I have done several searches on this, but I thought I would ask for some opinions anyway. I have 3 seedlings in 16oz fiber cups. The plants are 2 weeks old today, they are 2 1/2 inches tall (NL), they have started their forth leaf set, and roots are beginning to poke through the fiber cups, all the way to the bottom. I want to go straight from these cups to 3 gallon pots. 1) Anybody have an opinion of when it is best to adios from these 16oz fiber pots? Is it better to wait until a significant number of roots are poking through, or are the first dozen or so roots poking through the fiber cup enough of a signal to make the move? 2) Does topping have any bearing on when to jump off on a transplant in this situation? I am not certain I will attempt topping them as a first time grower, but I'm giving some thought. Opinions from anybody who has dealt with this kind of situation would be appreciated.
No real time limit, eventually tho it would at some point get root bound.. Here is a JH clone at about 2.5 months in a 16oz beer cup... I feed her every day lol...
Holy Cow! I'd be mighty proud if my plants look anything like that at 4 weeks. Is that in soil? Did you top it? Thanks for the response, Ridgeracer. I guess I'll let em ride a while longer. My aim is 3 weeks of veg then on to flower, so when I transplant, I want to go straight to 3 gallon pots where they will finish. The strain is NL, and at two weeks they are only 2 1/2 inches tall with very tight nodes, so I'm on the fence about trying to top them. I spouted them under a singe T5 lamp, then put them right under a 400W MH. Noobe grower. More ambition than knowledge here.
Noob is semantics, you are just on a different path on your journey as a grower, one day our skill levels will intersect, I promise...
Thanks, hope2toke. The first set of leaves is almost as wide as the little fiber pot. I'm a little paranoid about transplanting anyway. I have never grown a plant before, and have never had to re-pot one. Sounds easy enough, but so did a lot of other things that turned out to be just a little more complicated than I expected. Burpee, the company that makes the fiber pots, claims you can just plant them in the new pot and let the roots grow through it. I don't think I'm going to test that claim. Need to learn how to transplant anyway. I really, really, really don't want to screw them up when I transplant them.
To answer your previous question, I grow in coco with a custom profile of fertilizer salts.. My plants health and vigor must be at its maximum potential.. I supplement KSio2 as well.. (potassium silicate) When we supplement, often Silicon (Si) is not in the mix, but the benefit of Silicon is readily apparent...
[quote name='"testtoker"']I have done several searches on this, but I thought I would ask for some opinions anyway. I have 3 seedlings in 16oz fiber cups. The plants are 2 weeks old today, they are 2 1/2 inches tall (NL), they have started their forth leaf set, and roots are beginning to poke through the fiber cups, all the way to the bottom. I want to go straight from these cups to 3 gallon pots. 1) Anybody have an opinion of when it is best to adios from these 16oz fiber pots? Is it better to wait until a significant number of roots are poking through, or are the first dozen or so roots poking through the fiber cup enough of a signal to make the move? 2) Does topping have any bearing on when to jump off on a transplant in this situation? I am not certain I will attempt topping them as a first time grower, but I'm giving some thought. Opinions from anybody who has dealt with this kind of situation would be appreciated.[/quote] I find most plants are ready to transplant at about 10 to 14 days. It depends on the growth. The amount of vegetation above the soil is a good relfection of the root structure under the soil. Fast growing plants need it earlier than slow growing plants. You can give the cup a gentle squeeze on the side. If you have a nice root mass it will feel much more firm that a cup of just soil. Transplanting and topping really aren't related, but share the common aspect of the root structure. Plants will redirect energy in both cases. With transplanting it has to work on spreading roots in the new pot, topping it has to work on repairing damage and redirecting auxins. A good root structure when topping is important, particularly if you remove a large percentage of vegetative growth. Neither of these are bad, and given good health cause almost zero slowing of growth, but personaly I would only do one at a time. I would transplant, give them a few days to settle in to the new pot then top.
