Will my plants die or just end up small?

Most likely will just be smaller/decrease yield, i dont think it would kill them as all you would be doing is stopping the roots growth ...

Just what i think

 

u need to start flowering right now... should be able to keep them in there until the end of the grow.. they will be pretty rootbound though

 

Why do you want to avoid transplanting them?

-mu

 

Nothing weird about it, many people do exactly that. Though cutting out the bottoms is just as likely to shock a plant; because you're more likely to chop roots. But the idea is quite sound, if you can do it without damaging the roots.

In truth, roots don't mind a bit of chopping, so long as you're clean about it (that's clean cuts, and clean, hygienically).

But for my money, transplanting (aka. re-potting) wins every time. So long as you do it carefully and mindfully, it won't shock your plants at all. Also, transplanting means more lateral (sideways) growth, which makes for bushier plants, which should maximize fruiting potential.

Try it...

Wait for the plant to be a little root-bound, which will help keep the soil-ball in tact during the operation. If you plan to remove some (bad) soil, this is less relevant.

Let the plant dry out to the point where it would need watering.

Prepare a fresh pot, and put in as many inches of soil as it takes to lift the plant and its soil-ball almost to the top of the plant. Don't compress this soil.

Lay your palm flat over the surface of the pot, with the stem of the plant between your middle and ring finger.

NEVER LIFT A PLANT BY ITS MAIN STEM. Also never tug it.

Tip the whole thing upside-down, and bring it down firmly onto your palm (an action like you were trying to get a sticky sweetie unstuck from the bottom of a jar, except way more gently). The entire root-ball should fall into your hand.

If it didn't drop into your palm, tip it back up the right way again, and take a deep breath. You'll need to help it out a little. I do three things, in this order.

1. gently push up the bottom of the pot. That's the area of maximum resistance, and this is usually enough to free it.

2. gently (I mean VERY gently) squeeze around the sides of the pot. Not squish, squeeze.

3. Work a thin sharp blade around the edge of the pot, all the way around. Angle the blade into the pot when you move it, so as not to chop roots.

Place the plant in its new pot (after removing as much of the old soil as you can without damaging the roots, if you are doing that) and drop fresh soil all the way around the old root-ball, and a thin layer over the top.

I usually gently tap the sides of the new pot all the way around, to help it fill in the gaps while I'm pouring in the fresh soil. You don't want any air-spaces in there, but nor do you want to go pushing it down with a pencil, cannabis likes a light, airy soil to grow into.

Then water the plant, and leave it alone.

-mu

 

Great instructions there, -MU...And there are journals of people who cut the bottoms out of pots to do what you are thinking. Maybe Gulfster used to do it but I can't remember. Anyway, 2.5 L is really small, you won't get much I think but people use small pots like that for growing Sea of Green style which is instead four HUGE plants in 5 gallon pots, you grow 25 plants in 1/2 gal pots and they wind up being a single cola of bud aboutr the size of a corn cob. So you might get anywhere from a quater to half ounce if you do nothing considering you are a beginner under CFL lights.

 

Yup, Dr BudGreenes is about to tell us all about a SOG system using 2L coke bottles. Smaller pot means smaller plant, though you can compensate some by watering and feeding more often. You can really pack in the plants that way, for big overall yields.

I've got a couple of bag-seed Sativas in 12L buckets at the back of my flowering chamber, tester plants, basically neglected to see what they can do, and they're doing great. But that's about as small as I'd go for a flowering pot, unless it was a SOG system.

se7enUP, do keep us posted of their progress.

-mu