

troutman · Jan 13, 2021

I have used 5 inch square pots before. :tiphat:

RenaissanceBrah · Jan 13, 2021

troutman said:
I have used 5 inch square pots before.

Respect! How did it turn out? Any problems that you ran into?

troutman · Jan 13, 2021

RenaissanceBrah said:
Respect! How did it turn out? Any problems that you ran into?

No problems at all. I grew in soil and fed organic nutrients in small quantities every week over the grow period. :tiphat:

BTW: Unless you have 10+ foot high ceiling don't use 3 gallon pots. :biggrin:

Outdoors go as big as you want.

f-e · Jan 13, 2021

5" square? that's huge. They hold 2.5L

I'm in 6" round which hold 1.5L

They also fall over a lot.

Compost does need a bigger pot than my coco though. How big a mum are you trying to grow? I can't see any point going past 40L a meter to flower off in compost.

Fabric and going small are not a combination. Fabric dries quicker so must be bigger than a solid walled pot

troutman · Jan 13, 2021

f-e said:
5" square? that's huge. They hold 2.5L

Not as huge as the 3 gallons mentioned in the 1st post. :biggrin:

lLucky · Jan 13, 2021

That size will be fine you can grow in any size pot really, just expect the size and amount of seeds you get to be proportionate to the soil space... and maybe not as healthy if they run out of room and get root bound

You guys really think 3 gallons is large??? I like to flower in 4-5 gallon pots...

Popey · Jan 13, 2021

beer cup

holy · Jan 13, 2021

I grew baseball bats of sssdh in 1 gallon pots coco dtw.. just do it..

f-e · Jan 13, 2021

lLucky said:
That size will be fine you can grow in any size pot really, just expect the size and amount of seeds you get to be proportionate to the soil space... and maybe not as healthy if they run out of room and get root bound

You guys really think 3 gallons is large??? I like to flower in 4-5 gallon pots...

Between 2 and 7 zips per gallon, depending how much effort you make. That can beaten by a long way in cup competitions but that is intensive

RenaissanceBrah · Jan 13, 2021

troutman said:
No problems at all. I grew in soil and fed organic nutrients in small quantities every week over the grow period.

BTW: Unless you have 10+ foot high ceiling don't use 3 gallon pots.

Outdoors go as big as you want.

I'll be growing outdoors, in a residential area though so trying to keep them about 6" or lower. How would you train them to keep it smaller? Topping and LST?

f-e said:
5" square? that's huge. They hold 2.5L

I'm in 6" round which hold 1.5L

They also fall over a lot.

Compost does need a bigger pot than my coco though. How big a mum are you trying to grow? I can't see any point going past 40L a meter to flower off in compost.

Fabric and going small are not a combination. Fabric dries quicker so must be bigger than a solid walled pot

Landraces in a 1.5L? Dang, in another forum they're saying 3 gallons for a 100+ day flowering strain is a bad idea... so kinda confused on what would be the right way.

Also, so a 3 gallon fabric pot would be a pain in the ass in terms of watering no? Better to just get a solid plastic one?

squatty · Jan 14, 2021

I've been growing outdoor in fabric pots of 3, 5, 15 and 20 gallons. I've found the un-topped plants in 3 gallon pots can still get over six feet tall. There are many ways to prune them or bend them to keep them shorter.

This is a 5 gallon pot.

These two plants are in 20 gallon pots.

squatty · Jan 14, 2021

As you mentioned, the smaller the pot the more attention the plant needs in warm weather.
I like fabric pots because they don't get root bound. I've been growing in the same soil in many of my pots for a few years, no till.
If you have living soil with worms and good biology you can add gentle nutrients like earth worm castings, compost teas, fish and kelp, etc. The plant in the 5 gallon pot I posted above was started in April and harvested in early November.

RenaissanceBrah · Jan 14, 2021

squatty said:
As you mentioned, the smaller the pot the more attention the plant needs in warm weather.
I like fabric pots because they don't get root bound. I've been growing in the same soil in many of my pots for a few years, no till.
If you have living soil with worms and good biology you can add gentle nutrients like earth worm castings, compost teas, fish and kelp, etc. The plant in the 5 gallon pot I posted above was started in April and harvested in early November.

Thanks Squatty, the references help a lot.

In my situation, I'm growing together with a friend (he supplies the grow space and half of the investment, I do the homework on how to grow and manage the plants).

He lives about 30 minutes away by car, so I only make it out about once a week.

Is there any particular pot size you'd recommend that would be small, but at the same time would minimize work, like be a good balance between the two?

(Also, I'm running fabric pots, but was thinking of switching to plastic pots just to save on water... last summer spent a crazy amount of money on water. I was also thinking of planting in June or so, to keep the plants from getting too big).

squatty · Jan 16, 2021

My only experience in plastic pots has been one gallon and then planted up to larger fabric pots. Everything will be a compromise. You can restrict root size in smaller pots but then they require more attention. The plant will be smaller but so will the harvest.

You may want to concentrate on topping and training the plants. You will be able to use bigger pots and have a larger harvest using horizontal space. Training a plant takes a consistent time commitment at certain stages of growth but the payoff can be awesome.

