Hey guys I am a new grower have a 3week auto in the early stages of flower and I have noticed some roots growing out the bottom of the pot I know its bad to repot an auto especially in flower will I have a problem or will they air prune??
That means it's root mass has filled that size. If you hold it there it will restrict growth and reduce yield. Rootbound as they say. Sometimes you are forced to use that size. A bigger pot would allow it too keep growing if you have the space with less frequent watering. The 20 liter is going to require more frequent watering. edit; Nevermind, I see you have an autoflowering variety. They don't transplant well. Just don't let it dry out too much.
Roots DO NOT grow outside of the pot because the plant is root bound. They grow outside of the pot because moisture is present outside of the pot. This normally occurs from letting the pot sit in a tray that has runoff in the bottom. If no moisture is present then roots will air prune regardless of if they are root bound or not. If they are sitting in water, even a small amount, roots can and will grow outside of the pot regardless of how close they are to being root bound.
Roots coming out of drainage holes is normal and gives no indication on how root bound the plant is. You can have roots showing within days of the plant germinating if the root happens to land at the hole when it gets to the bottom. An auto isn't going to be root bound in a 20 litre anyway. Transplanting an auto is absolutely fine, not only is it a myth that it is a problem, its also a common misunderstanding on the whole transplant issue anyway. When people say "don't transplant an auto" , what they actually mean is, "don't keep it in a small pot before moving it to a bigger one. Just start it in the big one". They don't mean that if it's in a small pot, you can't move it to a bigger one. The first small pot is the issue, not the actual transplant itself. But it's wrong anyway, as long as you transplant before the roots become restricted it's completely fine. But none of this matters to you because you have it in a 20 litre pot and that's plenty big enough for any auto
Good info we do not do the literal sense of transplanting. We do what is called up putting. A transplant is when you take a plant from the environment/medium there in to a different one. This is when shock happens because the roots are unfamiliar with the new medium.
Transplanting and up potting is the same thing. You can transplant into different medium but going from 3 gallons of soil to 5 gallons of soil is also widely called a transplant. I understand what you are saying though. I typically call it up potting but the majority of people call it transplanting.
Yeah you're still transplanting from one pot in to another. Potting up, transplanting, it's the same thing. The thing about transferring it to a different environment is something else entirely
