Hey GC! One of my first attempts at hydro is 4 days into flowering now. Recently came across some readings that say one should routinely trim the roots in hydro; this makes total sense to me. However I havn't been doing it. Would it be worth trimming my roots, even considering shes already in flowering? (stretch is underway, pistils showing) Attached are pics of my root zone. Its a semi-solid mass that doesn't have too much give when you poke at it, and it pretty much takes up the container. Ignore the milky-white of the water; just threw in a mixture of azamax and neem oil to take care of a few mites.
wow really? I haven't heard about root trimming. I know root mass equals weight of produce in a correlative manner. It could be similar to root pruning though i am sure you can do that. don't cut the wrong one!
trimming = pruning; my bad on the terminology. I mean the same thing. What you said about the mass and fruiting is what I thought about hydro. But I know in soil rootbound plants yield terribly compared to plants that are not. So when I came across that root pruning info, I thought my girl might benefit off it. But it seems it would really just benefit the plants in vege; I don't need more shoots atm, I just need my roots to feed the shoots I have. Has anyone been able to compare pruned roots to non pruned roots for a girl in flowering? Or is it just not possible to get a stunted flowering from overgrown roots in hydro? (given that oxygen is fine and roots aren't strangling the airstone)
Rootbound plants in soil perform poorly because all of the roots are competing for the water and nutes that the soil will give up. The more that the fluid in the soil decreases, the more the soil holds on to it, this is called water tension. In a hydro system there is no substrate hence no water tension. The roots are free to absorb as much as they want. Also, roots that wrap around each other in soil can damage each others root hairs (that tiny fuzz lookin stuff on the roots). In a hydro system there is no need for root hairs, so the plant does not produce them. As long as the roots are not clogging up tubing, which does happen in ebb and flow systems, there is no reason to cut any off. In my opinion a healthy root zone is the most important thing. You should post those root pics with pride man, don't go chopping at em.
[quote name='"DeltaIX"']Rootbound plants in soil perform poorly because all of the roots are competing for the water and nutes that the soil will give up. The more that the fluid in the soil decreases, the more the soil holds on to it, this is called water tension. In a hydro system there is no substrate hence no water tension. The roots are free to absorb as much as they want. Also, roots that wrap around each other in soil can damage each others root hairs (that tiny fuzz lookin stuff on the roots). In a hydro system there is no need for root hairs, so the plant does not produce them. As long as the roots are not clogging up tubing, which does happen in ebb and flow systems, there is no reason to cut any off. In my opinion a healthy root zone is the most important thing. You should post those root pics with pride man, don't go chopping at em.[/quote] I just transferred some clones that were in 2" cups in a 5 gallon tub to 3" cups used in a 15 gal. tub. The problem is the clones were waiting for their sisters to get harvested and grew a little to big. Working with the roots was really tough and there was some damage in separating the roots and getting the 2"cups off. 3 of the 4 look ok and the roots are coiled in the bottom waiting to drop into the new revoir with little visible stress. The fourth however is drooping and in shock. This is the first time I have come across this and wondering if she will pull thru. Ideas???
i'm guessin only time will tell.all u can do is sit back nd cross ur fingers.hope the tranplant hasnt shocked it too much. good luck
I once left clones in a cloning machine so long that the roots looked like dread locks and were hopelessly tangled. I had to tear them apart and I lost about a third of the roots. Sixty out of sixty two clone pulled through. They are gonna look like hell for a couple of days until the roots recover. Just make sure you mist them with water a couple times a day to keep them hydrated.
Personally I'd never trim the roots as there are no botanical benefits from doing so. I pull them apart all the time when 2 get stuck together by roots. No biggie, just try not to rip, cut or pull on the wrong root. I have had sooo many roots that once harvested the bucket maybe had one gallon of water but it was totally full looking with the roots in it. Was probably like aeroponics almost with as little water was in there. Of course the roots were holding some water as well. From my experience in the past, the bigger the root mass the bigger the harvest. Oh one time I did trim 1/4 roots off a sour plant because I thought it was rot. The plant looked like death for 2 weeks and hermed after that although it did not die. fyi.
The only reason you should trim roots are A- if they're rotted, Or B- the plants roots have fully outgrown their environmentt to the absolute end of capacity and you have no other choice but to do so. Keep in mind when u trim roots you need to coorespondingly prune some foliage. Lotsa plant with not enough rootstock = unhealthy plant.
[quote name='"DeltaIX"']I once left clones in a cloning machine so long that the roots looked like dread locks and were hopelessly tangled. I had to tear them apart and I lost about a third of the roots. Sixty out of sixty two clone pulled through. They are gonna look like hell for a couple of days until the roots recover. Just make sure you mist them with water a couple times a day to keep them hydrated.[/quote] Thank bunches.... They do already look better. I just hope they stay female
answer to your question is a flat, easy no. Absolutely do not trim your roots. There's nothing gained from doing this in your situation.