I have tried growing plants in three gallon fabric pots and waited for them to begin flower before planting up to bigger pots. If the plants are not topped you just don't know how big they will get when you give them more root space. For me 5 gallon fabric pots have been a good compromise although I would say it varies with the strain. No matter what you grow in remember that you need to have a certain amount of drainage to have healthy roots.

Think about the big picture and maybe consider experimenting with a wicking system or a drip system. I've also started using tan fabric pots to keep the roots cooler. You can try shading or covering the pots somehow to reduce evaporation.

If you don't have specific genetics picked out yet I would start there. You may be able to find something that doesn't get too big and does well with minimal water.

squatty · Jan 16, 2021

I realized I've got a few pictures in my profile for you to check out. A couple of years ago I grew two Nepal Jam.
The female I pollenated was put outside end of May and grew to end of October in a three gallon fabric pot. You can see that pot has already had a couple of grows in it. In a pot that small I need to water nearly every day in the heat of summer.

The female labeled sinsemilla was put in a 20 gallon pot end of May and topped and trained in a small tomato cage. It stayed pretty well below the six foot fence. It finished off at about seven or so feet in the first week of November in my garage when the rains came.

xerb · Jan 16, 2021

Keeping them short - put a book on that girls head !

Keeping them short - put a book on that girls head !

Here is my solution to keeping these potential monsters in check. I am in Northern California, but this works for me.

I grow in BIG 60-65 gallon pots outside, but adjust their growing season by starting the seeds inside about June 1st.

Starting them inside in 1 gallon pots, and then getting them planted outside before they become root bound will keep them short.

Inside under 24 hour light , in 3 weeks I will have 12 inch tall, 18 inch wide seedlings, that are growing so fast you can't believe your eyes. I then spend a week or so hardening them off under the full sun and typically plant them outside about July 1st.

Typical seedling at 3 weeks - you won't see this kind of vigor with cuttings!

Irregardless of pot size, most varieties will get about 6 feet tall this way. A few might get about 8 foot, but that is as tall as I have seen.

One advantage of doing this is that there is less time for bugs to find them. You completely miss caterpillar season. Another is that the plants coming from inside are growing extremely fast, and when you put them out in the July sun they continue to go bonkers.

Depending on the variety, I might get a few ounces or I might get a pound. Most the varieties I grow are usually somewhere in between, 5 - 12 ounces. Once, I did get over a pound from a "Juicy Fruit Thai x Burmese" cross in a 15 gallon pot - but that is unusual for me.

Xerb

RenaissanceBrah · Jan 16, 2021

squatty said:
My only experience in plastic pots has been one gallon and then planted up to larger fabric pots. Everything will be a compromise. You can restrict root size in smaller pots but then they require more attention. The plant will be smaller but so will the harvest.

You may want to concentrate on topping and training the plants. You will be able to use bigger pots and have a larger harvest using horizontal space. Training a plant takes a consistent time commitment at certain stages of growth but the payoff can be awesome.

I have tried growing plants in three gallon fabric pots and waited for them to begin flower before planting up to bigger pots. If the plants are not topped you just don't know how big they will get when you give them more root space. For me 5 gallon fabric pots have been a good compromise although I would say it varies with the strain. No matter what you grow in remember that you need to have a certain amount of drainage to have healthy roots.

Think about the big picture and maybe consider experimenting with a wicking system or a drip system. I've also started using tan fabric pots to keep the roots cooler. You can try shading or covering the pots somehow to reduce evaporation.

If you don't have specific genetics picked out yet I would start there. You may be able to find something that doesn't get too big and does well with minimal water.

Thanks Squatty. My goal is really to just have a plant survive with minimal input
(don't wanna give my friend too much work, as I can only come around once a week, grow site is far. I might go overseas for a bit during the grow, and my friend doesn't want to deal with topping, just watering).

Don't mind small yields at all, want to produce seeds more than anything, and to learn. Grow out 3 strains and preserve 3 landrace lines. Though I'm thinking it might be easiest to just keep 1 male and let it open pollinate all the females (acapulco gold, panama red, Mexican punta roja is what I'm planning for summer).

I'm thinking maybe those cheap 5 gallon plastic pots from home depot (3.7 true gallons) might be the best thing - big enough to water less and perhaps not get root bound, yet small enough to be portable.

(Btw, I checked out your pictures, the Nepal Jam in the smaller pot looks great! Perfect size too, not too big).

squatty · Jan 19, 2021

I've been using one male a year so I know who the daddy is. I'll have one strain I'm pollinating with itself and then another I'm crossing it too. Have fun.

JockBudman · Jan 19, 2021

Ah tend tae follow the root binding tech - start in small pots, an pot up once they've been showin flowers for a few weeks.

Here's some OT haze ah did last year. Germed in seedling pots an then vegged for a few weeks in 2 litres. This is the start of flowerin -

Several weeks later with no sign of sex -

They were then potted up tae 5 litres but ah didn't photograph that. It happened after flowers were setting, maybe two weeks after sex. These next shots are a big jump forward tae the end -

Finished about 3 foot high topped an trained slightly.

Hope that helps someone

Smallest size pot for growing tropical landraces?

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