Yogurt Cup Grow Tips & Techniques; Growing in Tiny Root Volumes

^^pic by Elfstone Strider from round 1

To encourage increased participation in upcoming and all future challenges and contests of this nature I have started this thread to share our knowledge and experience of growing under these certain circumstances imposed by the rules of these contests. We choose to grow plants in tiny containers as part of these competitions and challenges; however, many people are forced by circumstance to grow in small clandestine spaces.


^^ Pic by WeedCurious from Round 3

When growing in a medium in small containers it seems to me the biggest problems are obviously root related, weather it be too much water saturation causing root rot or suffocation (lack of O2 to rootw) or being rapidly drying media and roots dying as result of dehydration, the medium reaching hydrophobic point and repelling water.


^^ Pic by DansBuds Round 1

Obviously a method of automated watering is optimal for these applications, either driplines, ebb & flow, passive hydro like a PPK or hempy bucket style. In the yogurt cup challenge ALL types of grow are allowed, there are NO restrictions on environment, media, lights, or nutrients. The main concern is that roots are contianed within the (very small) container at all times. It should be noted that pure "hydro" setups like deep water culture and aeroponic methods are allowed as well, altho rarely attemted. ( I would love to see an attempt!)


^^Pic by Avinash.Miles round 4 (i think)

Also at this point it begs to be pointed out that the winner of the yogurt cup challenges are and always have been community chosen based on a various qualities of the grow and it's documentation. All a contestant must do in order to be win is complete a grow following all rules. The quantity and quality of the finished product is less important than the adventurous spirit and learning experience involved in taking part. Finished yogurt cup grows are judged on ingenuity and creativity in addition to documentation and explanation.

Hypothetically a grower who uses a creative thoughtful and unusual method to grow less finished product could win over a grower using conventional methods and producing MORE (or higher quality, or both) finished buds. It's not all about WHAT you grow, but instead about HOW you did.


^^ Pic by Eighths & Aces, Round 4

front row seat!

man there are way to many options of yogurt container shape and proportion wise

Pulling up a seat. Love me some yogurt

I'm new here and very interested in this type of grow for my own MMJ use. I'm pulling up a seat, I have a lot to learn

if you want to grow big plants in small pots this thread is well worth reading https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=55683 it is a long one but what h3ad has to say works really well

95% of what i do with the yogurt cups comes from that thread. the rest is just miniaturization and automation

tag ill be back later

next round is coming soon, scheduled to start just after the new year
back to reading the h3ad goes coco thread...

Some of the yogi grows turned out amazing. Well done

So, where are the rest of the guys that managed to finish plants during past yogurt cup contests?
Please share your tecnique! Let's get more people involved.

this thread deserves a look, weedcurious' yogurt cup SOG: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=270390

actually an amazing example of micro-growing AND Micro-medium... and in yogurt cups even.

Avinash.miles said:

this thread deserves a look, weedcurious' yogurt cup SOG: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=270390

actually an amazing example of micro-growing AND Micro-medium... and in yogurt cups even.

Click to expand...

if i was going to make a list of things that help a whole lot when you are growing a big plant in a yogurt cup these cycle timers would be the first thing on it .........



keeping big plants happy in any small container is a headache but these make it simple ......... they make growing DTW in any container much better (better= very efficient = almost no waste)

someone in europe asked me about them but the voltage difference makes them kinda useless on that side of the pond. i don't remember who it was and don't know if they ever found anything over there. anybody there found anything like these?

ya, that art dne is a hella useful lil tool, i've used them for co2 tanks & auto watering

very nice post bro...sticky worthy

so when does the next contest start?? is there a date set?

should start after 1st of january.

every round of the yogurt cup game seems to have me asking more questions than i had before it started and the best place to be asking the questions that i have is probably here.

the system i set up does more than i expected it to do but i keep running into the same wall toward the end of cycle. the ladies get so root bound that i can't feed them anymore and the roots start dying as a result. i tweeked the mix last round and it didn't help. i did this crazy shit this round .......



...... with charcoal and lava rock and it seemed to be doing what i needed it too right up to the minute it stopped working.

anybody out there got any solid information,educated guesses,experience,ideas of outright nutty theories on how to overcome this problem? it there anything that a root system can't choke out? have i pushed 6 oz. of coco so far that i went over the line and nothing can be done? i'm running out of ideas

also .....

does anyone think that the shape of the cup/container/pot makes any difference at all? the cups i've been using allows the root ball to push it's way out of the cup and i thought that was a good thing. this round the plant made it further without pushing out but it still crashed for the same reason some of the others did so i am back at the drawing board again.

i though about changing some things and was looking at the yoplait cups but the shape makes me wonder if they are a good idea for my system. as usual i'm smoking a whole lot of weed when i bust out the big box of crayons and try to figure this shit out again and i thought about this .....



the wife love this pot because of how it looks but the poor gardener has tried to get several different house plants to grow in it and every one of them does great until it starts doing REALLY bad. you can pot up because you can't get anything out of the pot and when it dies the roots are just packed inside and they have gone septic

so ...... what do you think? does the shape of the pot make any difference at all regardless of the relative size or scale?

Eighths-n-Aces said:

every round of the yogurt cup game seems to have me asking more questions than i had before it started and the best place to be asking the questions that i have is probably here.

the system i set up does more than i expected it to do but i keep running into the same wall toward the end of cycle. the ladies get so root bound that i can't feed them anymore and the roots start dying as a result. i tweeked the mix last round and it didn't help. i did this crazy shit this round .......

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=62047&pictureid=1479809&]View Image[/url]

...... with charcoal and lava rock and it seemed to be doing what i needed it too right up to the minute it stopped working.

anybody out there got any solid information,educated guesses,experience,ideas of outright nutty theories on how to overcome this problem? it there anything that a root system can't choke out? have i pushed 6 oz. of coco so far that i went over the line and nothing can be done? i'm running out of ideas

also .....

does anyone think that the shape of the cup/container/pot makes any difference at all? the cups i've been using allows the root ball to push it's way out of the cup and i thought that was a good thing. this round the plant made it further without pushing out but it still crashed for the same reason some of the others did so i am back at the drawing board again.

i though about changing some things and was looking at the yoplait cups but the shape makes me wonder if they are a good idea for my system. as usual i'm smoking a whole lot of weed when i bust out the big box of crayons and try to figure this shit out again and i thought about this .....

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=48914&pictureid=1504454&]View Image[/url]

the wife love this pot because of how it looks but the poor gardener has tried to get several different house plants to grow in it and every one of them does great until it starts doing REALLY bad. you can pot up because you can't get anything out of the pot and when it dies the roots are just packed inside and they have gone septic

so ...... what do you think? does the shape of the pot make any difference at all regardless of the relative size or scale?

Click to expand...

If you don't know, given the size of the plants that you have managed to grow in one of those little damn cups, no one else is going to be able to help you. You may have reached the outer limits of what is possible given the mass of roots needed to support such a large plant.

I think all you can do is try different shit and see what works. Speculation is fine, but the proof is in the pudding.

For what it is worth, I am using a bottle because I didn't have a yogurt cup available. So it has a different shape, but I don't have your growing skills so if the bottle shape doesn't work out, it is probably due to me screwing something up rather than the shape of the container.

How to grow in here tiny cups with once a week watering? Low light, low air flow, what else would work other than a sip system?

Once the plant is big enaugh it will need watering at least every other day, if not daily or multiple times per day. There are automated watering sistems out there, pasive or active, gravity fed or powered by electricity.. just need to find one suitable for your situation.