Hey GC, im looking for someone with a little knowledge or experience on the subject, but everyones welcome! I've been reading people grow journals to see the problems they've encountered and solutions. what has been unclear to me is a solid method to stepping up pot sizes with good results and good watering techniques. any input?? ive heard of people flooding pots and then letting the water run through quickly as to suck oxygen down into the soil with as the water rushes through. good method? anyone used it? what are good watering practices in your experience? what is a good rule of thumb when stepping up pot sizes how long should i wait and what is a realistic number of step ups and to what size pot for the best results?? i know its a lot of questions but i have no room for failure thanks!:
Transplanting? I just transplanted today. Into my final pot that I'll take to harvest. I was also changing soil to a better mix, so I wanted to get rid of as much as possible of the old soil. Prepare your larger pot, hole in middle for the roots of your plant. Hammer/pat the pot to free the earth from the side of your pot with the plant in. Turn the pot upside down, with your hand around the base of the stem and on the topsoil. Slide out the plant. Either: shake off soil, take it away carefully with your hands, if the roots were becoming potbound, gently spread them away so they'll grow out rather than tangling. Place in your pot and cover with new soil covering the lower stem. Water till runoff, no nutes. Or: Prepare a bucket of tepid water. Dip your root ball into the water and allow the roots to soak/the earth to fall off. Place the washed rootball and plant into the new pot, cover with new soil covering part of the lower stem. Water the topsoil, no runoff, no nutes. Water again the next day. Since you soaked the roots they become water saturated and don't need water for a bit, so you don't need to water all the soil until the next day as to not flood the roots.
thanks for the info, but i was more talking on the lines of pot sizes. ive heard people mention that if you start in cups and progressively move to slightly bigger pots it will benefit root growth. i wanted to know what pot sizes they used and how many step ups to a bigger size they used and to what final size 3 gal? 5 gal? also what results they had with these.
Do you have a height limit or do you want the plant to achieve it's maximum height and yield? Start in cups, it's best to have your plant in a pot which will get filled with the roots as it promotes root growth as they try and get the goodness out of all the soil. Steadily as your plants and rootball grows increase the pot sizing, transplant just before the plant is about to become pot pound. Do 2-3 transplants per plant lifecycle. If you have no limit, biggest pot as possible, bigger root mass equals bigger yield. If you have a limit, I hear it's a gallon per foot of plant.
thanks budfather thats just what i wanted to hear. do you have any advice on watering techniques? also is going from a cup to a 3 gal too much? then later 5
The goal when transplanting is to do it as little as possible, to prevent plant shock during transplantation. I transplanted a peat moss ball, to a regular size pot, and my final transplant will be in a 3-5 gallon bucket, three transplants.
No, that's fine, it's going to grow in whichever pot, and there won't be too much difference. Doing 4 steps and going up to a gallon would probably be superior. Watering? Early on in your small pots you're going to be watering a lot more often. Maybe daily, just wait till the soil's dry before you water them again, and in the early stages it will be once a day in the small pots. In the later stages it won't be so often. When the top 1-2 inches of the soil (topsoil) is dry, that means you need to water. It should be crusty. When watering water till you get runoff at the bottom of your pots, but stop as soon as it starts coming out. Water with a shower-head extension, this won't disrupt the soil or roots, watering straight from a bottle can fall quite hard and disrupt the topsoil and drench the place, a shower-head will take some of the fall and will be gentle. Some people will leave their pot dry for a day or so, and just before they see their leaves getting droopy (asking for water), they water them. Leaving the soil dry promotes root growth as the plant will focus on root growth to get access to more water (growing roots further down the soil in search of the water). This will slow down foliage growth, as the plant focuses on the roots, but once watered, you'll see a huge burst of growth from the leaves. You were quite vague as to what watering advice you were looking for so hopefully I covered everything. Quite stoned right now