Thanks for the comments, joker865. The advice to gently squeeze the cup to check the rootball is especially helpful. They will be three weeks old next weekend. I've had some issues with mistakes made right out of the gate that complicated the nutrient profile, and I'm still navigating that issue. Based on what I have learned from the comments here, I think I will transplant them this coming weekend, if not sooner, then consider topping the plants after a few days of observation, as you suggest.
[quote name='"testtoker"'] Thanks for the comments, joker865. The advice to gently squeeze the cup to check the rootball is especially helpful. They will be three weeks old next weekend. I've had some issues with mistakes made right out of the gate that complicated the nutrient profile, and I'm still navigating that issue. Based on what I have learned from the comments here, I think I will transplant them this coming weekend, if not sooner, then consider topping the plants after a few days of observation, as you suggest.[/quote] Sounds like you have a solid plan. Good luck with man, and happy growing!
[quote name='"ridge"racer']To answer your previous question, I grow in coco with a custom profile of fertilizer salts.. My plants health and vigor must be at its maximum potential.. I supplement KSio2 as well.. (potassium silicate) When we supplement, often Silicon (Si) is not in the mix, but the benefit of Silicon is readily apparent...[/quote] That's pretty cool "ridge"racer. I think i need to do some reading about potassium silicate. For now, I have mix in fiber pots that I spiked with lime composed of pure Calcium Carbonate, and I'm trying to navigate around that with the GH Flora Series, and a bottle of CalMag that has been sidelined by complications with the lime. Definitely in a learning curve here, but it's all good.
Indeed, Lime will raise the shit out of ph... Honestly I quit fucking with organics, same exact molecular structure in the organic nutes as in Hydro. Hydro nutes are 10 times easier to measure and feed with.. For me, Organic was nice cuz I fed plain water till harvest, but yields suck balls and my clones are fire, so hydro or not, product is on point..
[quote name='"ridge"racer']Indeed, Lime will raise the shit out of ph....[/quote] Yes it does. And I had not even invested in a good PH meter. It's been quite a ride... but I learned a thing or two, and I bought a good PH meter. Don't know if I can pull it out, but I think if I can get them through a transplant into lime free coco in a 3 gal pot, I might just make it through veg stage. It might be wishful thinking, but based on runoff EC, most of the lime may have already flushed out easing lockout of Mag that rocked them when I tried to feed them last week, but the runoff PH is still insane. 7+. I just PH the nute solution to around 5.8 and drive on. Not much else I can do. Flushing doesn't budge the PH in runoff. Some folks argue that runoff PH in coco is not important. But even still, mine is pretty high. None the less, they continue to grow.
Runoff isnt significant to whats going on... I promise.. Coco has a mid level cation (Cat-ion) Exchange, and will hold nutrients, particulary K as its the most abundant cation in your nutrients and will also, you guessed it, RAISE PH.. Trust me, the runoff means nothing...
One more thought. If you have roots growing though the pots removing them from the pots is going to damage the roots. Plant the whole thing like they recommend if anything I would slice a few slits for the roots and plant the fiber pot. It would recover either way but who wants undue stress? mj
[quote name='"ridge"racer']Runoff isnt significant to whats going on... I promise.. Coco has a mid level cation (Cat-ion) Exchange, and will hold nutrients, particulary K as its the most abundant cation in your nutrients and will also, you guessed it, RAISE PH.. Trust me, the runoff means nothing...[/quote] Thanks for sharing your informed thoughts and experience, Racer. I really appreciate it. I have learned at least this much in 2 1/2 weeks: Nothing says "Oh shit!" quite like a lime green seedling with claws for leaves. At one point I'm pretty sure I could have walked through a dark room with nothing but one of my seedling for illumination. More than once I looked in on them half expecting to find a wisp of smoke and a pile of fine ash where each seedling used to be.
Hi MJ. Thanks for commenting, and I will take a look at your sig for the info. I have read about LST, but have wondered if that would be a little advanced for a noob on the very first grow. But now that you mention it, I should re-evaluate that option.