2x 600w hps 13 plants scrog grow, rootbound... dun dun duuun

[Unagi]

Hello! So i have these plants they are in 1 gallon containers filled with coco. There's a big screen made out metal material ( something used in stores to keep products on shelves. 2 pieces at meter square each. 2 meters of scrog). The plants have grown about 20-25 inches above the screen.

So my initial plan was to flower the girls 4 weeks ago nicley timed so that it would fill out the container after the stretch, but a heat wave hit us last minute so i decided hold off on flipping the switch because I feel the enviroments plays a huge role in how tasty the buds come out. With all my worrying about temps and how to keep those down and humidity up. I completley forgot about their number one enviroment the rootzone, now i have 13 plants that are all too big for their containers under 2 big screens...

So what ive come up with so far are these two options

1. I could flip the switch, keep going and just try to water 2-3 times a day (i hand water btw) and perhaps take a drill and makes lots of tiny holes in the side of the container making it an air pot while the plants are in there. That im hoping will start pruning roots and allow for further development in the container.

Or

2. I could unscrew the scrog, attach ratchet hangers on every corner of the scrog screens and gently lift the screen 1 notch at a time. While the ratchet hangers are lifting the screen I can untangle the plants from the screen. Repeat that 1 notch at a time untill the screen is completley removed. Then transplant and make individual screens for each plant after transplant.

If anyone has any suggestions or can find any pros/cons with my thoughts me and my 13 girls are all ears

 

[Unagi]

At the moment im planning out how to execute option number 2 in my head. So i guess im leaning that way. Im aware there isnt any quick soloution for this. But if anyone has some experience or been in a similar situation id love to hear how you dealt with it

The way i figure it is, worst case scenario i break off a branch here or there while i remove the screen (lets say 20 branches break off, theres still well over 50 top branches left). But its nothing compared to flowering a rootbound plant..... How would that go with the stretch in the first 2-3 weeks, not very good i think..

Guess I could take some pictures of my setup and how i detangle this scrog so others can be warned by my stupidity.

Let me tell you this tho, growing cannabis has been like an emotional rollercoaster ride. One day im in bliss because of the vibrant growt next month ill feel like the dumbest douch walking this earth cause i put off something. Ofcourse harvest comes and well needless to say it's always a fun day

Its late where I live now so ill get to work on it tomrrow!

And remember! Everyone is capable of loving everyone

 

[Phaeton]

During the last 16 years this has come up more than a couple times.
It got handled differently almost every time due to circumstances.
Root bound plants never recover, that is my finding. Side by side with clones taken at the same time, half allowed to get root bound, the others transplanted on time, had the previously root bound plants remaining runts the entire life cycle.
Less than half the growth on the root bound plants, even though they were transplanted before budding.
Less than Half the harvest.

Many times that has been the choice, half is better than none. It depends on how much work goes into saving the half, which is a personal choice.

The last two times this has happened (I got overwhelmed this spring) the root bound plants were donated and a fresh plant started.
The amount of time spent on each plant made it more efficient to lose the six weeks and double the harvest. I use a four month cycle and this is the best yield in the long run.

If I am out of stash then six weeks is too long, way way too long to be waiting.

 

[mule420]

How do you know they're root bound? Just wondering here. I grow in soil, I've never grow in coco... When I'm growing a sativa or sativa leaning hybrid I tend to put them in gallon and a half containers to flower, flipping them about the same height your plants are, 2 or so feet. The reason i do that is sativas are stretched out long flowering plants that grow in 12/12 or in equatorial places, so environmental changes make it flower faster not so much photoperiod. Like the rainy season dry season and so on. So by planting in smaller containers and letting it dry out a little, a little! More then the indicas it forces the plant to hurry up, people also run 11/13 lights to do something similar.

With the coco thing as I understand it, has a low cec or ability to hold nutes so watering that much would wash away all your nutes, or do you guys feed every watering? Didn't know it dried out that fast... Anyways bolt cutters is what I would use to cut the screen off the plants...

 

[Unagi]

Phaeaton you say that rootbound plants dont recover and will end up yielding less than if i were to pot up my current batch of clones and flower them. For some reason I dont find this logical. Why would people spend time revegging harvested plants to save a phenotype or some plant characteristics, i mean no offense at all im just curious and want to learn.

I would say the plants are about 3 to 4 feet tall and take up around 1 to 2 feet of the screen each. The size varies from plant to plant. But i have invested more than 3 months on these plants now and chucking is out o the question. Specially since me and my gf are out full time jobs we have to try and save the batch to pay rent and shit...

Anyway...

Mule420 i dont know they are rootbound. I will use your brilliant idea with the boltcutters. I will cut out the plant that looks the most rootbound to me and check the rootzone. Hopefully im wrong and i can heal them with a proper flush and a new dose of nutrients.

Im using gh flora 3 part, and the micro jug has crystallized bits in the bottom. Will try and mix in the same volum warn water to break it up and double the dose for my future feedings.

 

[Unagi]

Btw mule420 yes i feed with every watering, using gh flora 3 part im using 7ml per 10 liter of water of each. And add calsium and magnesium at 1 ml each. The calcium is 15% and magnesium is 7% giving me a 2:1 ratio cal/mag in the final soloution. I ph all this upto 5.8-6.0

 

[mule420]

Btw mule420 yes i feed with every watering, using gh flora 3 part im using 7ml per 10 liter of water of each. And add calsium and magnesium at 1 ml each. The calcium is 15% and magnesium is 7% giving me a 2:1 ratio cal/mag in the final soloution. I ph all this upto 5.8-6.0

Makes sense I knew coco has a low cec so I figured you guys had to run nutes more then other growing methods. I ran hydro for years in many forms... I'm a dirt bagger now.

 

[Unagi]

Im going to try one of those water only soilmixes for my next grow. It seems like my kind of growing

Thanks for jumping in you guys! Its given me some peace of mind and more perspective on how to handle this situation

 

[mule420]

That's what I'm doing now I mix my own organic water only soil. Top dress in flower sometimes or like now when I'm doing a seed run when they need a little extra nutes. I haven't checked the ph of my water in a long time... It's like cruise control for plants lazy as fuck bro! And I use smart pots so the roots air prune them selfs... Still use plastic for the sativa leaning stuff to keep it under control.