I will be starting them in red solo cups. My question is should I transplant them too a 1 gal or 3 gal pot after they out grow themselves in the solo cups? My final size pots will be 10 gallon. I would like to transplant them too 3 gallon pots after the red solo cups but I'm not sure, I don't want it to hurt the root system or anything or slow down it's growth. What do you guys think? I'll be using soil. Plan to have them in the solo cups for a couple weeks. Thanks to anyone that takes their time too reply to my post.
If you are going with 10 gallon pots in the end then why not switched them to ten gallons now? Have you ever tried to transplant a big plant?? Its more of a pain in the ass then you think. You will definitely shock the roots even if just a bit, possibly hurt or break the plant, and assuming you are in soil you will make a big fucking mess. Another suggestion is when I first started I was using red cups to. Dont wait until they "outgrow" the cup. I did this (more then once)nd it didn't end up well. You dont want to keep those babies in dixie cup for long at all
I'd leave them in the solo cup for a week to get a good root ball formed then transplant straight into your pot that you plan to end up in...
I use the clear cups and a root starter cube. Once the root shoos through the bottom i put the seedling in their final resting place. 3 gallon if you have the floor space. The more you transplant the more like you are to be in here asking what is wrong with your plant or why does she have seeds now.
go from seed starter to red party cups! to your final sized pot!!! happy life.. wanna complicate yourself go ahead transplant 10 times shes a weed shell handle it question is... is it worth it? what benefit do you get? besides awesome transplanting power root mass will not form any better by slowly transplanting... once the plant is transplanted she senses out her new growing medium space and begins to create the root mass to fit that space... you can help this with nutrients.. much easier than transplanting huge plants risking breaking them and just making mess and wasting more soil nutrients and time.
Only issue u should be aware of is putting too small of a rootball into too big of a pot , especially in soil. Solo to 5 gal...that's a great example. You'll have a 3 week period of nothing and the chances of it getting overwatered are high. O2 transfusing through that much dirt will slow you down until the plant grows into the pot. Best advice on transplanting is to make a mold in the pot your planting in with the pot your taking out of. Center it , correct the height it will sit at then fill in the sides and tamp it down. Spin the pot and remove it to find a perfect hole for the rootball coming out of the pot you just made a negative of. Gently remove the roots intact.....don't ruffle the rootball or put your beaters all over it. If u do mycorrhizae nows the time. The rootball will fit like a key, drop it in and water well with runoff, no nutrients . Wait until pot is totally dry before watering again. I'd do a 2 gal then a 5. Coco is way more forgiving in transplant and also finishing in quart and 1 gal containers. Not recommend but easy to do