I'm getting closer to doing first grow by the day and I'm a little confused as to which size of pot I should be using right from the getgo.. I see some are using 3 gal pots and some are using 5gal pots. Would like to see some opinions why one would be better than the other besides space saving and plant height I'm planning to try a little bit of LST, trimming and cropping on my first grow and haven't a clue which size of pot would be the best but I do know that it will either be a 3 gal pot or a 5 gal pot.. Please advise...
You don't need an expert, you need to weigh the facts and use common sense. What is your room layout, how many watts, room height, how long do you want to veg, lacking too much info to give any opinion.
Two rooms 1) 4x8x6.5 tent in larger room which is inside a barn with 2000w HPS running 24/7. Veg until plant 15-18" in height. 2) 8x12x9 room inside a barn with 4000w HPS running 24/7. Veg until plant 15-18" in height. I'm planning to try a little bit of LST, trimming, cropping and maybe even some super cropping
It only matters if it won't fit. Bigger is ALWAYS better for the plant! Think how big the pot is for a plant in the ground. If your grow space can handle a 5gal as easy as a 3 then I say always go the 5. Bigger pots are more stable as well as giving the plant more room to grow and live.
and to add on to what he is saying, I'm sure you know this but the reason the 5 gallon pots are better is because you're giving your ladies that extra room for root growth which of course leads to bigger plants(makes sense in my mind lol). I think you should maybe try to roughly sketch out a birds-eye view of your grow space and then use a little math and some organizing skills to maximize your yeild Oh, and I am by NO MEANS and expert haha. I just follow many grows and stalk on similar conversations
there is one way that fivers will actually hurt you, if the roots are not filling the pot. Depending on how long you are vegging you may not fill a fiver. If you look at all commercial flower producers, they like their plants bordering on root bound, this makes the plant put all its energy into reproduction (flowers) rather than root devolpment. like anything else try both, mark them when you cut, and weigh after drying and trimming and see which works for you. for me my yield actually went up with three gal bags and I buy a lot less soil. gl
not an expert but i switched from 5gal. plastic to 3 gallon smartpots and my yeild increased..plus ...more plants in tent
I would switch the 4x8 room to MH personally and only use that tent for 24/7 light. Once plants reach desired height move them over to the larger room (12/12) and just do a perpetual cycle. If you plant it right you can even set it up to harvest 1 plant a day for as long as you keep it going.
Ok well i've grown a few times and the way I do it is for every foot of height your plant has you need a gallon worth of room in your container ex.4foot plant = 4gallon container. So you need to decide based on how much room you have to let it grow. This is the way I do it!!! PEACE
This is my opinion, and certainly not an expert one. I couldnt decide this either, so i split the difference. I use the 4 gallon cat litter containers from Sam's club. Perfect shape, rectangular, not to big or small. They are very easy to arrange. I'm LST ing right now with them. I drilled 1/8 inch holes, three on the short side, five on the long. Just get some string, and good twist ties and your done. Your cat will appreciate your preparedness as well. Good luck!
For my case I am using 5gallon DWC Buckets.In my situation the net pots eat up 1 gallon of space and leaves me with 4 actual gallons.The roots fill that space pretty good to my surprise.I would not use anything less than 5 gallon in my situation. Soil is a different story.I ran 4 Gallon black plastic pots for my soil grow.With a good bucket system I am going to double my yield I got with soil my first try.But I am not good with soil either so Ive learned.This is after a year of growing with 2k HPS for flowering. I think there are better questions though.Everything changes when the situation changes. What is your area like??? What do want to accomplish ??? How big is your budget??? I had to buy 4 gallon pots its all I could afford at the time.I can afford much bigger now but they worked so I kept using them. If money is no object and space is no object Id say go 10 gallon or 35 gallon garbage barrels with a top of the line drip system My opinion is go with the 5 gallon And remember a 5 gallon can be a 4,3,2,1 gallon pot also.The same can not be said If you run the other way. Peace out
im no expert, but if you got the room go with ten gallon bags and only fill them halfway(5gal) and veg for like 1 1/2 months, this would create wider plants to fill up these big rooms that u have. you could easly train them to spread out really far while reaming somewhat short in height... best of luck to you borther
I'm sure he had an idea of what pots to use... haha well I hope. He is most likely just looking to us for "Expert Opinions" like the title says
Yeah ! It just seemed funny to have such a huge set up and ask that kind of question ! hehe.. Im just jealous !
Until I started this thread, I honestly wasn't sure. I just wanted to hear who was using what and getting the best results from which pot.. I was leaning towards 3gal pots coz I have no intention of growing monsters but would like to get max yields (just like everybody else wants).. I've been researching pretty well everything for the last couple of months and forgot to get a consensus on pot size I'm still not convinced that I should be using anything more than 3 gal so I can get all 48 under 4 lights.. This is my first grow and I don't want to mess it up.. We're wiring up and installing the lighting equipment for the 8x12 room tomorrow and I'm starting off with 48 clones under 4000w .. I know I could easily put 6000 w in that room and create a real boiler room but I'm not... I'm going to get one tent for outside that room and start vegging the second crop of 48 about 4-6 weeks before I'm ready to chop the first one and will be using 2000w for that one cuz the clones are in 1 gal pots or smaller... I'm taking what I have learned on this forum by following a few grows for the past couple of months and put it to use )).. Think I'll change the title and remove "Expert" Cheers... Ooops.. Can't change it now .. Oh well...
You dropping a lot of money for a first grow. I would of at least tried to grow a plant in a tent or something first, maybe confirm my skills? Good luck though, sound like a lot riding on your first attempt.
Actually I haven't spent as much as I thought I may have had to.. I've bought all the equipment used and got an awesome deal on 15, 3 to 4 foot parabolic shades with sockets for 10.00 each, 8 ballasts for an average of 100.00 each (2 are going to be backups). Haven't bought the tents yet so I'm not including the cost of them for now but when you add it all up I doubt if I have spent 1500 so far.. If I continue to grow, I plan on switching out the ballasts into digital ones and I have found a source that sells them new for 200 bux up here in Ontario... I'm sure if I shop harder, I'll find them for less. Cheers..