Scraping the hydro unit for this grow and going with foxfarm ocean forest soil and organic nutes. My grow room for this grow is 8x6 with a 5 ft maxium grow hieght (including pot hieght). Am i ok using 2 1/2 gallon pots or should i use 5 gallon pots?
depending on how often u want to water u can use the 5 gallon cont from veg to finishing bloom but if ur transplanting from veg to the pot to bloom u wont need that big of a pot i use 1 gallon containers but u have to water every other day......so its up to you 2 gallon is enough from veg to bloom imo.........
It sounds like there could be height issues with stretchier plants. Bushy Indica's would probably still be OK in the 5 gallons, but I'd be concerned that a stretchy Sativa might get too tall and would be handled better by keeping them shorter in the 3 gallon pots.
I've grown 4' indica plants in 3 gallon pots, which made for 5' plants (or taller) including pot height. You may need to LST or top your strains to keep height under 5 feet, but I wouldn't recommend using smaller than 3 gals.
When i was growing hydro in the same room i only had a 4ft ceiling i just did a little lst, so im not really worried and i usually pick indica dominent plants anyways. This is my first soil grow and im more conerned with the roots having room.
Interesting. Is this a generally agreed upon opinion or are you basing this on experience? I'm a beginner and we were just talking about pot size earlier. I thought it was necessary to have the 5 gallon pots to allow for proper root formation. I never thought about using a smaller pot to control plant size though so I'm glad you posted this. Is it generally accepted that if you do have height issues, you should use smaller pots instead of topping or LST'ing them? Or is this all personal preference? Thanks
I think 3 or 3.5 gallon work fine. 5 gallons will have you spending a lot more on soil, and the soil will take a long time to dry when the plant is first transplanted into it, which means it's easier to overwater.
its more towards how often u water and what kind of medium ur using..... ive grown in 20 gallon and 1 gallon...............unless ur vegging them for a long time u dont need a huge pot........
I run two garden simultaneously. One with 75 plants in 3 gallon pots (3000w vert Oct) and another with 41 plants in 5 gallon pots (3000w traditional flat garden). Its not a total fair comparison because the Octo lights the plants differently, but generally the 5 gallon pot plants grow a bit taller, under the same vege time and nute schedule. Its not exacting science but in my experience pot size will affect over-all growth.
Im using Fox Farm ocean Forrest, and I'll probably add something like hydroconton or what ever that shits called to create a more airy medium.
It's particularly interesting to me that you're taking this approach since I'm in the process of doing basically the same thing (see my post in this forum titled Five Seeds Left). My first (unsuccessful) grow was hydro and now I'm going to try soil. Thanks for posing an interesting question, one that I'd wondered about.
Don't start in 5 gal, but final xplant for flower, pot up to five gal. FFOF is a good choice all the way through the grow. I use the empty 5gal paint buckets from Hdepot or lowes and get @6gals of soil in them.
Like i said I'll probably go with the 5gal. pots and use some hydrocoton as filler to stretch the soil a little and to make it more airy for the roots. I cant see how it would hurt the grow adding hydrocoton.
Does everyone else transplant their plants right before going into flower? I've never about this so I'm curious if I missed something in my research
I start my plants in a 4" square pot from seed and transfer only once into my 5 gallon pots once rootbound. I have heard it argued you should step your plants up 4 times letting it become rootbound each time, they say this can increase yield by as much as 30%. I do know that when transplanting, gently squeeze the roots in your hand to free them and spread them on the soil below of the larger pot to allow for easy spreading of these roots. You should be fine with the height of your area as long as you top at least once providing your light can maintain a safe distance from the tops of the plants. Hip