I have these 1 week old vegging plants in their 1 gallon starter pots. I wasn't pleased with the stretched stems they had so I foolishly decided to carefully get them out, scrape the bottom layer of the soil to lower the soil level and bury them stem up to the leaves. In the process however, the root balls of some plants crumbled a little bit. I'm expecting a shock after this. But my question is once they recover, will they resume normally or could they bring some kind of permanent damage with them for the entire grow? I'm thinking of all the fine root system that got disturbed...
You'd be surprised what they can handle, they may not even stunt. I recently had to pull out a couple plants and shake all of the dirt off of their root balls due to the organic soil they were in being too hot. Re-planted and they didn't skip a beat. Next time though, don't worry about the early stretch of seedlings, it's pretty normal. Start in smaller containers, like a SOLO cup and when you transplant into the 1 gallon containers, just bury them deeper. OR When you plant them, only fill the containers up about 3/4 of the way, and then when they stretch, add some more dirt to cover the stems. Less chance of shocking them and stunting their growth. But to answer your question, how long a stunted plant varies greatly. But I'd wager a week, average.
THanks man. Your 2nd suggestions is a good tip and will do it in the future. I'm not too concerned on how long they stay shocked. My question is more, once they recover, will they resume normally or could they bring some kind of permanent damage with them for the entire grow? I'm thinking of all the fine root system that got disturbed. Can that cause a plant to go hermie, or just grow out to be weak etc...
They'll definitely recover, just a question of how long. I don't really think they'll need a recovery period, personally. You said the root balls crumbled a bit, which sounds like what I forced my plants to do by shaking and even smacking the root balls. They're tough. Remember when you do Bonsai mum's, you actually cut off quite a bit of the root balls on a regular basis with a knife.