I have a plant in a 2 gal bucket, running DWC. Its like 3 months old, ready to put into flower. The roots are huge and instead of transferring to a 5 gal when in go into flower, Can I root prune it? If so how much can I cut off? I know in soil they do it (every other month?), so why not for hydro? If so this is great because Id like to do it for my others and keep them all in small containers. anyone do this before?
NO don't cut the roots. i've tried it. if you cut the roots any vegitiative growth that was receiving nutes from that section of roots will just die right away. you'll seriously stunt the growth of your plant. DO NOT EVER CUT THE ROOTS IF YOU CAN HELP IT.
iv done it. just dont let the stuff fall in the bucket. collect the cut roots and set them to dry outside. they turn into a crispy light poop wafer.
why not just keep the roots and get a bigger yeild?? transfering your plants will take like 2 sec and the cost will be about 15$ for a new dwc unit Happy Growing
Agreed, how hard would it be to buy a 5 gallon bucket and retrofit it? Not hard at all, I just built one!
The problem comes in with the space. I fear stunting it, but does this effect the yield? I have a small cab grow and its getting too big, even with lsting and pruning. If I could keep the actualy container small, then I would be able to fit it in the space. But two people said different things. One said itll kill the plant, another said, he's done it. So which is it, and how much can I cut off? Also with less roots, I dont have to maintain it everyday, which is a HUGE plus
yea. i wouldnt do it to a small plant though. i think the smallest the rootball can be is around 2fists big. i cut almost half of the roots on this satty but they were the exact size of the 5gal bucket so there were still a BUNCH left.
I see, well how long did you veg before you pruned? My 2 gal. bucket is almost full with roots, I just hate having to refill the whole thing everyday. I think Im gona end up just going with the 5 gal. and figure some way to make it fit. Im really asking for future grows. Im going to put it into flower in two weeks, and I dont want to stress it right before putting it into flower. The flowering chamber is bigger and should be okay, but Im trying to make my whole system smaller.
Cutting the roots will stunt and stress. It's like slicing your veins and sewing your mouth shut. Transfer to the 5, even though you probably should've had it in that to begin with if you were doing a 3 month veg. Good luck man.
Do not cut the roots! Get a larger pot/container. Also from your pictures keep your room clean and looks like you have a cooling problem. Get AC or find a way to cool your room better. The leaves look skinny as hell! Don't mind me if i'm wrong
I agree but isnt he saying its not possible to get a larger pot due to space??? but idk I need more info if you could tell me the size of the room and containers and stuff and also measurements are very important. tell me this and I can try to come up with something for ya. and im pretty good at the sorta thing...
I'm doing hydro for my first grow and I have them in a gallon container or less (only 3ft plants). From what I understand, one of the many benefits of hydro is the small container you can put them in. Ya, the roots have almost completely taken over the container, but there is only a week or two left of flowering. One of the benefits I see for a big container is that you wouldn't have to refill it as much, but once ever other day is all mine drink. I'm using a bubble container method thing though.. is that DWC? sorry if it's not. just trying to add my 2cents.
ok lets set up a scenario were u have to cut the roots and lets say u already did and now theres alot of stress what would u do then.?
Just started my own DWC in a 5 gal pot. and had the same question about pruning. I dont want to prune roots if I dont have to just want to know if I can if I ever have to. I only want to prune them if they take over by the time I harvest. Can the root mass in a 5 gal DWC become so big that the air stones no longer get air to the center of the root mass. I am worried that the plant may die from lack of air to the roots...O I have two 5 in air stones at the bottom of my bucket
this is another very good reason to prune the roots. also, the bucket holds less liquid when its 'root bound'.
I am going to prune some roots in my bucket I am going to leave the tap rot alone......I am only going to do this if I have root rot when I get home........my cool tube isnt working right and my res temp is above 75 and may be climbing...to save her I may clone a few and prune the roots on the main plant and see if she lives with out stress.........people cut the roots of a bonzi mon in dirt, why cant this be done in hydro. There was also a 3oz challenge here in grasscity........3oz container and a 1gal. res and these people pruned the roots weekly.....so why cant it be done?
You can cut the roots. Stunts the shit out of it. But if you have root rot and want to save the plant. I got root root on the mom from the last batch of clones. (light leak caused it) The clones were fine so what the hell lets experiment a bit and see what happens. I pulled the plant out of the rubbermaid tub. I cut most of the rotted slimmy roots off the plant. Then set the roots and net pot in a bowl filled with hydrogen peroxide I bought from walmart. Swished it around, scrubbed the roots with my hands then rinsed in tap water for a couple of minutes. I did this every other day a couple of times. The plant just set there, some leaves started turning yellow, just like the clones do. Then fresh new white roots started popping out of the net pot everywhere. After 5 or 6 days of that, I started getting new growth on the plant. I'd say the whole process, from noticing the stunted plant and root rot, to growning new roots and good growth of new leaves. 20+ days. It would be easier just to crack a new bean, but if you really wanted to save the plant, that will work. HD
I didnt end up cutting any roots.....got home and my room was 100 and my res was at 82....Only worried about root rot from high res temps. I dont understand how cutting roots on a plant in soil is less stressfull then in hydro. I would think if a person wants to keep a mom in a dwc then they would over time have to trim thoes roots at least twice in her life. SO I wonder if anyone can tell me why pruneing roots in hydro is bad. I only see good( if the tap root isnt cut) in cutting roots but I dont change anything if what I have is working and right now I am manageing my issues....it would just be nice to know in case I have to cut roots