So I saterted my plants in Jiffy trays. When I went to transplat I realized that planting in pressed peat isnt the best because roots become attached. This was a problem for me because I ended up breaking off some roots when transferring to my current, plastic 1 gallon pots. My question is, what is the best technique for safely transferring the plants to my new 5 gallon fabric pots and for putting the rest in the ground. Should i just turn the pot upside down and hope it all comes out in one solid root/soil clump? Cut the pot (kinda want to avoid so I can reuse the pots)?
Transplant the entire pot. Those peat pots disintegrate quickly when moist and your roots will grow right through them - so drop the whole thing in. J
Jerry, Thats what I ended up doing after ripping some roots off of two of my plants. Oddly enough those are my two largest plants (the two with minor first transplant root damage and NO jiffy material still located in the new pots). Obviously not enough to conclude anything . but its interesting and is one reason why i'm ready to transplant from my Current 1 gallon plastic pots to 5 gallon fabric pots (2 autos & 2 WW). So what kind of technique do you use when transplanting from ~1 gal. to ~5 gal. pots? I'm afraid to just turn it over and shake. I don't treat them like tomatoes.
Just squeeze the sides a little bit all around and push up on the bottom of the pot. The whole thing will pop out in one clump as long as the roots have grown throughout the pot. Throw it in the ground or new pot and your done, nothing to it.
Why wouldn't you? Growing marijuana = gardening. I don't know why people detach marijuana cultivation from basic gardening techniques. Most likely whatever works for all your other veggies in the garden will most likely do just as good when dealing with MJ. Check out some "legit" gardening forums and you'll learn a lot of new tricks and tips that you can use on your MJ/veggie garden. Remember, it's just a plant
I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to tear off some roots when repotting, so long as it's not huge chunks. Just like the tops, roots will branch when they are broken, giving you more roots. That's part of the beauty of smart pots is the air pruning action. Personally, I hate jiffy pots or pellets. I feel peat holds water too well, and drowns roots. If it's really a big deal for you, I've seen some guys on here modify their smart pots to have one side that has velcro so it can be opened up and peeled off.