Hello, It's week 3 and 1 day since they broke ground (St. Paddys Day) I'm thinks of transplanting them tomorrow into 2 gallon containers for 3 weeks until final home of 15 gallons. I've also been under 4 philips led 5000k light bulbs for seedling but have a nice 12 cob led array awaiting for when plants are ready. My questions are: 1. Am I good to transplant yet? 2. When do I switch to more intense light 3. Is it better to transplant when soil is dry or wet as I watered Friday night. Any other advice is appreciated. Thank you.
I would transplant now. I move my seeldings from t5s to 1800w of mh.. Easier to transplant with dry soil but after give then a heavy watering
Yeah I have my led cob light that I'm excited to get going. Thing is 1 of 3 arrays was damaged but luckily should be back in my possession Tuesday! I watered last night so I'll transplant tomorrow late afternoon and water them after Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I see people saying it's easier to transplant dry all the time but I definitely think it's better to do it with wet soil. I do it a couple of hours after watering and just flip the plant upside down, give the pot a couple of light taps and the soil comes out in a convenient pot shaped clump (hold your hand over the top of the pot with the stem going between your fingers so the soil clump just lands on your outstretched hand). Then place into new soil, water in and the plant never even seems to know it's been moved at all. Check out my grow: First grow using cfls. https://forum.grasscity.com/index.php?threads/First-grow-using-cfls..1439770/
When the plant is larger than the vessel it's growing in, time for a transplant to a slightly larger container (wider and taller than the pot). Always let your plant dry completely out before attempting a repot. This keeps the root ball together and lessens the chance of stressing it or losing soil from roots. The larger you go in container size with a transplant, the longer it's going to take the plant to root into all the soil and get back to growing foliage. The foliage growth slows down while its working on a root system. Keeping the container size and the plant size relative gets you the fastest growth. Well, light gets you the fastest growth...but that common sense. LOL Don't be in a hurry to repot a plant. Let it go ahead and get root bound in the cups before you switch it over. If you're using a good quality grow soil, the stuff will feed a plant for weeks. Keep your veg lighting as close to the plants as possible for a more stocky/strong plant. Getting the light source too far away just makes the plant stretch to try and get to it. Be patient with them. They're going to grow and produce at their own rate, not yours. The most important thing is to let them dry out completely between watering episodes to keep them healthy. If you're growing in box store soil, you need to amend it with some perlite to around a 60/40 soil/perlite ratio. These things hate having their roots sitting in wet soil constantly so the soil needs to be super arid. Good luck. TWW
Once the tips of the leaves have reached out past the rim of the pot it's time to transplant and yours have past theirs. I prefer to transplant when the soil is dry because it's lighter and will hold its shape better. Wet soil can be heavy and fall apart from its own weight tearing roots in the process Crank up the lighting, they will make use of lots of light now
Put clear cups inside of colored cups and you will know exactly when to transplant. Transplanting is super easy. Once there's a nice full root system, let the soil dry out. Tip it over, tap it if it sticks and waalaa..... Drain holes in the clear cup, colored cup acts as a drip pan
Lots of great advice. Most I agree with an some I do not. Based on personal experience throughout my first grow I've realized a bit. I tried repotting when damp, it went great. I tried repotting closer to dry, (consider I am using coco) it was going so horrible I had to dampen the coco to remove it from the pot. The soil you're replanting to should also be damp this way you can form a safe spot to place your plant into. Dry soil or coco falls in on its self an you don't want this happening when you have the plant in your hands. Unless maybe you have another set of hands/help. Be very cautious when using led's on young plants. It will depend on the fixture and the brand but I did try to introduce my plants to led's on two occasions after growing under t5's for a cpl weeks. They struggled both times an I did away with led an switched to hps. My point is, when switching to stronger lights. Keeps a close eye on height an intensity. Also feeding may need to increase almost immediately when switching to a stronger light due to increased growth speed. I would consider switching to t5's for veg. Especially if you can save Electricity doing so. My veg is 200 watts at 18/6. I would definitely wait til close to root bound before repotting. If you do so when the leaves reach outside the pot you may be doing so to soon based on the strain. I believe it's too soon period. I do agree, you should add perlite to your soil. From what I've seen most people go anywhere from 25-50%. I wouldn't go under 30%. To answer your question, if you have 25% perlite in those cups your plants are good for another week or so. If not I'd repot to a pot just over 1 gallon. 5 quart pot would be great. Then switch from 3 gallon pot to 15. I know, more work. Add 30-50% perlite whichever pot you choose. The white widow gave you some great advice. If you don't mind the extra work I promise this will payoff. Best of luck to you. Have a look at my grow an you will see I'm speaking based on personal experience, for the most part. First Grow! Hempy Bucket/Coco Coir/Lemon OG/From Seed!!/Led Grow!!
If they are falling apart when transplanting dry it's because the root ball wasnt formed enough for transplant. Therefore the moisture in the soil held the soil together. If the root ball is formed enough it will hold it together wet or dry. Dry is just less messy and easier to get out of the cup imo compared to wet as it contracts slightly as it dries. Allowing the root ball to just fall out in 1 "chunk".
Once when tranplamting with wet soil i lost about 70% of the root ball. Never again wet transplant for me. However gave the plant a large amount of water with kelp extract and within the next few days it was back to growing. Thought i lost her forsure. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I'm going to transplant this afternoon Soil it damp so will dry a bit longer and then get it done. For now I'll fill up my 2 gallon pots and put an empty solo cup in it so that it leaves the perfect space for my plants! Going to leave room to add more first too so I can cover stem a bit since stretched a bit in growth. Yahoo!! I just wish I had a brewer tea to put on but coconut water will have to do. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Why do you guys go into such large pots, i mean 15 gallon seems a bit of overkill. I regularly flower in 3 and 5 gallon and have great results.
More room for roots - for more growth and happier plants! I'm going from solo cups to 2 gallons to 15 gallon Smart pots. My two mothers will do the same but 20 gallon smart pots. First grow but make sense to me from my learnings. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Ive had hundreds of plant cycles and never went bigger than 5 gallon with outstanding results. Only reason i see to go so big is if you plan on vegging for 3 months other than that its a huge waste of money.
It depends on the size of the plants but also keep in mind that a US gallon is different from a UK gallon. This can make the gap feel bigger than it actually is