What up. So i've been vegging out some sour buddha and some blackberry kush and am hoping to keep two of my babies as moms. I havn't ever kept a plant out of the normal veg to flower cycle and need a little bit of help. I went to the store yesterday and picked up some 1.5 gallon plastic circular pots and am planning on mixing some coco coir, perlite, organic soil, worm castings, and maybe a little alfalfa meal into the pot as a base for them. I was thinking about mixing a small batch of subcools super soil to line the bottom of the pot with but am realizing the pots I have are kinda small to be loading up with a bunch of stuff. I have the plants in coco coir (pith) right now and am hoping to transplant them into the new mix of nutrients, soil, perlite, and coco to help them hold some water and self feed a little bit. I am just wondering if the 1.5 gallon pots will be big enough. I am planning on lst'ing the hell out of them and taking cuttings every few weeks. They are under a 2 foot (4 bulb) T5, so they aren't growing ridiculously fast but the coco does promote some quick growth. I thought that the little plastic pots would help with root trimming (when it is needed) but am a little unsure about get the coco mix out of the pots safely. I have heard people say that square pots are the easiest to use but couldn't particularly find any. So if I am trying to bonsai them somewhat do I just need to lst them? Will these 1.5 gallons be able to hold them well? I am probably trying to keep them about 1.5 to 2 feet tall. And will the coco, soil, and perlite mix work with root trimming and mother maintenance? Thank you very much for any help.
Bonsai just means miniature plant, traditionally in a planter that's shallower than it is wide. Jorge Cervantes and other growers recommend using 1 gallon of planter for each month the plant will be alive but for mothers there are ways around this, just like a bonsai u will have to sure it doesn't get root bound and that's pretty easy. Every few months let her dry so u can pull the entire rootball and soil chunk out of the planter, then shave 1" off the sides and bottom of the rootwad, put some soil on the pot, put the plant in and fill the sides. This gives it fresh soil to grow into regularly so u have healthy roots for years
Thanks for your reply man. Definitely some good advice on the root shaving haha. Didn't particularly know that you let it dry out, but makes sense. I am just wondering if this will be possible (not horribly difficult) to do with coco coir? I am going to be transplanting into a coco, soil, perlite, and castings mix and just question wether the rootball will stay in tact with such a fine and fluffy medium?
It should stick together as long as it's dry enough and as long as the roots have filled the container enough, it will almost definitely be easier with square planter tho so it's straight cuts
Go very easy with the alfalfa, like 1tbl/gallon of mix. It gets hot enough to burn roots when it starts breaking down. Good stuff though. I'll take ~3-4 handfuls of EWC and 1 handful of alfalfa meal, mix it up and let it cook for a week or so till it cools down and then use as a top dress. Wet