used 5 gallon buckets with soil for years.. js7ut make sure you get ones that have not been holding harsh chems of any kind. a couple tips . wwork up to the 5 gallon buckets .. you plant should have 2 Xplants getting to that 5 gallon bucket.. I go with dixie cups, then on to 1 or 2 gallon pots..then in to the five gallon pot. good luck
I'm using 5 gallon buckets in hydro, the roots are massive. My next grow will be a 42 gallon container, going to be the biggest root balls this side of the mississippi
interesting Wharf. im not disclaiming your statement by any means but: if you have the space, what is the beneficial factor of working your way up to/finishing in a 5ga pot, opposed to starting in your finishing pot (5ga in this case)? annnd.. i think i just answered my own question. is it because of the simple fact of, why screw with flushing, nuting, ph'ing, a very young plant in such a large pot, when it could me more easily monitored/maintained in a smaller one? did that make any fucking sense? haha sorry.. please say it did.
I thought it was so your plant can use all the space available, so it will fill out the smaller plants, then move up and fill that out with a good sized root ball already. Where as if you planted direct into 5g pot your plant most probably will not use all the available space and spread out.
I MISTAKENLY started my seedlings in 5 gal, hempy buckets and quickly found that its just to hard to maintain (as a newbie) that much space for such small plants. cut down a couple 2 liter soda bottles, put holes in the bottom and sterilize. good luck.
Yep, I agree. Generally true but if growing with shorter veg times pretty academic in soil anyways (don't know much about hydro), can only do so much with the time they have. I also agree with Wharf. There are multiple benefits to transplanting your plants into bigger pots during your grow. Let me name a few... First we have efficiency. Having light hit bare dirt is inefficient. Better to have small pots and a canopy of foliage to soak it up. Bigger roots = more buds is true up to a point but personally, I want my plants to concentrate on growing buds and vegetative growth (more vegetative growth definitely means more buds), not roots, so I want my roots to hit the sides of the container. They'll slow up and growth resumes above ground, where we want it. The thing about more roots = more buds is you have to be willing to put in the extra time to reap the benefits. No 4 weeks and flower, like a lot of growers do. Next we have the health of the plant. Soil that doesn't have a root system and is wet easily becomes stagnant. That breeds gnats and spidermites, mold and other lovely problems you don't need. As well, if you are using a peat based soil (as many growers do), peat has a pH around 4.5 to 5.5 or so, so they add a buffer to bring up the pH. Once you start adding water, the buffer starts degrading and if you start in a 5 gallon bucket you run the risk of nute lockout when the pH drops to it's natural state after a couple of months (or sooner, depending on overwatering/flushing). Transplanting up provides new soil for the root ball to grow into, keeping more of the buffer (and corrected pH) and preventing this.
Yes very true, i normaly think in terms of outdoor but i did steal that saying from one of the greatest growers that got banned Cantharis, miss your knowledge buddy
thanks Fencewalker for hittin that.... but my reason in very simple..watering schedule... I like to water every 3-5 days. by doing this I am able to maintain a schedule I like. the more roots per C.C. in a container the more they drink..and I have to water more often. I found a schedule close to the "dixiecup, then up to 2 gallon, then up to 5 gallon" that tells me I shoud "Up Pot" about the time I am watering every other day....and if I did everything right (training, pruning, and ferting) my girls hit the flush just abou the time they are down to two day waterings..making the flush even more effective. But Fencewalker, hit all the technical reasons.. thanks. peace